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Bröd means bread in Swedish. But Bröd by the Bay is about more than just bread. It’s the buns, the coffee, the pause in the day — the very Swedish habit of making time for fika. I started Bröd by the Bay to share that tradition, and the fikabröd that comes with it, here in Port Melbourne.
I’m Gabi. I grew up in Sweden and have been baking the breads and buns I grew up with for years. The recipes at Bröd by the Bay are my own, inspired by the Swedish baking I grew up with. Sourdough is part of how I bake many of the breads and buns because I prefer what time does to dough: deeper flavour, better texture and bread that keeps well, without rushing the fermentation. Good ingredients, familiar Swedish flavours and time where it matters.
Everything is made in small batches, by one person. Some breads and buns are naturally leavened and given a long fermentation; other things are baked, assembled or chilled in the way the recipe calls for. Small batches, by hand, by one person — which sets a real ceiling on how much there is, and I quite like it that way.
Fika is difficult to translate neatly. It’s coffee, usually something baked, and a reason to stop and pause. Kardemummabullar, kanelbullar and other Swedish fikabröd are part of that experience — and so is the idea of sju sorters kakor, the old Swedish tradition of filling the coffee table with several different kinds of biscuits and cookies.
That’s the part of Sweden I want to share with all of you by the bay.
Swedish baking traditions and Melbourne mornings, which turn out to suit each other. Cardamom, cold air off the water, long walks, and coffee that takes as long as it takes.
It is slowing down. Catching up. Being where you actually are. I bake for those moments — the standing-in-the-kitchen ones as much as the occasions.
I bake to the orders I have, so there is almost nothing to throw away. Flour, water, salt, butter, cardamom, time. Not much else goes in, and not much comes out.
The practical answers — ordering, collecting, allergens and keeping things well. If yours is not here, ask me.
I open a bake window, you tell me what you would like, and I bake to the orders that come in. There is no shelf and no leftovers — the batch is exactly as big as the list.
Nothing is charged online. You send a request, I reply to confirm it, and you pay when you collect.
Every window has its own cutoff and it is always shown on the order page. It is usually a few days before bake day, because flour, butter and cardamom get bought against the list. Once the cutoff passes the batch is fixed, even if the page still looks inviting.
Collection details are confirmed for each bake window. Each bake window has its own collection time — they are not all the same day or the same hours — so the window you ordered from is the one that applies, and it is on the order page and in your confirmation.
There is no public shopfront, so I send the exact collection address and instructions with your confirmation rather than putting them on the internet. Your bag will be ready with your name on it.
Message me. I would much rather set your bag aside than have you rush across town.
Of course. Tell me the name they will give me and the bag will be waiting under it.
Before the cutoff, yes — just reply to your confirmation and tell me what to change. After the cutoff I have already bought and mixed to the list, so I usually cannot, though it is always worth asking.
Everything I bake contains wheat. Most of it also contains dairy and egg. Cardamom, cinnamon, almond and pearl sugar turn up often.
The production kitchen handles nuts, seeds and sesame, so I cannot promise that anything is free of traces of them.
If you are managing an allergy, message me before you order and I will tell you exactly what is going into that week's bake. If it is a severe allergy, please treat this page as a starting point and ask me rather than relying on it.
Buns are at their best the day they are baked, warm from a low oven for a few minutes. Beyond that they freeze well — freeze them the same day rather than the next, and warm them from frozen.
Bread keeps cut-side down on a board, wrapped in a cloth. Not in the fridge, which stales it faster than the bench does.
There is no shop yet — just a small-batch bakery, a list, and a bake window that opens when registration is complete. Have a look at what I make, or come and say hej.
