Author Archives: admin

Caramelized White Chocolate Brownies

Caramelized White Chocolate Brownies

Squidgy chocolate brownies packed with caramelized white chocolate

The simple magic of an oven will never cease to amaze me.

Subjected to its heat, pudgy rounds of dough become crusty loaves, liquid batter rises into golden-crowned cakes, pastry puffs, biscuits bake and incredible aromas escape around the edges of its door.

Normally baking requires some sort of skill, an understanding of the alchemy of ingredients and an ability to weigh, whisk, beat and blend. Butter, sugar and flour are combined, flavours and textures far greater than the sum of their parts created. Whether an amateur cook or a professional chef, it’s satisfying to know that baking is both a science and an art. Continue reading →

Maple Walnut Banana Bread with Crunchy Cocoa Nibs

Maple Walnut Banana Loaf with Crunchy Cocoa Nibs

Banana bread with peanut butter is pretty hard to beat

It always makes me a little bit sad to read interviews where chefs explain that they can go days without eating a proper meal. I suppose it comes with the territory of working such strange hours and constantly tasting, testing and tweaking, but it does seem a shame to be surrounded by so much wonderful food and not have the opportunity to sit down and properly enjoy it.

In between school and university I spent six months abroad, working as a waitress beforehand to save money for my trip. Sixty-odd hour weeks and lots of late night shifts meant complete disruption of my body clock, compounded by the fact that the restaurant I worked in refused to serve their staff proper meals in between shifts (a practice completely counter-intuitive unless you want your waitresses wandering round ravenously eyeing up plates of food as they emerge from the kitchen). Continue reading →

Chunky Homemade Granola

Homemade granola

Chunky homemade granola

Happy Valentine’s Day!

All around the world, in every corner of the internet, people are posting or googling recipes for things like chocolate fondants and profiteroles, planning in what they will eat with their other half this evening and exactly what it is that constitutes the ultimate romantic dessert.

So today I’m bringing you breakfast in the form of my favourite chunky granola . . . Continue reading →

Malteser Macarons

Malteser Macarons

Malty macarons filled with milk chocolate ganache & chopped maltesers

There’s such a simple, primal pleasure that comes from playing with food or eating it with your fingers.

Most of the time (in the Western world at least, perhaps discounting fast food and TV dinners)we need a knife and fork, eat from a plate and at a dinner table, restricted either by the type of food or our understanding of what is acceptable in a social situation. Continue reading →

Squidgy Chocolate & Pistachio Squares

Chocolate Pistachio Squares

Squidgy little squares of nutty chocolate goodness

Before the age of about fifteen, I don’t think I’d ever made buttercream icing.

I’d eaten it, of course, at friends’ houses and birthday parties, spread over simple sponge cakes and smothered between the rounds of the ubiquitous caterpillar cake (one made an appearance at a 28th birthday we recently  attended, clearly caterpillar cake will never go out of fashion in some circles), but I’m pretty sure I’d never actually made my own buttercream at home.
Continue reading →

Squid Ink Tagliatelle

Squid Ink Pasta / thelittleloaf

A tangle of inky black tagliatelle

The first rule of getting married is: don’t talk about getting married.

Ok, I’ll rephrase. Do talk about it to a select few people, suppliers for example, without whom the big day is pretty unlikely to even happen at all. Talk about it with enthusiastic friends and family, people you’ve not seen in a while or as a subject to fill that awkward moment when you’re stuck somewhere like a lift with a stranger and need to make small talk. But don’t talk about getting married to excess. Continue reading →

Seeded Spinach Breakfast Muffins

Seeded Spinach Muffins

Perfect for a quick & simple breakfast

If I asked you to think of the best thing that happened in your life this last week, what would it be?

Anyone who read my most recent post will know that we celebrated our eight year anniversary this weekend. Smiles filled our flat, glasses were raised and some seriously delicious celebratory food was consumed. It was a wonderful weekend, a truly special occasion and probably what I would highlight as my most amazing thing if asked the question above.
Continue reading →

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondants

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondants - thelittleloaf

Rich, chocolaty & packed with peanut butter flavour

Eight years ago last Friday, I met my husband-to-be. The next day I baked him brownies.

Back then, the thought of writing a food blog hadn’t even entered my head. The online world was a very different place: basic WordPress was only just up and running, Facebook in its infancy and YouTube launched that year. Blogs like Delicious Days and Seven Spoons might have just got started, but the idea of writing about food on the internet was still just the seed of an idea in the minds of Joy the Baker, Deb Perelman and numerous other bloggers we know and love today. Continue reading →

Banana Ice Cream with Cocoa Nib Freckles & Toasted Maple Walnuts

Banana, Cocoa Nib & Toasted Maple Walnut Ice Cream

What’s your favourite thing to do with a blackened banana?

Breads, cakes, cookies, muffins and smoothies are all pretty wonderful ways to use up an overripe banana or two. The ice cream I’m sharing today is even better. But to be honest, I’d be happy if you made any of the items listed above, as long as your bananas don’t end up in the bin.

Continue reading →