Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions.  We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

Please note, we are only able to answer questions selected for publication and aren't able to enter into personal correspondence.

• Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Kitchen

  Hello I usually no trouble with any of Nigella's recipes but this one is proving very difficult to get right! I've followed it exactly, even using expensive chocolate chips instead of chopped up chocolate. I've made them a few times but the chocolate always melts completely and the texture of the cookies is then ruined! Plus they spread out a lot and end up kind of puffy instead of crisp or crumbly. They don't look anything like the ones in the book! What could I be doing wrong? My electric oven is quite old, although it's never really a problem when I bake other cookies or cakes. I'd really love to get this recipe right as choc chip cookies are my favourite cookie to eat. Would swapping the kind of sugars used in the recipe do any good? Please any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. x

  Posted by Ms.Cooksalot. Answered on 7th Feb 2011 at 12.00

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• Grating Lemon Zest

  Hi Nigella, I am a young aspiring chef and I need a bit of advice with grating lemon zest. Every time I grate the zest it turns into a sort of mush on my grater and none ever comes through the holes. Is it my grater or my technique. Thanks

  Posted by BoyWonder121. Answered on 7th Feb 2011 at 12.00

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• Polenta substitute for cake

  At Christmas time, Nigella's programme showed a delicious lemon drizzle cake made with Polenta. I followed the recipe and the cake turned out well, however, I hated the "gritty" feel of the polenta. Could you suggest a substitute - would ground almonds do instead? I hope you can help because the consistency of the cake was delicious and I'd like to try it again. Regards Lynne B

  Posted by jolliemum. Answered on 6th Feb 2011 at 12.00

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