Tag Archives: recipes

My Top Ten Italian Recipes

tiramisu with vin santo

I’m sure I’ll regret writing this, but for the last few nights Nino has been sleeping better. All that restorative snoozing means he’s bright eyed and bushy tailed the wrong side of 6am most mornings but, while exhausting in its own way, this has encouraged us as a family to make the most of our extra long days. Yes, we may be ready for lunch come 11am, but we’ve also packed in an exercise video or two, a walk round the park, breakfast, snacks, stories, several rounds of coffee, four outfit changes and maybe managed to read a blog or two. On a good day I might even use the time while Nino is down for his first nap to post a recipe of my own . . .

Today, I’m afraid, isn’t one such day: we’re off to Italy on Sunday and in between some freelance recipe development and raising said little human, I haven’t had a chance to successfully re-test and photograph my latest creation. What I do have, however, is  a round up of my top ten Italian recipes from the archives. I can’t take you all to Italy with me, but this is hopefully the next best thing. We’re planning to eat pretty well while we’re away – including my birthday meal out and experimenting with a brand new pizza oven (which I’m inordinately excited about) – so do hop on over to Instagram and follow me if you’d like the latest updates. Continue reading →

The Little Loaf: Top 10 Recipes from 2015

The Little Loaf 2015 Recipes
As year’s go, 2015 has been pretty big. I published my first cookbook. Luke quit his job to pursue the career of his dreams. And we’ve made nine tenths of a human being, the littlest addition to the loaf family due to arrive at the beginning of February 2016.

It’s also been an amazing year of eating. There were trips to Paris, St. Lucia and Tuscany which, as our holidays always do, revolved almost entirely around food; we’ve celebrated birthdays and anniversaries at some incredible restaurants; and of course we’ve eaten all sorts of deliciousness from the comfort of our own home (see this list of the cookbooks I’ve been loving in 2015). A fair few new favourites have also made their way onto the blog, so as 2015 draws to a close, here are the ten most viewed recipes by you, my readers. I’ve already got a bunch of ideas up my apron sleeve for 2016, but if there’s anything specific you’d like to see in this space, please do let me know in the comments below! Continue reading →

Lately . . .

Homemade milky way

. . . I’ve been working on the first round of edits for my book. Most of my spare baking time has been spent in front of the computer or scribbling myself notes and any time spent in the kitchen (beyond what we eat on a day to day basis) has mostly focused on re-testing any recipes then testing again. It might be a couple of weeks before I post anything new, so in the meantime here are some more iPhone snaps of what I’ve been working on.

There was also a nice little feature on the little loaf from Sorted Food last week. If you’re new to this space it offers a lovely little recap of my last few years blogging. Just don’t look too closely at those early posts please: they’re a little like a disastrous past haircut in terms of cringe factor.

Eton mess

Honeycomb

Banoffee eclairs

Upside down cake

Gooseberries

Three Years Blogging + Cake

chocolate_caramel_cake-053Last week, reading this post, I realised that I’d managed completely miss my blog birthday. Again.

On 23rd February 2011, I published my very first post.  Three years later, although there’s so much more I want to learn about photography and recipe writing (and life), I’m extremely proud of how far I’ve come. Those original photos make me cringe just a little (look them up, you will laugh), my enthusiasm for what is clearly not the lightest of loaves is unbounded, but it’s a record of where I was, a marker for where I am now, and for what, in three years’ time or more, I could be.   Continue reading →

Five New Recipes & An Update

madeleines

Things have been a little hectic round here of late.

There’s the possibility we might be moving house. I’ve been working on a food-related project for a while (details of which I’m hoping to share with you soon). And on top of all that, the dial on our oven is irretrievably broken. That’s not to say I haven’t been baking – if you follow me on Instagram you’ll have seen the usual sort of snaps – but I don’t trust its accuracy enough to write up a blog-worthy recipe this week. 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 →

thelittleloaf 2011: A Year in Review

garlic_baguette

Garlic bread, ready to assemble

As the Christmas festivities draw to an end, the last of the crackers have been pulled, the turkey pie polished off and the bottom of the bowl of Quality Streets begins to appear, food may be the last thing anyone wants to think about. Unless, of course, they are a food blogger.

The internet is currently alight with annual reviews and round ups, top ten recipes, restaurants and trends, and predictions for foodie fads in 2012 and beyond. Rather than eschewing eating in response to the season of overindulgence, bloggers everywhere are wallowing in the delights of what has been, what they are enjoying now and what is yet to come. Continue reading →

Food Bloggers Unplugged: thelittleloaf

freshly_baked_baguettes

Three little loaves – freshly baked bread was an inspiration for this blog

I love the way that landing on someone’s food blog can transport you to a completely different world. Whether it’s the quality of writing, a stunning set of photos, an unusual recipe or a single thought, each blog has its own unique identity, providing you with a fascinating insight – however small – into the author’s life.

Some people plaster personality over their posts in spades, while others prefer to retreat behind their recipes or camera lens, but there’s no getting away from the fascination we have for blogs and their authors. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading posts for Food Bloggers Unplugged, an initiative intended to help us discover a bit more about the people behind the blogs we know and love. And more recently I’ve been nominated by three fellow food bloggers (Laura of How to Cook Good Food, Shu Han of MummyICanCook and Janice from Farmers Girl) to join in the fun.

So here are my answers, a bit of fun in the run up to Christmas. Continue reading →