Hat’s off – it’s an egg-cellent edible Easter bonnet

We don’t like to do things by halves here at Hunters. If we’re going to do it, we go all out.

Which is why we’ve ended up with a stunning 1.7kg pure Belgian chocolate (edible) Easter bonnet! And it could be yours…

When we heard that Helmsley would be running an Easter Bonnet Trail around the town, we were keen to be involved. The trail runs from 8^th to 28^th April, with visitors having to match the bonnet to the business for the chance to win a prize. A fun activity for the school holidays, keep active, get some fresh air, visit some fantastic local businesses, and maybe stop for a little coffee and cake on the way round!

So, we decided to commission Scarborough-based confectioner Linda Jameson, the owner of Lindy Lou Creations and chocolatier at Ampleforth Plus, to design a very special Belgian chocolate bonnet to be used in our shop window – before being raffled off to one lucky winner, raising money for a local cause.

The 1.7kg creation is the size of a real Easter bonnet – and yes, you could wear it! (although if you have a hot head it could get pretty messy). Made from Belgian milk chocolate with hand crafted sugar Easter flowers it took over eight hours for the very talented Linda to create. She creates lots of wonderful confectionary for the shop and she can make anything we set her the challenge to have a go at!

Raffle tickets to win the chocolate Easter bonnet can be purchased from us and cost £1 each. A winner will be drawn at random on 29^th April, with all the funds raised going to the Helmsley Christmas Lights fund. So, everyone wins as you’ll be helping to make Helmsley an even more beautiful festive town for us all to enjoy when the time comes!

We love to get involved in the trails and events organised by the Helmsley in Business group, as it’s great to be able to offer something extra to visitors. If you want to take part in the Helmsley Easter Bonnet Trail you can pick up an entry form from us or from the wonderful Helmsley Traditional Sweet Shop just down the road. Match the pictures of the hats to the businesses and return it to any participating shop to be put into the prize draw for a special Helmsley goody bag!

Happy Easter one and all – hope to see you over the Easter holidays….

Make it an eggstra special Easter

Easter might be late this year (did you know the latest Easter Sunday can fall is 25^th April – so we’re not far off on 21^st), but that doesn’t mean we’re not already getting in the mood at Hunters! Chocolate, simnel cake, eggs, hot cross buns, treats – what’s not to love about Easter food? Especially if you’ve given something you love up for lent – indulging come Easter Sunday will taste all the better!

Finding something new to give as a gift, or a new little treat for you to try, can be difficult – but have no fear! We’ve got some great new finds this Spring, along with some old favourites we would never dare not stock (we know if you find an Easter treat you really like, you look forward to it every year!)

If you’re a fan of really dark chocolate, we have Montezumas Absolute black 100% cocoa solids – rich and amazing! Perfect for those avoiding dairy – along with their No Udder dairy free range of dark button and milk button eggs all retailing at £10.50. The perfect treat for someone who can’t, or chooses not to, have dairy in their diet. If you’re looking for a special grown up present, the Booja Booja dairy free Champagne truffles are amazing (they’ve won 13 awards) and come in a hand painted wooden egg. The egg is stunning and something you would keep for years (long after the truffles disappear – which won’t take long at all). 

Something very special for anyone who is mad about unicorns (that’s most of us then) is the nest of unicorn eggs, which come in a pack of six from James Chocolates. Holdsworth Chocolates’ popping candy egg with eight truffles is a grown up taste sensation (literally!) and we also have their super cute Ellie the egg bug (ladybird), Edward the egg hog (hedgehog) and Eggy egg and spoon (yes – you can eat the spoon!).

From Lindy Lou handmade chocolates in Scarborough, we have amazing frog, owl and caterpillar eggs, as well as a super cute mouse on a (chocolate) cheese wedge. They are all utterly adorable and sure to be a big hit with little ones. And big ones, to be fair.

We know Lindt is always popular so we have the usual selection of Lindt eggs and bunnies, which are always a sell out success.

So, whatever your particular Easter favourite (we won’t judge you if it’s cheese, pies….or gin), then why not pop in and stock up. It will be here before we know it!

Who ate all the pies? You can! Grab a pies of the action this British Pie Week

We know, we know, there’s a lot of these ‘weeks’ go on. International Hummous Day, Tuna Mayo Sandwich Week, International Carbonara Day (only one of those is made up!). But one of our FAVOURITE weeks is coming up, which we really don’t mind celebrating. It’s all about the pies!!

British Pie Week runs from 4th-10^th March and – as suggested by the name – celebrates everything we Brits love about a good pie.

Pies have been around for thousands of years. The Romans loved a pie – often using the pastry crust to keep the filling fresh, or as a baking dish. Although, then they threw away the crust! What a waste! But even before that, around 8,000 years ago, the Egyptians used a type of bread to encase their food in a pie-like way. In sixteenth century England, you may have cut into a pie to find a live animal emerge as a kind of theatre (we all know the nursery rhyme - four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie…)

Us Brits definitely have a special relationship with the pie. That’s why we wanted to treat Yorkshire pie lovers to a special tasting to mark the week – along with a s-bake-tacular special offer!

On Thursday 7^th March, The Original Baker, based in Malton, will be setting up outside the shop, and offering samples of some of its best-selling bakes. We will also be running a special offer, selling four individual Original Baker pies for £10.60, a 10% discount on the usual price. A fab dinner idea for the family – and everyone can pick their favourite, so there’s no arguments!

On offer at the tasting will be a selection of pastries including the Chicken Curry Pie, with seared chunks of chicken slow cooked in a special blend of herbs and spices; Camembert & Root Veg Pie, with tender root vegetables roasted in exotic spices, in a spicy tomato sauce with chunks of creamy, oozy Camembert cheese; and a traditional, comforting Slow Cooked Mince Beef & Onion Pie with an all butter shortcrust pastry base and light puff pasty lid. YUM!

We have to say – The Original Baker’s pies are some of the best in the country. We wouldn’t stock them otherwise! The all butter pastry combined with high quality fillings, made with fresh ingredients cooked on site – they’re real hand-made artisan pastries and they taste delicious. We’re lucky to have such talented bakers on our doorstep and it’s only right we shout about it!

Happy British Pie Week everyone!

Go nuts for the new creation from Bakehouse in the Barn

As our regular customers will know, last summer we launched a partnership with the wonderful Bakehouse in the Barn.

The very talented Sophie Smith (who many of you will recognise from Hunters) is the baker behind Bakehouse in the Barn and she’s been coming up with some amazing concoctions for us. The idea is that not only is it something you can buy from us ready-to-enjoy (Sophie works some magic!) but you can also take away the recipe to try it for yourself. Therefore we try not to make it too complicated – just utterly delicious!

So, bring on our latest baked treat…. drum roll please…. the Hunter Gatherer Granola Bar! (hope you appreciate the name!)

The Hunter Gatherer Bar is bursting with nuts, seeds and fruit to give a healthy energy boost in the dark winter months, and to curb sweet toothed cravings to help keep those New Year’s resolutions in check. We stock a range of ingredients for the bar from local Yorkshire producers and suppliers, including Yockenthwaite Farm and Quay Ingredients, both in Skipton, and Driffield-based Shepcote, so you can come stock up and then give it a try. It’s a great one to make with kids!

It’s another winning recipe from Sophie – so simple but so effective. The bars she makes to be sold in store are packed to the brim with a whopping 14 different types of nuts, seeds and fruit, but if you’re following the recipe you can adapt it to suit your own favourites. It’s a really satisfying sweet treat, but also includes lots of healthy ingredients - which is what you need at this time of year!

Hunter Gatherer Granola Bar

Ingredients:

300g oats

425g mixed nuts, seeds and fruit (this can include a variety to suit your own preferences, but ours includes: hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, flax, pumpkin seeds, poppy & sesame seeds, sour cherries, sultanas, raisins, dates, goji berries)

60g ground almonds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

100g soft brown sugar

190g honey*

190g butter*

Method:

·        Preheat the oven to 180°C.

·        Line a 20cm x 30cm baking tin with parchment.

·        In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together.

·        Melt the butter and warm the honey together in a pan over a medium heat.

·        Pour the honey and butter over the dry ingredients, mix well.

·        Transfer the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

·        Bake for 18 minutes, until the top of the granola bar is golden brown.

·        Leave to cool in the tin. Slice once cool.

*for a vegan version, substitute the honey for ½ agave or date syrup ½ golden syrup and the butter for vegan spread.

January food goals

January tends to do odd things to our eating (and drinking) habits.

There’s Ginuary and Veganuary to contend with. Dry January if you fancy it (it’s a bit at odds with Ginuary though).

Even if you don’t subscribe to any official awareness ‘months’ or ‘weeks’ likelihood is you may have made a New Year’s Resolution. There’s something about January which makes you feel like you should be making a dramatic change and looking at a fresh start. Given the over indulgences of the Christmas period those changes often seem to link to food and drink, as we know we can’t carry on in the manner to which we’ve become accustomed. Apparently chocolate and a mince pie for breakfast is not a balanced meal, and nor is it socially acceptable to wash it down with a Bucks Fizz outside of Christmas week. Bah humbug.

According to a poll a couple of years ago, a third of resolutions made were to lose weight and a third were to eat more healthily. But sometimes the mind is more willing than the body. It can be a shock to the system going from 2000 calories by mid-morning to 1200 all day, and from the most exercise you get being a leisurely walk to the fridge to trying to hit the gym five times a week.

We’ve already passed what was dubbed Quitter’s Day – 11^th January (the second Friday in January)– which does seem a very short length of time! Less than one in 10 actually count themselves as having achieved their New Year’s Resolution, which leaves more than nine out of 10 of us feeling a bit of a failure.

The key to making it a success? Well most experts seem to say making sure your goals are manageable and not too generic/huge, having an action plan and taking baby steps to begin with, making it fun (as much as you can) and being kind to yourself if you slip up. Apparently, it takes 66 days to break a habit – so any bad habits formed over Christmas are going to take well into March to reset.

So, maybe you’ve set yourself a resolution to eat better, to try new foods, to give vegan cooking more of a go – whatever it might be, we’re here to help. As well as lots of tasty treats (everything in moderation!) we also have tonnes of fantastic ideas for cooking, for zinging up a salad or some veg, for healthy snacking – as well as some amazing soft drink and zero alcohol ‘booze’ to give you choices to help you achieve your goals.

Whatever your January food goals, it’s National Croissant Day on 30^th. Sure that’s something we can all get on board with! Pass the jam will you?

Twixmas food fix

Happy Christmas to all our customers, we hope it was a good one…

Now we’re in the weird ‘no man’s land’ between Christmas and New Year. For some people it’s still ongoing celebrations and family get togethers, others are back at work. Some are hitting the sales in hope of a bargain and others are already taking their decorations down with a feeling Christmas has been and gone.

Whatever camp you’re in, the likelihood is you’ve felt the need for an expanding waistband over the past few days! Apparently the average Brit will have consumed more than 6,000 calories on Christmas Day alone – almost three times the standard daily recommendation. Christmas Dinner in its own right doesn’t have to be too calorific, but the chocolate, nuts, crisps, fizz and baileys we tuck into either side of that is. A third of us have had a festive tipple by midday (is it wrong that I think that’s a surprisingly low number?). But don’t worry – apparently you can burn those calories off with an eight-hour run or a 22-hour walk. Easy done!

Further research showed that the nation will consume 308 million slices of turkey and 411 million sprouts. Not forgetting the 205 million slices of Christmas cake and pudding and, of course, the 205 million glasses of champagne. Someone will have a sore head.

But all that excess, lovely though it is, can leave you feeling like you can’t face another heavy dinner, or another buffet. It can be hard to figure out what you fancy! Well why not leave that to us?

Hunters is open every day from 27^th December, other than New Year’s Day and 2nd January and we’re happy to help you find something to tickle your tastebuds. Perhaps a flavoursome curry or stir fry to use up some of that leftover turkey? Maybe you want to avoid the kitchen all together after slaving over a hot stove on Christmas Day – well our delicious frozen pies from The Original Baker could be the answer. Simple but delicious and you can choose from favourites such as Steak and Ale or Chicken and Leek. Put together a salad with all your favourites from the deli counter, or how about treating yourself to a nice new pickle or chutney to zhoozh up your salad or leftovers? Soup, jam packed with veg and wholesome ingredients, is always a winner on a cold day and we love The Yorkshire Provinder range.

So, don’t let food disappoint you this Twixmas (yes, that really is the name given to this time of year, and no, it’s not linked to the caramel topped biscuit bar!). Put down the tin of chocolates and come see us for some inspiration!  

Bring on the Christmas feast!

One of the best things about Christmas is the food and drink.

It’s the one time of the year when to over indulge is expected – and no one bats an eyelid if you’re eating chocolate for breakfast, washed down with a bucks fizz.

Of course, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without turkey and all the trimmings (in fact – make sure you stock up on cranberry sauce, stuffing and gravy – you don’t want to forget those all essential elements!). It was actually King Henry VIII who first had turkey for Christmas – up until then it had mainly been boar, goose or even peacock. By 1573 turkey seemed to be a regular on the British Christmas Dinner menu, along with goose – which was still the most popular choice until the Victorian era. But our favourite Christmas bird is certainly a tradition which dates back several centuries. Pigs in blankets…maybe not so much.

Christmas pudding is another Christmas favourite with a long history. Although it started out as more of a soup/porridge with meat and dried fruit, which doesn’t sound like it would go so well with custard. By the 17^th century it was looking more like Christmas pud as we know it, and King George I made it an essential part of the Christmas meal. The monarchy were definitely the reality TV stars of their time – whatever they had, everyone else wanted! Maybe we’ll all be eating what Kate and Wills or Harry and Meghan have for Christmas dinner in a few years.

Mince Pies were another Christmas delight which started out containing meat. Originally called Christmas or Shrid Pie, they’re thought to date back to the Crusaders returning from the Middle East in the 13^th Century. For many, they’re symbolic, with the cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg representing the gifts given to Jesus by the three Kings. There’s also all kinds of myths and superstitions around them – from making a wish when you eat your first one of the year (bit late for that…) and it being illegal to eat them on Christmas Day. Which it isn’t. Although it might have been during the time of Oliver Cromwell who banned them.

Thankfully completely suitable for vegetarians, the Christmas Pudding we’re loving this year is Cole's classic pudding with ale. And for Mince Pies, you need to give Lottie Shaw's Sloe Gin mince pies a try.

One Christmas Dish which we don’t really see any more is the traditional Yorkshire Pie, dating back to the 18^th century. You’d have to like meat for this one – it’s filled with a whole goose, a turkey, a fowl, a partridge, a pigeon, a hare, game, and any other meat you had to hand, mixed with mace, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, salt and a mountain of butter. Sounds a bit much to be honest – and the pastry was never meant to be eaten, what a waste! So, if you love a savoury pie (who doesn’t) we’d recommend instead the pork, apples and black pudding lattice pie.

Whatever your Christmas traditions and feasts involve, we’re here to help, and we like to think we cover most bases with everything we have in store – it’s full to burst with festive treats. Except for a meat-based Christmas pudding – if that’s your thing, you might have to make your own…