Ever since I saw a tweet about their Nutella Brioche I had a fascination with this bakery that holds guard in Whistler, BC. The tweet with a photo of a brioche drizzled in chocolate had me savouring ….. months later at the Kitsilano market in Vancouver I made a visit to Pure Bread’s stall to try their Nutella Brioche, of course with my luck they were sold out for the day, I settled for one of the Rosemary Chocolate Cookies, divine I thought and different. This fascination with Pure Bread began about 1-1/2 years ago, last year I had been in contact with them to come and visit their bakery however as luck would have it they were going to be on a family vacation in Europe.
Paula Lamming (co-founder)
Last month my fascination with this bakery succumbed when I had a wonderful chat with Paula Lamming (co-owner) and behind the scenes visit to their wonderous bakery in the Function Junction area of Whistler. The shop was fairly small with a some seats, the bakery in the back was much larger, the bakers working a way making their breads and baked goods, with a wonderful aroma filling the air.
I chatted with Paula
Why is your bakery so popular?
It’s real, we bake what we want to bake and what our customers would want to eat.
How did Pure Bread Bakery get started?
Started with a bread baker at home cause I couldn’t get good bread in Whistler. Using some of my mothers’ recipes (1st batch of 30 loaves was a disaster). Once we had the first batch of breads ready to go, we began at the Farmers Market and our first one was four years ago at Baazar Baazar in Whistler., we grew by word of mouth from there.
How did you get involved with the Farmers Markets in Vancouver?
Pure luck, we did our first market in Vancouver in Kitsilano where we got the space by luck (the previous vendor was moving away).
What were your first Products?
Tortano – roasted potato was the first bread
What is your newest bread?
Hippy Twist
I see you have a bread made with beer, is that true?
Yes, since our neighbour across the way is Whistler Brewing we are now making a Dysfunction Ale bread using the Whistler Brewing ale.
What type of flour do you use in your baked goods?
organic flour
What is your mission statement?
“If it doesn’t taste good I am not going to make it” – paula said
When did you open this bakery in Function Junction?
6 months ago
Who creates the new products?
I do said Paula.
When do you bake to supply the farmers markets on the weekend?
Weekends starts at 3:30am to make and ship to the farmers markets in Vancouver and Squamish.
What should people try next?
Old Stumpy is our bread made with Stumptown Coffee and our Lavender Early Grey Scones that have lavender from the farmers and tea from Namaste Tea, a local tea blender in Pemberton.
Paula showed me around the bakery kitchen, this was heaven well you know what I mean. From the trays of freshly baked cookies, to the baguettes out of the oven, and the aromas ……temptation, temptation.
I indulged in some of their freshly baked creations including the delicious Almond Croissant, chocolate rosemary cookie and coconut macaroon.
I took one of their newest breads to go, the Buckwheat Sour Cherry Pecan Bread which I happily ate with my family later in the day.
Customers come in for ‘their favourite bread” , if you are heading to Whistler or even if you aren’t, make a detour to http://purebread.ca
