News

NEW COURSE – THAALI

We’re delighted to announce a new course at Loaf – THAALI!

Join Loaf and Haseen from Kings Heath’s Pop Up Dosa for a fantastic Thaali making workshop

Haseen has been bringing fantastic street food from Kerala in the south west of India to the streets of Birmingham for several years now. Starting from a home-cafe in Kings Heath, to guest appearances at markets and takeovers of cafes and pub restaurants, Pop Up Dosa is an integral part of the grassroots food landscape in Birmingham, and for good reason.

During this three hour workshop chef Haseen will teach you the secrets of another Indian speciality – Thaali – popular in India, Nepal, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Singapore.

Thaali is a meal made up of a selection of vegetarian dishes served on a platter. In Kerala it is known as Sadhya (banquet), traditionally served on a banana leaf, often in large quantities, for weddings and other special festivals and celebrations. During a traditional Sadhya food is eaten with the right hand, without cutlery, and people sit cross-legged on mats together.

The idea behind a Thaali is to offer all the 6 different flavours of sweet, salt, bitter, sour, spicy on one single plate. On this hands-on course at Loaf you will learn how to create them all so you can host your own Sadhya celebrations!

Typical dishes include rice, daal, saambar, vegetable stir fries, papad, curd (yoghurt), and chutney or pickle. Rice is conventionally the main dish of the Thaali, and in the authentic presentation-style you will normally find the side dishes and delicacies are placed around the central dish.

Six dishes sounds complex – and a lot to fit into an evening’s course – but with Haseen’s help you’ll be able to manage your time, learn how to multi-task with ease and have a stress-free and fun dinner experience! We can guarantee you won’t go home hungry.

About Loaf courses

This course usually takes place on a weekday evening from 6.30pm to 9.30pm at Loaf cookery school on Stirchley High Street in south Birmingham. You’ll feel right at home at Loaf, and everything you learn will set you up for bringing your own kitchen alive.

All refreshments, equipment, recipes and aprons are provided. Use the calendar below to find and book a suitable date and add to your basket, and pay via the checkout. This course is priced £70. We look forward to seeing you soon!

This course is suitable for Vegetarians/Vegans and the ingredients are gluten free. Please email us if you need to know more about the allergens in this course.

To book please visit the course page HERE

Protect Brum’s Cyclists

Last Monday a cyclist was killed by a lorry on the Pershore Road. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Suzanna Bull, a 32 year old doctor at the Children’s Hospital. 
 
Our shop is on the Pershore Road, several of us live on the Pershore Road and many of us cycle along the Pershore Road every day. This is very close to home.
We want to ensure action is taken to stop this ever happening again. 
 
Last night cyclists and others from Birmingham and surrounding areas met at the University of Birmingham Clock Tower, and proceeded a slow ride en masse, passing the location of the Suzanna’s death – Pershore Road/Edgbaston Road junction – where a candlelit vigil was held. The vigil was in remembrance of Suzanna, the cyclists killed on our roads in recent years and acted as a wake up call / protest to raise awareness of the poor conditions offered to people who want to cycle around Birmingham. 
“The junction where the incident took place has been highlighted on many occasions as potentially deadly for both cyclists and pedestrians yet nothing gets done to change it.”

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/woman-dies-after-pershore-road-13739891

A petition calling for the protection of Birmingham’s cyclists is gaining traction – addressed to Birmingham City Council and the recently formed Transport for West Midlands. The leaders of these organisations Cllr Ian Ward, the WM Mayor Andy Street need to be reminded of the lack of progress their organisations are making toward improving provision for the needs of the most simple and basic transport user groups and the need for positive action now.

A report from 2 years ago showed that 4 Cyclists are injured on Birmingham’s roads on average EVERY day. The Pershore Road was highlighted as having one of the top 3 most dangerous junctions.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-birminghams-most-dangerous-roads-9501314

PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION it means a lot to us.

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-killing-birmingham-cyclists

#ProtectBrumCyclists #CyclistsLivesMatter
Wording adapted from the vigil event on facebook.

 

Sourdough September round-up

We’ve just announced the winners of our Sourdough September competition – Gosia Trelka (1st place) and Jo Carr (2nd place).  First prize was a place on our Sourdough course – and second prize a baking book from our book shop! Congratulations!

During September:

  • We had daily tasters of our regular sourdough during the week, and on Saturdays, tasters of our Saturday special maslin loaf
  • We taught 30 people bread-making skills on our courses in our cookery school
  • We sold 1846 *sourdough* loaves (this includes our rye bread)
  • We sold 48 slices of sourdough pizza
  • We had 62 people sign up and enter our competition
  • We were featured on Delicious Magazine’s website in their Sourdough September highlights
  • We had Jack Spicer Adams come in and take new photos for us because we’re going to be updating our website – look at our gorgeous sourdoughs above!

We’re fully booked for Sourdough courses for 2017 but will be announcing the 2018 dates imminently. We have many other courses available – please see our courses calendar to see if anything takes your fancy.

You can find out more about the Real Bread campaign’s mission on their website.

Autumn Course Highlight

We’re getting ready for our Autumn season of courses!

Some of the courses we have during the upcoming months *only* run at this time of year. In particular: Pork Butchery and Charcuterie with our expert tutors Lap-fai Lee and Steve from Rossiter’s organic butchers in Bournville.

This day-long course will take you through options for creating amazing charcuterie, as well as fresh pork dishes, from almost every part of the pig. You’ll also be creating your own pork lunch for a feast in the middle of the day.

The next Pork Butchery and Charcuterie course is on Thursday 26th October in our dedicated cookery school on Stirchley High Street.

Take a look at our full courses calendar to discover what new skills you can learn in the upcoming cosy season:
https://loaf.coop/cookery-school/

Photo by Lap!

 

Back to School with Loaf

If you’ve not been on a Loaf course but have always fancied it, why not use the changing seasons and new school term time as an excuse to learn a new skill.

We have spaces on several of our courses over the Autumn months including Seafood Masterclass, Handmade Pasta, Pork Butchery and Charcuterie, Sweet Breads and Vennoiserie and Flavour Geography: Thailand, and Chinese Bao and Dumplings (pictured above).

The courses are really enjoyable, informative and hands-on. You’ll be taught by our friendly and experienced in-house experts and passionate guest-tutors. On our courses we also share and enjoy the fruits of our labour and you will never go home hungry! 

We also sell vouchers for courses if you’d like to gift a visit to Loaf Cookery School to a loved one – is it too early to think about Christmas?!

To check the dates and courses available please visit the courses calendar here.

Spend July in the cookery school!

July and August usually equates to thoughts of HOLIDAY! While you’re taking a well earned break, why not get yourself booked in on a course with us and learn some new kitchen skills to impress your friends, family and yourself with!

Take advantage of our quieter time and nab yourself a place on our most popular courses like:

Even if you’re a super busy type, and don’t always have time to get in the kitchen, it’s a brilliant night/day out! Fun, and most importantly you get well fed! You’ll eat everything you make, and take home the left overs (if you leave any).

Check out what we’ve got available for you on our calendar here!

We can’t wait to see you 🙂

Easter opening times!

It’s almost Easter and we’re in the throes of Hot Cross bun season, it comes round quicker and quicker each year!

As you may already know, we’re offering our Earl Grey flavoured HCB’s right up until Easter, available everyday in our shop.

We’re ramping up the numbers as we get closer to the long weekend, so make sure to take advantage as there’re only 7 baking days til they’re gone! #RIPHCB

We will be taking pre-orders for Good Friday and Saturday (14th & 15th April), just pop into the shop and place and pre-pay for your order.

Please note that we will be closed after Easter for some general maintenance, dates and times are as follows:

Good Friday 14th April – 12-6.30pm (pre-order collection)

Saturday 15th April – 8.15am-1pm (last day for pre-order collection)

Easter Sunday 16th April – CLOSED

Easter Monday 17th April – CLOSED

Tuesday 18th – Friday 21st April – CLOSED

Saturday 22nd April – 8.15am-1pm – open as normal

Rye not?

We started out with our Revolutionary Rye, way back when Tom first started Loaf back in 2009 and it has graced our shelves ever since!

Our recipe was based on Andrew Whitley’s Russian Rye, ours is 100% rye sourdough, topped with toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

Why is it revolutionary? (Everybody wants to know!) Mainly because back when Tom started, no one was making a rye sourdough up here in the Midlands at least! Not only that, but he figured given its Russian roots, he’d pay tribute to their revolutionary history…

If you didn’t already know, Rye is a type of grain, low in gluten, high in fibre, protein and most importantly flavour.

Over the years, we’ve played around with rye specials such as the Borodinsky and Volkornbrot, but this year we’ve decided to feature them more frequently, because rye is great, and ‘rye’ not right?

Our Borodinsky is made with a rye starter and flour, malt extract, molasses and caraway seeds for a surprisingly refreshing flavour despite its density! Find it in the shop on TUESDAYS

Our Volkornbrot, is made with a rye starter and flour, chock-full of sunflower seeds, and kibbled rye for lots of texture! Find it in the shop on THURSDAYS

Will you be trying it? Let us know! Tweet or Tag us – we’d love to see how you’re enjoying it!

Don’t forget!

Hi guys!

Don’t forget our opening times for Xmas and New Year!

We’re open from 8.15am – 1pm Friday 23rd (tomorrow), and the same again Saturday 24th.

We’re no longer taking stollen, mince pie or macaron pre-orders as they are already made to order! We will have a selection available to buy on a first come first served basis in our shop both Friday and Saturday.

We sold out within a few hours today so expect a queue and come as early as you can to avoid missing out; we’re working through the night tonight and Friday to make as much as we can (we’ve even roped in Tom off his paternity leave to lend us a hand!) so we hope to disappoint as few people as we possibly can!

You can still purchase books and cookery school vouchers in the shop too!

We’ll be closed from Christmas day until Wednesday 4th January 2017, when we open from 12pm as normal.

Thank you for all your support this year, we can’t do this without you!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you all! 

Love, Team Loaf x

 

Real Bread for Everyone!

cinnamon buns slideshowDid you know that Loaf is a worker co-operative? We haven’t always been – it’s hard to be a co-operative when you only have one member! But, since opening up on the high street in Stirchley and expanding the team, we have adopted a co-operative model of running things around here. For us this means that the eight of us who are employed by Loaf work together as a team to manage the business. We are paid equally and are all very invested in making Loaf a lovely place to visit and a lovely workplace too. We all have our different strengths and talents in the day to day running of the bakery and cookery school and work pretty independently lots of the time, but long term and strategic decisions are made together, guided by a strong set of core values and aims which have been with Loaf since its inception.

Aside from our internal structure, being a worker co-operative also means we are part of a long standing and international movement committed to the seven co-operative principles.  All of them are important but, and maybe particularly in the lead up to Christmas, the seventh, concern for the community, is especially pertinent. Our fellow Stirchley co-operators, Birmingham Bike Foundry, have been working hard raising money to send to another worker co-operative bakery, this one in Northern Syria. The city of Kobane has been in the news often over the past four years of war in Syria, because of the destruction and chaos brought by IS militants during the 2014 siege and because of the inspiring response of the region’s citizens, who are remaking Rojava on radical democratic principles.

The money raised will be going to a group of women who are working to found a co-operative bakery to provide, just like Loaf aims to, meaningful work for its members and quality bread for its community, albeit in a much more challenging setting.

For the next week we will be donating profits from our sweet bun sales towards the drive; if you want to make your own donation you can pop one in our donation jar or you can also do so on the fundraiser’s website here.

XMAS XMAS XMAS!

It’s that time of year! Loosen your belt loops for a blast of tasty information about opening times, mince pies, stollen and gift vouchers below…

XMAS OPENING TIMES 2016!

Tuesday 20th – 12-6.30pm (as normal)

Wednesday 21st – 12-6.30pm (as normal)

Thursday 22nd – 12-6.30pm (as normal)

Friday 23rd – 8.15am-1pm

Saturday 24th (XMAS EVE) – 8.15am-1pm

CLOSED 25th – 3rd January 2017

Wednesday 4th Jan – 12-6.30pm – opening times resume as normal.

MINCE PIES!

As you may have seen on Twitter, we’re selling mince pies daily in our shop!

Our mince pies are made entirely in house. This year, Baker Rob made kilos upon kilos of delicious mincemeat (ours is made with locally grown apples, lemons, suet, candied peel, marmalade, currants, sultanas, dark muscovado sugar and Mud City Stout since you asked…) ready to fill hundreds of our flaky, buttery pastry cases.

STOLLEN!

We’ll also be offering our classic Stollen loaf, a rich, fruity loaf stuffed with homemade marzipan, this one is pre-order only.

MINCEMEAT MACARONS!

In collaboration with our cookery school tutor, the uber talented Lap-fai Lee; we’ll also be offering some incredible mincemeat macarons *love heart eyes emoji x100*

The macarons will also be available for pre-order but any which are not snapped up in advance will be available in the shop from 20th December.

COOKERY SCHOOL GIFT VOUCHERS!

Our vouchers make the perfect gift for Xmas you know! You can buy online or we’ve got vouchers from £10-110 available in our shop, just ask one of our shop team and they’ll be happy to help.

Please note, our gift vouchers are only valid for our cookery school, not our shop! Ts&Cs are here.

PRE-ORDERING YOUR CHRISTMAS TREATS!

You can pre-order the following:
A box of six mince pies for £8
A stollen loaf for £5
Six mincemeat macarons for £5

All orders need to be made in our shop and pre-paid as we’ll be baking to demand. You can place orders up until the 17th December. Orders will be available for collection on 23-24th December before 11am.

MARKETS!

You can find us at Stirchley Community Market on Tuesday 6th and at the QE Hospital Farmers Market on Wednesday 21st – come say hi!

 

 

New dates for courses 2017!

Illustration: www.walternewton.

 The announcement of our Cookery School courses 2017, has been somewhat long awaited by the eager and organised amongst us, so here it is just in time for Xmas!

NEW dates for January-March 2017 are now available for:


– Bread: Back to Basics
– Bread: Simply Sourdough
– Sweet breads and Viennoiserie
– Flavour Geography: South Indian Dosa
– Handmade Pasta
– Macarons

Plus many more!

We’ve worked hard to fit in as many courses as we can, so we hope you’ll find something to suit your needs!

pig butchery Dosa Workshoppasta bread back to basics Seafoodone_new2 sweet breads

If not, why not buy a gift voucher?

You can purchase Cookery School gift vouchers from £1-£150!

Further dates will be staggered throughout 2017.

*Foraging & Earth Oven Building will be available from March.

Lamb & Poultry will be available from February.*

Happy Booking!

BAO HOUSE Part II with Lap-Fai Lee

BAO HOUSE PART II

If you came to the last BAO House Pop Up at Loaf, waited in that incredibly long line and were rewarded with food, you’ll be excited to hear we’re doing it again.  If you came to the last BAO House Pop Up at Loaf, waited in that incredibly long line and didn’t get food because we ran out, you’ll be excited to hear we’re doing it again – with more BAO, extra sides…. but you should still get here earlier.

September 22nd is the date for your diaries.
No bookings/pre orders/reservations.
BYOB
All food is to take out, but you can sit in if you’d like – we have seating.
Cash or Card payments taken.

IMG_8443

#BaoHouseTwo

*Closing for maintenance!*

We’ll be closed for maintenance from Tuesday 23rd – Tuesday 30th August; opening as normal on Wednesday 31st August.

closecalendar

We’ll be making some improvements throughout our building: in the shop, bakery, cookery school and back of house; very exciting stuff!

We know a lot of you will be alarmed that you won’t be able to get your usual orders (or salt beef – goodness!!); so make sure you stock up in the weeks before. Our bread and sweet stuff freeze brilliantly you know! Just perk them up in the oven once you’ve defrosted them.

OR…

Jump onto one of our bread or sourdough courses and make your own! Fresh bread just can’t be beaten can it!

Also, we’ve got the last few places on Lap’s phenomenal Bao course on the 31st; now you can recreate #baohouse at your house!