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Food & Drink

What’s on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours

By Caroline Aksich| Photography by Caroline Aksich
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What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours

More on Bread

Toronto's best bread right now
Food & Drink

Toronto’s best bread right now

Name: Brodflour Contact: 8 Pardee Ave., 647-719-2733, brodflour.com, @brodflour
Neighbourhood: Liberty Village Previously: The Roastery Owners: Dara Gallinger and Ronnen Harary Baker: Robin Edberg

The food

Bread. And flour. Just like the name says. Dara Gallinger had worked her way up the Sobey’s marketing food chain, but then she met Ronnen Harary, the CEO of Toronto toy company Spin Master. A short while later, the two were hatching a bread-y business plans. Gallinger began checking out bakeries around the world, starting in California (Tartine) and then London (E5 Bakehouse). After that, she baked bread on the volcanic rocks of Iceland before ending up in Scandinavia. When she landed in Stockholm, she reached out to famed baker Robin Edberg, who’s been integral in developing the recipes for Brodflour.

Gallinger knew that before she even looked at leases or ovens, she needed to get the flour right. “The industrial revolution has removed everything exciting from bread,” says Gallinger, who is infatuated with fresh-milled flour, even though it makes her life harder. Every day, one in ten loaves doesn’t rise properly, but that’s part of the delight in baking with fresh flour: it’s a living thing. “We need to reposition the category—flour should be in the produce section of the grocery store in a fridge,” says Gallinger.

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
Gallinger shows how freshly milled flour clumps like clay. “It is still intact. It feels alive, unlike the sterile shelf-stable stuff.”

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
They also sell fresh flour. It’ll keep for a few weeks in the fridge, but at Brodflour they use flour within 24 hours of milling.

 

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What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
There’s an emphasis on using heritage grains grown with minimal intervention. That means there are no GMOs, and everything here is organic. Currently, Brodflour is using Ontario rye, spelt, emmer and red fife, and will soon get a hard red wheat from the Prairies. Photo by Caroline Aksich

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
Order a slice of sourdough slathered in butter and jam, and the bread base will be at least 1.5 inches tall. $6.

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
The Ricotta and Jam on sunflower rye uses the same jam as the toast above: a Saskatoon berry preserve made in northern Ontario. $13.

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
The Bun and Cheese is a simple stack: lots of cheese (in this case, Baby Julius, a four-month old gouda-style cheese from Holland), butter and cucumbers. $10.

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
A smoked salmon sandwich made with lox from the Smoke Bloke comes with cream cheese, capers onions and tomatoes. $15.

 

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What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
Light and fluffy cardamom knots are made from red fife. $4.

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
Gallinger, assembling the smoked salmon sandwich.

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
There are nine different loaves currently on offer.

 

The drinks

Matt Faust (Fahrenheit) is in charge of Brodflour’s coffee program. He’s sourcing beans from Calgary’s Monogram Roastery and making all the espresso hits: flat whites, cortados, cappuccinos, and drip, too. Customers can choose from a selection of beans to suit their tastes. Guatemalan is sure to please, but West Coast coffee snobs might prefer the fruity acidity of the Ethiopian. “The idea is for the coffee to be like the bread: great on its own, so it doesn’t need things like milk or sugar,” says Faust. For those who do like sweet milky things, the Brod Latte, made with cardamom and oat milk is particularly delicious—especially when paired with a cardamom knot.

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
A cortado is pictured here with a sourdough-rye brownie made with chocolate from Soul Chocolate. $5.

 

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The space

The space, designed by Studio Markanda in collaboration with Raelen Storey, celebrates the hygge aesthetic: it’s cozy, light-filled and very Scandinavian (blue, white, and blonde wood). Windows look into the kitchen and mill areas, as there is an emphasis on being as transparent as possible. “We went anti-digital every way we could,” says Galliger, who doesn’t give out WiFi passwords (to encourage conversations instead of web use).

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
The mill is plainly visible through a window at the back of the room. The hand-made machine created by Vermont-based New American Stone Mills uses two large granite stones to crush the grains into flour.

 

What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours
What's on the menu at Brodflour, a new bakery in Liberty Village that mills its own flours

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Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.

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