The Advent Treasure Hunt returns!

As well as being a primo baker, Rachel is a keen geocacher and last year combined her passions in the Loaf Advent Treasure Hunt. It was a tremendous success and so we had to bring it back.

Every day, starting this Wednesday, Rach will hide one of our bread vouchers somewhere near Loaf. It could be on the high street, along the canal, in a park… anywhere at all!

Clues will be posted to the Loaf Instagram stories and the hunt begins – first person to find the voucher gets a free loaf of bread!

But what is a bread voucher, I hear you ask? Can we acquire them without leaving the house? Perhaps in exchange for money?

Why yes! They’re available in packs of 6 and 12 with a couple of postcards and a sticker. They make perfect gifts for that Stirchley-based bread-curious relative or friend who is impossible to buy for. Pick them up in store or order online and we’ll post them out.

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

 

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!

 

 

Lemon Curd – Recipe

lemon curdAt my recent festive breads course, I had a load of lemons leftover from grating off the zest for the ‘flowerpot panettone’. I asked around for ideas of how to use them, and one clever student piped up with the idea of lemon curd. Seeing as i needed some last minute christmas prezzies for family etc, it was the perfect solution. My hens provided the eggs so all I had to buy was butter and sugar – therefore very cheap presents! I know it’s too late for you to make presents, but it’s still worth giving this a shot, especially if you’ve never done any preserving before, as it’s a pretty easy method. The recpe was inspired by Pam Corbin’s River Cottage handbook on preserving, which is well worth investing in. This recipes makes 3-4 1lb jam jars.

Ingredients:

Juice of 4-5 lemons (about 275ml)
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
450g granulated sugar
125g unsalted butter
5 large beaten eggs

Method:

Add the lemon juice, zest, butter, and sugar to a stainless steel or glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. Heat slowly, stirring until the butter melts, then immediately add the eggs through a sieve (if you have a jam thermometer make sure the mixture is no hotter than 60C when you do this). Stir over a gentle heat for 10 minutes until the mixture is thick and glossy (at about 83C), and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Don’t let it get hot enough to boil. Pour this into warm, sterilized jam jars, and seal immediately. It will set as it cools. Tie a ribbon round it – Voila!

Birmingham Friends of the Earth Christmas Fair

Next Saturday 19th Dec, Loaf will have it’s first stand at a fair – and it’s the Birmingham Friends of the Earth Christmas Fair at Moseley CDT/Moseley Exchange, from 10-4pm. Fortunately it’s the same day as the farmers market across the road, so do pop down to both and come and say hi! On offer will be  fresh sourdough bread (including revolution rye and cotteridge sourdough), fresh homemade stollen and ‘flowerpot’ pannetone, and the chance to buy Loaf gift vouchers for your loved ones, and sign up to subscribe to Loaf community bakery. If you’ve read this and come along, please come and introduce yourself too. Tom.

Gift Vouchers now available

presentJust a quick note to tell you about two ways you can purchase Loaf gift vouchers for your loved one’s this Christmas! Firstly, Loaf director Tom Baker (that’s me!) is a registered bread making teacher on the excellent School of Everything website, and is one of only a handful of teachers chosen to take part in their Christmas gift scheme. You can purchase a day on one of Loaf’s ‘Bread: back to basics’ by visiting the gift’s section. It’s also worth hunting around for other interesting teachers on their too – you could buy a knitting lesson, photography tuition, or even a twitter masterclass!

Secondly, you can now purchase Loaf Cookery School gift vouchers direct from us. They are sold in multiples of £10, or if you want to buy a place on a specific course, a personalised voucher can be created especially for you’re loved one. Find out more on the new gift voucher page by clicking here.