FlourChylde Bakery: Tasting Sweet Success

Ok, I'll openly admit it: I have a sweet tooth. It is a weakness that I must indulge,  a small but gratifying way I reward myself.

I am particular, though. Baked goods are my guilty pleasure of choice. I'm not one to raid my kids’ Halloween candy. That kind of pedestrian fare hardly seems worth the calories. I figure if I'm going to treat myself, it might as well be worth the splurge.

So when I get a craving for something decadent, I find myself at the cozy counter inside , trying to decide among the many tempting offerings that fill the glass case.

This downtown Novato bakery, located center stage at the intersection of Grant and Sherman avenues, is a rising local star specializing in delectable baked goodies: fresh bread, cookies of all kinds, cakes, cupcakes, pies, tortes and more. Just stroll down their block and the irresistible scent of fresh baked goodness will draw you through their old-fashioned wood screened doors every time.

But flourChylde offers more than meets the eye. Scan their bakery case and you'll find not simply a beautiful selection of conventional baked goods, but many offerings that are wheat-free as well — although you'd never guess it — not by appearance or taste. Such is the magic created by owner and baker Catherine Bragg, a 15-year Novato resident. It is her inspiration in the oven that is making her bakery a North Bay stand out. 

Catherine's route to becoming a baker was an indirect one. She always had a passion for baking. Some of her fondest childhood memories were of time spent in the kitchen with her mother. Even at a young age, she had a feel for baking, making pie crusts like a pro while her mom looked on in amazement. She loved taking the raw ingredients and turning them into something special. It made her happy.

Catherine's career path as an adult went in a different direction. Tapping into her creative skills, she became a clothing designer for Levi Strauss, a prestigious position that entailed long hours, world travel, wining, dining and endless deadlines. As a successful designer, she had precious little time for anything but work.

When she met her future husband, Dion, and they decided to start their family, Catherine reevaluated her lifestyle. She was ready to trade in the hectic pace of being a designer for a chance to be closer to home and set down roots in a community.

Some months later, as she looked at the tiny face of her newborn son, her life suddenly snapped into sharp focus. At that pivotal moment, she decided to take stock of her skills with an eye toward reinventing her work life to be more family friendly. It wasn’t long before the familiar pull toward the kitchen tugged at her heart. "I thought ... I can bake!" she told me, her eyes sparkling at her epiphany.

She set to work over the next few years, carefully laying the groundwork for starting her baking business while relishing new motherhood. She used accrued vacation time to take professional baking classes, while attending evening classes at College of Marin in Entrepreneurial Studies. While there she partnered with a SCORE representative to fine tune her business and marketing plan. She later interned with Brick Maiden Breads in Point Reyes Station, where she learned the ropes of a working bakery and gained valuable practical experience.

Having done her homework, Catherine began the process of developing her own recipes with the idea of introducing her baked goods at the Civic Center farmers market in San Rafael. Her first offering consisted of one product: a Ginger-Pear Torte, which she began selling at her farmers market booth on Sundays. It was an instant hit, and her customers clamored for more. "If you're good at something, bring it to the public. People will let you know if they like it." she told me. Clearly, they did — and flourChylde Bakery was launched.

The name was her husband's idea, a play on words combining the infamous 1960s era and Chaucer's 14th century Old English, reminiscent of Catherine’s old-fashioned “from scratch” way of baking. Her loyal following at their farmers  market booth told her she was on to something.

She continued to develop more recipes, broadening her original concept by experimenting with wheat-free offerings. She realized along the way that eliminating wheat from her baked goods actually highlighted and intensified flavors. She was also gaining an ardent following of patrons who were looking for good-tasting wheat-free products.

"More and more people have become sensitized to wheat," she explained. "I realized there was a niche to fill. It was a matter of taking what I knew about conventional baking, and deconstructing the recipes to make them wheat-free."

Baking is a precise endeavor. To excel at it, one must understand the intricacies of chemical reactions and measurement. Catherine became part alchemist and entrepreneur, developing a "proprietary blend" comprised of almond meal, unsweetened ground coconut, and various starches which she used as a base to replace standard grains in her signature tortes. Within six months time, she evolved from conventional ingredient tortes to all wheat-free tortes. All the while, faithful customers kept coming back for more.

That was 10 years ago. Capitalizing on her farmers market success, Catherine opened the current downtown Novato storefront in 2006 and has continued to elevate wheat-free baking to new heights. She is quick to point out there is no similarity between flourChylde's wheat-free baked goods and those that characterized the popular "sugar and fat-free" fad in baking. That era spawned a glut of flavorless, strange-textured food offerings consumers found universally disappointing.

In fact, the bakery often does not advertise its baked goods as wheat-free for fear that past prejudice will prevent some customers from giving them a try. Catherine prefers to let people taste first, and be pleasantly surprised to learn that what they have sampled is actually wheat-free.

For my part, I can personally attest to the "swoon factor" of flourChylde's Little Black Dress torte, a sublime wheat-free concoction that combines bittersweet chocolate, espresso, and brandy to create an orgasm on a fork. Likewise, their Pure Chocolate Torte, a dense, dark, moist flourless cake is an intensely satisfying remedy to any chocoholic looking for a fix.

Currently, flourChylde is mixing up some additional heavenly wheat-free holiday offerings such as their Chocolate Buche de Noel, filled with fresh mascarpone cream, drizzled with dark chocolate fudge, and finished with hand decorated details. Other festive favorites include their Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cake: a dark chocolate devils food cake filled with white peppermint chocolate buttercream and peppermint bark candy, as well as their tried and true Pumpkin Spice Cake, filled with a delicious cranberry buttercream. Just writing about these desserts is enough to make my mouth water!

Always on the look out for inventive ways to increase their customer base, the bakery continues to expand its unique niche by offering custom wheat-free wedding cakes, and catering dessert bars for special events. In the past six months, Catherine has also introduced wheat-free "small bites" and mini-cupcakes to her already impressive line of baked goods. There are even plans on the drawing board to start shipping their products nationwide, possibly as early as next year.

In the future, Catherine is considering the possibility of making the bakery 100 percent gluten-free, a claim they currently don't make. "Glutens can float in the air like a fine dust and contaminate the surrounding environment," she explained. For this reason, the bakery takes every precaution to prevent cross-contamination. In fact, many wheat sensitive patrons have been enjoying their products for years. Those with extreme wheat gluten sensitivity, however, should be aware that the bakery is not wheat free.

In addition, flourChylde also has a cafe component which offers up delicious sandwiches on their conventional fresh-baked breads, organic salads, frittatas and more. It's a cozy and popular place to meet friends for lunch or an afternoon cappuccino.

As a local business woman, Catherine proudly tells me that approximately 80 percent of every dollar made at the bakery goes back into our local community. They are members of our , and support Novato by providing jobs, paying taxes, and generously giving donations to benefit local charitable organizations. They know that investing in the community has been key to their continued success.

"You need to be flexible, innovative, and a little crazy," Catherine says of manning the helm at her successful bakery. Whatever her secret, she has mastered the fine art of baking — and we are all the better for it.

MORE DETAILS

is at 850 Grant Avenue, 415-893-7700, and is open seven days a week: Mondays 7 AM-4 PM; Tuesdays through Saturdays 7 AM-5:30 PM; Sundays 9 AM-4 PM. They will happily take special orders with 72 hours notice. Their baked goods make a wonderful gift for anyone on your holiday list. For an unforgettable party, call them to cater a dessert bar at your upcoming private or corporate event. For more information and a complete list of their delicious baked goods, visit www.flourchylde.com.

* Visit their farmers market booth at the Marin Civic Center on Sundays from 8 AM-1 PM. For additional Bay Area market listings, visit their website.