A warm, toasty welcome to our new blog. We’d like to use this platform to share with you some of what goes on behind the scenes at Toast house. There will be some recipe favourites, handy how-to’s, insights into our wonderful suppliers and their work and much more.
We’ll start off by spilling the beans on our new refill shop which opened its doors on the 17th June. A refill station within the cafe is something we have wanted to do for a while and changing the cafe layout to accommodate fewer people created the perfect opportunity.
The refill shop works alongside Toast House’s usual offerings of speciality coffee and tea, homemade cakes, toast, fresh bread, pastries and local produce. It allows people to take ingredients home after a visit to the cafe or to simply pop in just for some baking stuff.
Why the refill shop?
Zero waste shopping means significantly reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfill by using sustainable products with reduced packaging. Every small step taken is significant in bringing about a bigger future change.
Our own refill shop promotes sustainability and zero waste shopping by encouraging customers to bring their own reusable containers to fill up with our range of baking related store cupboard staples, reducing unnecessary plastic packaging. We have always aimed to reduce as much landfill waste as possible within the cafe and have followed these principles since we opened in 2013 by recycling and using a re-food company which turns food waste into bio-fuel. In addition we use compostable take out cups, food containers, spoons, knives and forks and recyclable napkins. There will be more on this in future posts.
Don’t worry if you don’t have your own containers for our shop, you can also use our recyclable paper bags as an alternative.
Our refill shop aims to fulfil all your baking needs from organic flour and ground almonds to coconut sugar and baking powder. You can buy the exact quantities you need for your baking and avoid those annoying half bags of almonds sat in the back of your cupboards!
So, what’s on offer?
- Organic Strong White Flour
- Organic Strong White Spelt Flour
- Organic Self Raising Flour
- Sourdough starter kit
- Yeast
- Sultanas
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground ginger
- Organic Ground Almonds
- Flaked almonds
- Organic Caster Sugar
- Organic Coconut Sugar
- Brown muscovado sugar
- Organic Cocoa Powder
- Gluten free baking powder
- Bicarbonate of soda
And from our wall containers …
- Organic oats
- Whole almonds
- Organic Desiccated coconut
- Sunflower seeds
- Pumpkin seeds
In addition to your baking essentials, you can also buy refill soap and washing up liquid supplied by the Fill Refill Company who make refillable, eco-friendly household products. Their products come in glass bottles and jars which look super cool and are reusable. You can grab your own funky screen-printed bottles or alternatively refill your own.
How does it work?
Step 1: WEIGH
Bring your empty container (or use our bags) and place on the weighing scales. Using one of our pre-made labels, fill in the ‘weight empty’ line.
Step 2: FILL
Fill your container with summat.
Step 3: WEIGH
Reweigh your filled container and fill in the ‘weight full’ line on your label.
Step 4: LABEL
Whack the label on.
Step 5: PAY
Pop to the counter to pay!
Take Toast House home
Other new additions to our shop include bake your own toast house granola, jams, chutneys, marmalades and another toast house favourite – Dukkha.
Dukkha is an Egyptian condiment made from a delicious nut, seed and spice blend, originally served with olive oil and bread for dipping. It’s salty, earthy and nutty and can be sprinkled over just about anything to give a mouth-watering crunch and spicy flavor.
Paired perfectly over a layer of hummus on sourdough toast (as we often serve on our menu) or alternatively here are a few other delicious ways to use our Dukkha:
- Mix into plain yogurt for a tangy savoury dip
- Sprinkle over baked fish fillets, meat or poultry
- Add to vegetable soups for extra texture and flavor
- Mix into salads for maximum crunch
We are also selling a bake your own toast house granola so you can enjoy a batch of your favourite Toast House granola in the comfort of your own home.
That’s all for now…
Keep an eye out for recipes we’ll be releasing soon and recipe cards which you can grab from our shop along with the exact quantities of many of the key ingredients needed for each recipe.