DD you are not alone. I don't post much but I visit this forum often and always check here first when I'm looking for a recipe. I went paleo just under a year ago to try and stall arthritis symptoms, and also to that end I  eliminated nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, capsicum, goji berries and chillies). And I feel GOOD, so there's no way I am going back. I dropped about 5 kilograms and a dress size. I've recently taken up  martial arts and train a few times a week so I feel fit, strong and lean. I've just turned 60 and I consult a dietician regularly to make sure I'm on track.

I've found Sarah Wong's blog 'Clever Cook' really very helpful. She's known for her magic bean chocolate cake (which works wonderfully well with a can of butter beans for those times I need to make a cake) and 'I can't believe it's not dairy New York Cheesecake'. (She does have something of a sweet tooth!) Her recipes are mostly paleo and she uses a thermomix. I am particularly fond of her fig bread recipe which I stack full of fruit including figs, citrus peel, apricot pieces and chopped naked ginger (wonderful), and  I use chia instead of linseeds. She has a swag of grain free bread recipes which I'm slowly working my way through but keep coming back to the fig loaf.

Interestingly, tonight here in Oz there are two male television journalists going to air to talk about their health issues and about going paleo.

I'm a bit of a fan of the paleo diet because I've seen its benefits for a close family member who had gut issues and needed a gut healing diet. Our family was on a modified paleo diet for a couple of years with the help of a dietitian and now pretty much back to normal, though still much reduced wheat consumption. The health of the whole family improved while on it. I'm about to go back on it because after I started relaxing my own diet (and making bread for DH!!) I've developed arthritis nodules which I will do anything to reduce and the paleo diet is reputed to help reduce inflammation. I intend to see the dietitian again to help me forward.

I tend to think that it's a diet you go on when there's a good reason to do so. It's not a fad but a necessity for some.

I had a go at making this bread yesterday - with a few tweaks - and I'm really pleased with it. I used about 30 - 50 grams less water (despite what the EDC says about keeping it sticky!) and kneaded it for a full 5 minutes and it came pretty cleanly out of the bowl. It still felt a bit sticky so sprinkled it with flour before putting it in the oven with a bowl of hot water to prove for about 40 minutes. It needed a bit more more flour so I hand kneaded it for about 30 seconds and it felt perfect. I put it into the oven for another 30 minutes to prove with more hot water and then cooked it for 35 minutes. I'm very happy with it.

And I added a teaspoon of bread improver and a half teaspoon more of both yeast and salt!

Yay! The knead function does work! 

I used the same Italian flour and got a similar sort of result though with a little more rising - very nice with a wonderful crust. It's a '0' milled baking flour for bread. I've used '00' before to make pasta, but I've not used it to make bread...

Thanks Sue...that may be the problem!

Hi Gert...nice loaf!  I seem to be missing something here though...what is silicon paper? I scoured the shelves of two supermarkets and only found baking paper. I'm figuring they do the same thing but you've got me wondering...  Thanks!

Wow! How useful is this recipe!! I tried this on my family over the weekend and it went down a treat. I love that I can make it ahead of time and leave it in the freezer and it cooks beautifully. Yay! Thanks Farfallina. Love this forum!