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…

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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…

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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…

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Have you heard the news? We’ve been awarded yet another Gold Star at the Great Taste Awards! This time, the award-winning product is our Deli Black Pudding Sausage Roll. Now we’ve always known that our deli sausage rolls are a stand out product thanks to their excellent quality locally reared pork sausage meat, a secret blend of herbs and spices, and a touch of rich black pudding, all made in Helmsley by Thomas’ master butchers and bakers. But the proof is really “in the pudding”. The judges at this year’s Great Taste Awards have proclaimed that our deli sausage rolls are “hearty” and “truly appealing looking” with a “crisp and buttery, flaky pastry with a moist well-seasoned sweet porky inside”. Our Deli Black Pudding Sausage Roll was originally only available in our Thomas of Helmsley deli, which is based in our hometown, Great British High Street’s award winning market town in 2015. Once we realised how much our customers loved…

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Finding a gift for your dad for Father’s Day can be tricky. With a day that’s been around since 1910, according to most reports, all the usual ones have been done before – whisky, a few bottles of beer, the tie he’s never worn. Many will argue that Mother’s Day is much easier to shop for with bath products, chocolate and bouquets of flowers. So this year, we’re changing things up for this very special Sunday (which is only 3 days away – the 17th June, for anyone that’s forgotten!). Our idea doesn’t need a lot of effort, but it’ll make any Yorkshire-man happy; it can also be put together quickly if you’ve left your gift buying till last minute – no need for extortionate online next day delivery charges for something he’s going to throw in the back of the cupboard! No, instead show him you care with a bunch of Sausage Rolls’ies! Thomas the Baker’s sausage rolls are…

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Hey, did you know it’s National Bread Week? From the 24th February to 4th March 2018, the country will be celebrating all things dough – this is the 10th annual celebration. The campaign focuses on “Real Bread” – the kind made by people like us, the small, local and independent bakers. This Bread Week, we’re offering sampling of our breads in stores around lunch time on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, so find your nearest store and make sure you’re there to try out some of our favourites! But you probably need to know a little bit more about our breads beforehand, and we’re only to happy to boast a bit about how our loaves are made. You’ll probably know that loaves are the “bread and butter” of our business! Nearly all of our ‘everyday’ breads, including the popular Country Crunch and Farmhouse, are made using the ‘sponge and dough’ 48 hour method which is, to the best of our knowledge,…

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Have you heard about our Thomas of Helmsley Deli Sausage Rolls? If not, where have you been?! We originally only sold these in our deli and butchers in Helmsley, Thomas of Helmsley, but they’ve been almost literally flying off the shops. In fact, they’ve proved so popular that we’ve decided to “roll” them out to a limited range of our stores so that even if you’re not in Helmsley, you’ll get the chance to try them. Starting from Monday 19th February, the following six Thomas the Baker stores will have our Deli Sausage Rolls available for sale: Kirkbymoorside Pickering Malton Easingwold York: Market Street York: Kings Square If you’re not sure where these are located or which would be the nearest to you, head over to our store locator to find out more. Let us try to tempt you a little more by telling you all about these Deli Sausage Rolls you’ve probably heard so much about. Wrapped in crispy…

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A couple of weeks ago, we hosted the first of our series of sampling events at Thomas of Helmsley: the Big Cheese. And today we’re announcing the next link in our chain of events: Super Sausage Saturday! To mark UK Sausage Week, which runs from the 30th October to 5th November, as well as to celebrate the relaunch of Thomas of Helmsley and to keep our customers well fed with traditional fare around Bonfire Night, we’ll be offering samples and tastings of our sizzling sausage range on Saturday 4th November at our newly refurbished Thomas of Helmsley deli. This banging range has been developed for Thomas the Baker to be sold in Thomas of Helmsley by local celebrity chef, Stephanie Moon, and our in house deli head butcher, Michael Foster. The new range of sausages includes a super tasty Yorkshire Bratwurst; a Mango, Lime and Ginger Pork Sausage; and the ‘Yorkshire Special’ – made using Henderson’s Relish, breadcrumbs from our craft bakery’s own freshly…

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Don’t worry if you missed out on the Grand Opening of Thomas of Helmsley, because as we mentioned in our last blog post, we’re starting a series of tasting events in the run up to Christmas in store where everyone is welcome to come and try our tasty goods. These tasting events start this weekend with… You guessed it – local cheese sampling! On Saturday 14th October from 10.30am onwards, Thomas of Helmsley will play host to Ian Barlow from award-winning cheesemakers Carron Lodge to guide customers through a selection of fantastic local cheeses. There will be firm favourites such as Yorkshire Blues and Wensleydales, as well as some new and exciting flavours to try out. Some of you might have had the chance to try a few at our Grand Opening at the end of September, but you don’t want to miss this opportunity to try even more! The cheese will be served up alongside some complimentary chutneys from…

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For this week, and this week only, we’ll be offering these fantastic Yorkshire Day cupcakes, decorated with the infamous emblem of Yorkshire: the White Rose of Yorkshire. As a Yorkshire born and “bread” company (pardon the pun!), we’re proud of our heritage, so we’re sending out these yummy cupcakes to all our stores on Tuesday 1st August to celebrate Yorkshire Day – and here are 3 reasons why we think you should head to your nearest Thomas the Baker store to pick one (or more!) up to try them: 1. To support our chosen charity for the year: Alzheimer’s Society Each year we choose a charity that’s close to our hearts to support. It was announced in the press in June that we’d raised over £10,000 during the past year for the British Heart Foundation. For 2017/18, we’ve chosen the Alzheimer’s Society. The goal is to for our fundraising activities to help to fund research into Alzheimer’s and dementia, to support those living with…

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