You have to arrive early at the market if you want to score one of Scratch Patisserie’s famous almond croissants.

Buttery, flaky, filled with home made almond cream and topped with roasted almond flakes, they’re one of Scratch’s most popular products and almost always sell out.

Like everything at Scratch, they’re made entirely by hand, using the best ingredients owners Greg and Angie Wilton can source – organic flour, organic milk, organic raw sugar and natural almond meal, and baked fresh that morning.

They’re a great example of what Greg and Angie are passionate about: top quality ingredients, sourced locally wherever possible, and products made from scratch with time, care, and attention to detail. It’s in everything they do, from their danishes topped with seasonal fruit, pain au raisin, pain au chocolat and local macadamia croissants to their light and creamy profiteroles and crispy apple galettes topped with market fresh apples.

“We really pride our selves in using quality ingredients, we don’t cut costs and I think people appreciate that,” said Angie.

Their approach has earned Scratch a big following at the market over the past five years, and saw the business expand in 2014 into a busy retail store in Mullumbimby, where Greg and Angie also sell their cakes, tarts, breads, quiches and home baked sausage rolls and pies.

Greg and Angie are committed to doing things the traditional, slow way, without the short cuts and pre-mixes used in modern commercial bakeries. Bread and pastries can take anything from 24 hours to three days to create (as opposed to three hours at some bakeries) – and this helps not only to develop the flavour, but also to break down the gluten. Angie says friends who are gluten intolerant have happily eaten their products and had no problem with them, and even those dedicated to a gluten-free diet have been known to cave at the sight of a Scratch pastry:  “People at the farmers market often say ‘I don’t usually eat gluten’ – but I make an exception for your products.”

Find Scratch Patisserie at the Mullumbimby Farmers Market every Friday.

– Words and photos by Kate O’Neill.