soc_puppet | (Reply)

From:

My impression was that they had started mixing some rice flour in with their wheat flour, but hadn't switched over completely. Speaking as a professional in the industry, it also makes a lot more sense that she even COULD do that at her grandfather's house (though timing-wise I'm still a little perplexed); if she'd switched completely to rice flour and used no wheat flour, the loaf almost certainly wouldn't have passed for "visually identical to wheat bread" and likely wouldn't have held its shape either. One of the main things gluten is responsible for is allowing bread dough to stretch and pull and hold together, and while glutenous rice flour does exist, I'm pretty sure it's not what's used in baking.

There's also the fact that a lot of baking equipment is hella expensive, especially the larger pieces like ovens and duchesses (presses that will automatically cut bread into even portions for things like rolls). If they've so much as touched wheat dough, they're basically contaminated forever, and while it's possible that Sabine and Tom got a lot of money either from a loan or from Sabine's family or Gina to buy all new equipment, or saved up over a long time, it's much more likely that they're using secondhand at least.

I feel like a mix of flour also works better in the show as a metaphor, since Marinette is mixed race, and she's ultimately responsible for reuniting Tom with his father.