We are thrilled to share that we are opening our new shop location in Gilkes Street, Middlesbrough. This relocation was a necessary move, due to the redevelopment of Captain Cook Square, and we couldn’t be happier to be able to continue serving our loyal customers from a new home just 200 metres away from our previous location. Our new shop boasts all the same high-quality, freshly baked goods that our customers have come to know and love, including bread, cakes, pies, and pastries, but we also have some exciting new surprises in store. We are thrilled to introduce our new range of “hots,” both traditional favourites and some fun new ones, sure to satisfy any savoury craving. This includes toasted sandwiches, freshly fried egg sandwiches and an omelette in a bun, all freshly made to order in store. As a family business, we understand the importance of community and are committed to providing the highest quality baked goods to our…
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We’re very proud to announce that here at Thomas the Baker, we have just officially launched our new compostable carrier bags! In a bid to help fight plastic waste, starting in January we are replacing all our plastic bags with TUV-certified compostable bags made entirely from natural potato starch. This is part of our initiative to move towards totally eco-friendly packaging, which also includes our own paper bags that as many of our baked goods as possible are served in. We also freshly bake our products to avoid plastic covers where possible to extend shelf life. They are not the same as biodegradable bags which are often plastic-based. These bags are 100% compostable and will break down in a home composter to just water, carbon dioxide and biomass, absolutely no plastic! The ink that is used to print on the bag is also eco-friendly as it is water based. We advise people not to put them in for council collection…
We are absolutely thrilled today to announce that our Heavenly Sweet Mince Pies have received the prestigious 3-star Great Taste Award – the first ever 3-star award given to a sweet mince pie in the 25 years the awards have been running! We launched this new luxury version of our customer favourite sweet mince pies, which have their own 1-star Great Taste Award from previous years, in 2019 after two years of careful development in our bakery. The filling of our Heavenly Sweet Mince Pies is a winning combination of sweet mince with apricots and brandy and a couple of secret ingredients. The all butter pastry shell has the addition of finely ground almonds for added taste and texture and the pie is finished off with a tender Viennese Biscuit topping. In the 8 week lead up to Christmas each year, we usually sell in excess of 200,000 mince pies – that’s 3000 extra man hours needed to meet high…
As our last baking at home video went so well, we’ve decided to share another! Today we’re guiding you through the process and recipe to make focaccia, a traditional flat Italian bread that’s beautifully crisp on the outside and soft and pillowy inside. Focaccia makes an excellent side dish to any Italian dish – pasta, charcuterie meats, good cheese and olives, and it can be even be used to make a sandwich too. And of course, it’s always best with a crisp glass of Pinot Grigio! The beauty of focaccia is that it can be finished with toppings of your choice – similar to pizza, but looks much fancier to impress your friends at dinner parties! Our recipe here uses sprigs of rosemary, fresh from the garden, and grated parmesan, but below is a list of other ideas you can use by themselves or combine for a super tasty bread: Olives Cherry tomatoes Sun dried tomatoes Parma ham Dried Tuscan…
A couple of weeks ago, we shared our “secret” recipe for baking our popular Country Crunch loaf at home. At that time, we were just selling 1kg bags of flour in our stores, but, by popular request, we’re now also selling little pots of dried yeast in our stores too! So we wanted to share a short video and blog post on how you can best use dried yeast at home in order to get a loaf of bread to be proud of. When you’re using dried yeast at home for baking bread, it’s important to activate the yeast first. Sian from Thomas the Baker guides us through the process of how to activate yeast for baking. Add 1 heaped teaspoon of dried yeast to around a cup of warm (just above body temperature water) along with a half a teaspoon of sugar, a splash of milk or even a dash of honey, and stir. Leave covered with a damp…
While you’re stuck at home, why not take up a new hobby like baking? Not only will this give you something fun to do, you also have the satisfaction of something tasty to enjoy at the end of the day and an impressive new skill you can try out on your friends after using this time wisely to perfect it! Since bread is our “bread and butter” as such, today we’re sharing a homemade bread recipe using our Country Crunch flour, currently available in 1kg bags in our stores. This recipe has been designed to be as straightforward as possible for home bakers without the need for large scale bakery equipment. To take you through the recipe, Sian Thomas, who manages our social media and marketing, has been enlisted. Sian, despite coming from generations of bakers, describes herself firmly as “not a baker”! Our Country Crunch bread (fondly known as “Crunchy Crunch” by my husband since he was young, long…
Did you know we offer a call to collect service at Thomas the Baker? You can call to speak directly to a team member at any of our open shops to place an order to collect the very next day! This is a service we’ve offered for a long time now, but during these difficult times, it’s even more important. Placing an order via phone to collect in store means that you can ensure the items you need will be available for you, meaning you won’t make a wasted journey or miss out on your daily bread. Our call to collect offering is perfect if you’re needing to shop on behalf of vulnerable neighbours, friends and family members, particularly those in rural areas which many of our shops serve. Customers have commented recently on how easy and convenient this has been for them during these uncertain times, knowing that they’re able to get what they need for not only their…
Covid-19 Update 14th July 2020 Recent Shop Openings We are pleased to advise that a number of the shops that we needed to close at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic are now open again. The following shops have re-opened: Wakefield Skipton Marton Road (Middlesbrough) Market Street (York city centre) Both Goole and Captain Cook Square (Middlesbrough) remain closed at the moment but hope to open again in the near future. 3rd April 2020 We have made the difficult decision to temporarily close six of our 30 branches as of Monday 6th April due to the current coronavirus pandemic. During this difficult time, the other 24 shops will be remaining open in order to provide customers with a range of bakery goods, focusing on the essentials that are most important, particularly in smaller and rural communities, areas which many of our shops service. The shops which will be closing until further notice are: Goole Wakefield Skipton Captain Cook Square, Middlesbrough Marton Road,…
Dear Thomas the Baker Customers, During these difficult times we want to assure you we are playing our part in ensuring that the risk of spreading the Covid-19 virus is as low as possible. Our Senior Management team are meeting daily to talk through developments and ensure we are following advice from Public Health England and spreading this information to all of our teams. We already have in place laid down daily cleaning schedules for our Helmsley Bakery our shops and delivery vehicles. In addition to these existing controls we have significantly raised the level of hand washing and sanitising and all hand contact points such as till screens, credit card machines, light switches, door handles etc. on a regular basis throughout the day. We have asked our staff not to attend work if they have any symptoms and to follow current medical guidance. As the situation develops we may experience difficulty in running our business normally. We will do…
Did you know that more than 1 in 4 people (28%, to be precise) would say bread is their favourite food? That’s definitely no surprise to us, but to celebrate this fact, this week we’re launching a tasty new product to add to our artisan bread range: the High Fibre Multi Seed loaf. This new healthy bread launch coincides with Real Bread Week which runs from 22nd February to 1st March, and as part of this, we’ll be offering free tastings to anyone visiting our stores. We’ve been expanding our selection of options available for vegan and vegetarian diets, with the recipe for our vegetarian pasty being redeveloped recently to make it vegan-friendly, and the new High Fibre Multi Seed loaf is the latest offering in this range. This recipe has been perfected over the past 9 months by our very own Chris Chapman using a sourdough starter all the way from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. This starter was fed…
Welcome to the Thomas the Baker blog where you'll find more information about what goes on at Thomas the Baker.
Above is our sister shop, Thomas of Helmsley, a delightful butchers and delicatessen based in the pretty tourist town of Helmsley.
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