Gumnut Baking

27/08/2026

A lot of people ask me why I only bake with organic flour. Short version: non-organic wheat here can be sprayed right up until harvest, and that residue doesn’t just disappear before it hits your loaf. Swipe through if you want the full story.
But this post is really about why I chose organic, not just what I avoided.
Ethically, it means supporting small growers who actually care for their soil and their crop, not big mills chasing volume. Health-wise, it’s one less thing in my family’s bread, and in yours, that never needed to be there in the first place. And honestly, as a baker, organic flour just performs better. It ferments cleaner, it smells different, alive almost, and my starter’s always been happiest on it.

It costs more, it’s slower to source, and I’d still choose it every time. That’s the whole reason Gumnut exists. 🌾

23/08/2026

21/08/2026

Dough day🌾
My favourite kind of organised chaos.
There’s a very specific arm workout that comes with tipping ten kilos of dough out of a bowl and pretending you’re in control of it. I am not. She goes where she wants.🫣
Shape, basket, stitch, repeat! 💪🏻
If your kitchen isn’t a little bit floury and chaotic on dough day, are you even doing it right? 😉

21/08/2026

Same-day sourdough ciabatta, start to finish 🍞
No overnight bulk ferment, no fancy shaping, just folds, patience and a very wet dough that felt impossible to handle until suddenly it turned out to be the best thing!
You watch it puff up in the oven not knowing if it’s going to hold, and then you cut in and the steam just pours out. That’s the moment that makes the whole day worth it.
Soft, huge crumb inside. Proof that same day sourdough can still be this good.

Don’t wait, make it tomorrow!

Recipe (makes 4 small loaves):
500g strong organic bread flour
400g spring or filtered water, room temperature
150g active sourdough starter
10g fine sea or Celtic salt
1 tbsp your best olive oil
Process:
Mix flour, water, starter, salt and oil together until fully combined (dough will be very sticky). Do 3 stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart. Coil folds (one or two 45min apart)
Bulk ferment until puffy and increased in volume, about 2-3 hours.
Divide gently into 4 and shape into rough rectangles. Don’t be stingy on flour here!
Final proof 45 minutes. Bake in a hot oven with steam (I had it at 240C)until golden and hollow sounding, about 25-30 minutes.
You can wait till it cools down or not!
Enjoy!!🌾

Organic sourdough, made slow, made simple, made in Townsville 🌾

20/08/2026

New at the market this Sunday, my organic sourdough starter packs, looking so good and honestly, I’m a little bit proud of these.
Each one comes with dehydrated organic starter, a guide walking you through rehydrating and looking after her, a wooden spatula, all tucked into a drawstring bag.
If you’ve ever wanted to start baking sourdough but the thought of growing your own starter from scratch felt like a whole project on its own, this is for you. No waiting weeks for bubbles to show up, no guessing if it’s working. Just rehydrate her and you’re ready to bake.

Come find me at Cotters Markets this Sunday and grab one. She’s ready when you are. 🌾

20/08/2026

See you Sunday! Cotters Market

19/08/2026

Can we talk about how much Townsville messes with a sourdough starter? Because when I first started I thought I was doing something wrong… on repeat:
I’d follow a recipe from someone down south or overseas, feed my starter exactly how they said, wait the exact amount of hours they said… and mine would be ready hours before theirs. Or it’d blow right past ready and I wouldn’t even notice till it had already dropped back down.
Turns out it wasn’t me.
Townsville does not bake like anywhere else.
All those recipes originated somewhere with either very different climate to North QLD so my starter never quite followed it.
Wet season, she’s fast. Humidity and warm nights, she can peak and drop before your coffee’s done.
Dry season, right now, she slows right down. Cooler nights and drier air, she asks for patience instead. When it’s like this I just pop her in the oven with the light on, nothing else, and that’s usually all the warmth she needs.
There’s no right or wrong, she’s just responding to conditions.
I stopped forcing her onto someone else’s timeline. I watch her, not the clock.
If you’re baking here too, trust what you see in the jar. That’s the only forecast that really matters.

Want to learn how to read her properly? My beginners class walks you through exactly this, link in bio🌾

16/08/2026

Slicing into it before it’s even had a chance to cool properly, because who can wait☺️🌾