thelittleloaf is moving . . . please join me!

Hello lovely readers. This is your 24 hour notice that thelittleloaf will be moving to a brand-spanking new home as of tomorrow, Thursday 16th January. From then on you will find me (and all my recipes) at http://www.thelittleloaf.com.

My old blog should automatically redirect to the new site, but just a couple of things to note:

• If you’re signed up by email, you’re coming with me (hooray)
• If you follow thelittleloaf using WordPress or RSS feed, you’ll need to sign up again on the new site tomorrow (sorry)
• And if you know anyone who would like to read thelittleloaf, but doesn’t yet, I’d love you to let them know

As with any new site, there may be a few tweaks to make over the coming weeks, so please bear with me and let me know if you spot anything odd. Hopefully you’ll love the new site as much as I do and I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Oh, and there will be a recipe for churros and chocolate (pictured above). If that won’t tempt you over, I don’t know what will.

Pomegranate Molasses + Breakfast Two Ways

Happy New Year! Six days into January is perhaps a little late off the mark to be saying it, but this is my first post of 2014 and I’m excited to be back, so here’s to spreading well wishes all round.

Best of 2013 | thelittleloaf

This afternoon we fly to Barcelona after a whirlwind week seeing loved ones in both London and Yorkshire. 2013 has been busy and exciting and unforgettable in so many ways, it feels a little greedy to say my plans for 2014 are even bigger. But what can I say? This little loaf has a big appetite.

Until those plans unfold, let’s look back on my top ten posts and a year full of love, laughter, family, friends and food. Here’s to big dreams, full hearts, happy stomachs and empty plates. 

Frangipane Mince Pies (+ Mincemeat-Free Alternative)

The first time I saw a frangipane mince pie, I fell a little bit in love.

To put this in context, I’m not much of a mince pie eater. If you read this blog regularly you’ll know that I’d take chocolate, caramel or creamy desserts over boozy dried fruit any day of the week: an indifference to festive desserts that extends to both Christmas pudding and cake. If a mince pie is all that’s on offer, I’ll probably end up eating it (top removed, filled with copious amounts of brandy butter then replaced) and I do enjoy the ritual of baking them at this time of year, but getting excited about a recipe? It doesn’t tend to happen.

‘After Eight’ Ice Cream Bowl

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Our flat is filled with sparkling lights, rolls of wrapping paper, the smell of pine and the sound of Mariah Carey (don’t judge me, you know you’ll dance around your tree to this at least once before the year is out). I’m the proud owner of a brand new gingerbread man jumper (eat them, wear them, I’ll take any form of extra baked goods in my life). And everywhere I look (granted I’m looking at food blogs, food websites and cookery programmes on TV), it’s all about festive food.

Festive Fig Rolls with Orange, Honey & Cinnamon

They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. If my husband happened to be said man, you could pretty much guarantee his affection for life with a humble packet of fig rolls.

When he was little, Carnivorous Husband’s mum would always buy two packets of fig rolls at the supermarket: one to keep in the cupboard and one for my hungry husband-to-be to consume in one sitting. A couple of hundred miles away, at a similar age and unaware at this point that he even existed, I took a similar approach to a freshly baked loaf of bread. Some treats, it seems, are made to be savoured, others to be eaten in enormous quantities.

Crunchy Maple Walnut Butter Cups

As a child, there’s something slightly exciting about spending a day off school sick. Not, of course, if you’re seriously unwell, entirely bed-bound and unable to eat. I’m talking about those days when you’re possibly still contagious but ultimately on the mend, able to appreciate eating on the sofa, watching too much TV and your Mum (or another adult) making a great big fuss of you.

Chocolate Chestnut Meringue Nests

A few weeks ago someone from Kenwood got in touch to see if I’d be interested in working with them on their latest campaign. The idea was to take a favourite, or secret, family recipe, update and make it my own then write up the recipe and take some pretty pictures for them to share in print and online.

Baked Blackberry, Blueberry & Coconut Crunch Oatmeal

Reading this blog, you’d be forgiven for thinking my husband and I live on sweet treats alone. The occasional loaf of bread maybe, but mostly cookies, cakes, brownies, pies and pastry. Looking at the recipes I post, people have been known to ask why neither of us is the size of a house with all this available on a daily basis. The answer, I’m afraid, is that it isn’t.

I bake for special occasions, birthdays and celebrations. The food we eat on the weekend, on holiday and when friends come over is indulgent – these are the recipes I post and which, of course, we eat every last bit of – but during the working week it’s mostly about health in the little loaf household. Green smoothies, eggs and oats are on regular breakfast rotation, I make up fresh batches of salads for our packed lunch each day and our evening meal is always made from scratch with a good balance of protein, vegetables and grains.

Gingerbread Marshmallows

Until pretty recently, I thought my marshmallow eating days were long gone.

As a child, I thought they were awesome. Soft on the outside with a sweet, slightly chewy middle, marshmallows came big or small, pink or white (purely aesthetic with no nod to flavour as far as I can recall). My friends and I would buy penny twists with our pocket money, melt larger ones down to make the gooiest rice krispie treats or thread them on sticks before scorching over an open fire.