Desserts & Sweets | Nigella's Recipes

Chocolate Pear Pudding

This is a cross between Pears Belle Helene and Eve's Pudding, but the only important thing to remember is that this is easy, quick, very comforting and seems to please absolutely everyone. It's not ha…

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Red Velvet Pancakes

It has been impossible not to notice the growing popularity for that classic of the American South (a region I have a culinary fondness for) the Red Velvet Cake; this is an observation and a personal…

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Roly Poly Pudding

I feel better just contemplating this. You get the comfort of a syrup pudding steamed for many, many hours in 30 minutes. And you do practically nothing to make it: roll out half a packet of good shop…

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Mango Split

A fragrant, juicy mango is a joy in itself, that I don’t dispute. But I have an alternative plan: cut up your lusciously ripe mango, toss it in a syrup flavoured with sharp lime and dark rum, add a sc…

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Butterscotch Fruit Fondue

If ever you've bought fruit in the spirit of hope, only to discover, when you get home, that though it may be brightly hued it is disappointingly dimly flavoured, this is the uplifting solution. Anyth…

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Calvados Syllabub

Syllabub is one of those ethereal, dreamy confections which seem at odds with the description 'pudding'. But this scented, whipped cream, piled up to swell cloudily out of its container, is a perfect…

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Caramel Croissant Pudding

I always think that some of the best recipes come from the thrifty refusal to throw anything away. Certainly, I made this one Monday evening because I had two stale croissants left over from the weeke…

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Caribbean Creams

This is a reworking of my grandmother's Barbados creams: we're going the way of the coconut and the banana. It's scarcely a fancy pudding, but sometimes it can be sweetly comforting to have something…

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Chilled Caramelised Oranges With Greek Yoghurt

There is a hint of the days-gone-by sweet trolley about this: it's not as tricksy to make as the arance alla principessa I remember from my childhood, the pudding I always chose on treaty weekend jaun…

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Chocolate Pudding

We're talking pure, all-encompassing bliss. When you eat this cooled, it is like chocolate satin cream and almost shocking in its pleasurable intensity. But I love it straight out of the pan, too, whe…

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Creme Brulee

The first thing you should know about creme brulee is that it's not hard to make. And few puddings are as voluptuously, seductively easy to eat. I never make mine in little individual ramekins (though…

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Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding

This is just what you want for a Sunday lunch, cosy and comforting and indulgent. You might need a brisk walk afterwards!

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Figs for a Thousand and One Nights

This is so simple — scarcely a recipe really — but so good. Unless you get figs straight from the tree they sometimes need the blistering heat of an oven or grill to bring out all their honeyed sweetn…

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Flourless Chocolate Brownies With Hot Chocolate Sauce

However much people have eaten, there is always, I've noticed, room for a brownie. This is a different kind of a brownie, most definitely for party-pudding, melting, fudgy and damply rich. I compound…

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Forgotten Pudding

There is a wonderful poetry to the name of this pudding which, thankfully, once eaten could never be forgotten. It's an old, old recipe rediscovered — I believe — by the late, great Richard Sax. Think…

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Ginger Passionfruit Trifle — Photo by Lis Parsons

Ginger Passionfruit Plate Trifle

I do adore a trifle, enjoying the quiet ceremony of building the layers in advance quite as much as each luscious spoonful later. A good trifle doesn’t require a great deal of technique, but it does n…

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Glitzy Chocolate Puddings

If you've got an electric whisk — either a hand one or a freestanding mixer — this is very low effort indeed, but it is a real showstopper. There's something quite extraordinary about the greedy silen…

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Jumbleberry Crumble

Since you never know when you might be in urgent need of a crumble, I make up enough topping for at least 4 of these and let it sit safely in the freezer until required. Sprinkle it over your fruit of…

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Love this dessert, I make it throughout winter.

Little Lemon Puddings

These uplifting, citrusy beauties are a quick-time, short-cut version of the traditional English canary pudding: instead of being steamed, these are baked in the oven, and the fact that you use shop-b…

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Lokshen Pudding

Some people might not be convinced by the idea of a pasta pudding: but just remember how fabulously comforting rice pudding is and try not to be alarmed. You must try it. There's no one I've made it f…

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My Grandmother's Ginger Jam Bread and Butter Pudding

This is the wholesome, comforting version of a trad English (white) bread and butter pudding that my maternal grandmother always made. Use apricot jam or regular orange marmalade if ginger's not your…

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No-Fuss Fruit Tart

This is perhaps one of the most useful puddings you can have in your repertoire. Not that it is the job of a pudding to be useful: a pudding exists merely to delight. Still, dinner does need to be mad…

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Nutella Pancakes

Let joy be unconfined. This is one of the most irresistible puddings I think I have ever made, and I did it by no more than some fruitful scimmaging about my cupboards. I long for it almost constantly…

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Orange Scented Brioche Pudding

This is really an old-fashioned bread and butter pudding with a fragrant flourish. You can get ready-sliced long brioche loaves, which makes life simpler, but if you need to get out a bread knife your…

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Turkish Delight Syllabub

This hasn't got the temple-aching sweetness of Turkish Delight, nor its palate-cleaving glutinousness, but rather it is a cloud-light spoon-pudding version which attempts to catch its aromatic essence…

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Blackberry Galette

This is really a free-form pizza-like tart, which I made for the first time while we were doing the photography for How To Be A Domestic Goddess. We happened to have some polenta pastry left over and…

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Mini Pavlovas

These may be mini pavlovas, but there's a big old batch of them, as this recipe comes from a time when my children were little and I would make these for the school summer bake sale. Obviously, you ca…

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Raspberry and Lemongrass Trifle

This is a fruity and fragrant summer trifle.

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Cappuccino Pavlova

I am inordinately proud of this, and am not ashamed to say so. I have long been a pava-holic but this is my first venture into a fruit-free (though far from fruitless) version. The instant espresso po…

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Caramelised Pineapple With Hot Chocolate Sauce

There's no other way to put this: these are fruit kebabs. I know how this sounds, but that's not how they taste. These skewer-threaded chunks of pineapple are sprinkled with sugar and blitzed on the b…

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Chopped Fruit Salad

The pomegranate juice mentioned here is out of a bottle, but if you're using out-of-season strawberries, add a squeeze of real juice to steep the berries and replace the mixed seeds with a gloriously…

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White Chocolate and Passionfruit Mousse

So much in cooking, as in the rest of life I suppose, is about contrast, about balance. Here the acerbic fragrance of the passionfruit undercuts the otherwise over-egged richness of the white chocolat…

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Blackberries in Muscat Jelly

This is unlike anything else: the texture is soft set, so you know it's not a liquid but it doesn't have the heft of a solid. And the acidity of the blackberries within the musky sweetness of the jell…

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Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly — Photo by Petrina Tinslay

Ruby Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly

This is the dessert of dreams: the wine-soused raspberries take on a stained glass, lucent red, their very raspberriness enhanced; the soft, translucently pale coral just-set jelly in which they sit h…

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Eton Mess

This recipe uses bottled fresh pomegranate juice to encourage the strawberries to ooze out their fragrant summery juices. If you're making this with out-of-season strawberries, then you stand a chance…

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Mint Julep Peaches

There's something about mint juleps that I associate with the deep heat of midsummer. I have to say this association is an entirely literary one: I've never sat in the wilting sun drinking a mint jule…

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I have made this more than once and it is summer heaven. Perfect combination of soft flavours and textures finished with the freshness of mint. Go ahead and try, you won't be disappointed.

American Breakfast Pancakes

These are those thick, spongy American pancakes that are often eaten with warm maple syrup and crisp fried bacon. I love them with the syrup alone, but if you do want bacon, I think streaky is best. Y…

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American Pancakes With Wafer Bacon and Maple Syrup

While American pancakes with syrup are undeniably a supermom-with-kids breakfast cliche, they are also undeniably good, and in my book that alone argues forcefully for their inclusion here. They are a…

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Baklava

This is so temple-achingly sweet that one small marked-out diamond, or maybe two, is enough. But even so, I love its perfumed sugariness — as much as I love the tender, rose-shot green of its equally…

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I felt like I was transported somewhere else when I first ate these...

Blood Clots

It's childish, but I think I am inordinately proud of this formulation (I can't call it a recipe): it's simple, therefore totally unstressful for parents, and children absolutely adore it. Yes, I know…

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Crepes

Although thick, fluffy American pancakes seem to predominate in my house, I couldn't let Pancake Day pass without making a batch of these: it would seem a sin against tradition, nature and greed. They…

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Home Made Instant Pancake Mix

I find this a real life-saver. I make a container full of this and then I just have to whisk in egg, milk and melted butter whenever I need a breakfast's worth of pancakes. Serve with the syrup of you…

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Scotch Pancakes

When I was a child, we often had Scotch pancakes (out of a packet) when we got home from school. And the thing — for those of you who don't know — about Scotch pancakes is that they are not eaten like…

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Toblerone Fondue

Buying the fondue set was my first mistake... Please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

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Birthday Custard Sponge

This cake — simple and homespun, and not above using Bird's Custard Powder for its buttercream filling — has been an essential part of birthday celebrations in my house since my children were little.

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Chocolate Lime Cheesecake

My inspiration here was a sweet — those chocolate limes I ate in my childhood. The base is rich and dark and perfectly counters the light, tender cream-cheese custard above it, itself kept all the mor…

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Italian Christmas Pudding Cake

This recipe is my own but at the same time a conflation of a couple of Italian Christmas must-haves: the glorious, fruit-studded panettone and crema di mascarpone, which is best described as tiramisu…

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Lemon Meringue Cake

In all honesty, the origin of this cake is simply that I cannot make a go of a lemon meringue pie. I've tried, and I've tried, and it's not that I've utterly failed, but I haven't completely delighted…

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Marmalade Pudding Cake

Now, this is a beauty. I don't mean flash or fancy — rather the opposite; there is something austerely handsome about its appearance, and yet gorgeously warming about its taste. But then, this laid-ba…

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My whole family really enjoyed this cake. It was delicious and the perfect way to use up my slightly over-cooked marmalade. Great winter comfort food.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

The pumpkin component here may come out of a can, but I don’t see that’s anything to be apologetic about. By all means, make your own purée if you prefer (making absolutely sure it is as drained as dr…

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I made this for a dinner party recently, and it was an absolute hit! When I first read the recipe, I wondered if I should add spices to make it more like a traditional pumpkin pie. I decided to follow Nigella's recipe to the letter, and I am so glad I did! The balance of flavors is perfect. The pumpkin is subtle and shines just enough. It is so much better than a standard pie filling! Definitely adding this to the Thanksgiving table!!

Liquorice Pudding

Liquorice is one of the signature tastes of Italy. As this is an ingredient that divides people viscerally, I've made it just for 2, or possibly 1 very greedy liquorice eater... I use the tiny liquori…

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Pecan-Plus Pie

This is somewhat of an Anglo-American enterprise. I have taken a pecan pie, and added other nuts, simply because for me, the English festive season means bowls of mixed nuts and the memory of my grand…

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Chocolate Salame

I’ve encountered quite a few versions of chocolate salame in Italy — coming to the conclusion that it’s really an Italian version of our chocolate refrigerator cake — and although I am not normally a…

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Girdlebuster Pie

I confess: it was the title that lured me. Tell me you don’t feel the same. I came across this in a recipe by Elinor Klivans, whom I often turn to for chocolatey solace, in her The Essential Chocolate…

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I made this and I busted my girdle.

Cherry Cheesecake

This is not the trad baked cheesecake that requires patience and lots of spare time. No, this is fresh, quick, simple and — best of all — irresistibly scrumptious! Even in the spirit of retro-accuracy…

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Easy and so delicious!! Bravo Nigella.

Meringue Gelato Cake With Chocolate Sauce

I found this recipe for one of the world's easiest but most delicious desserts in a rather fabulous book, by chef and "culinary philosopher" Gioacchino Scognamiglio, called Il Chichibio: ovvero poesia…

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

This is not for the faint-hearted. Unashamed indulgence, wallowingly so, is what this recipe is all about: think Reese's Peanut Butter cup in cheesecake form. For that reason, I don't bake this in a w…

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Instant Chocolate Mousse

When you haven't got time for overnight setting in the fridge or you don't want to use raw eggs, this mousse is perfect. In fact, at all times, constraints or not, it is chocaliciously gorgeous.

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Tiramisini

Some say, challenging more generally accepted ideas about the provenance, that tiramisu was invented in a casa chiusa (a house of ill repute) to give the working girls a pick-me-up, as the name (tira-…

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Chocolate Cheesecake

In the past, I've been apologetic about adulterating your basic cheescake, but I've moved on. This is exceptional: exactly the right balance between satiny sweetness and smooth tang. Regard the glaze…

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Pomegranate Jewel Cake

Many cultures use food that resembles money — lentils for coins, saffron for gold — in celebratory meals, to invoke a wish for prosperity and good fortune ahead, and this fragrant, light, flourless al…

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Anglo-Italian Trifle

I don't think I could write a book that didn't include a recipe for trifle somewhere — and this, I tell you, is the trifle to end all trifles. The shiny black of the berries, the soft whiteness of the…

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Irish Cream Tiramisu

I've long been tinkering about with a bottle of Bailey's, seeing how it could best be called upon in the kitchen, and I think, with this, I've found it. An Italian friend of mine, who makes a killer t…

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Once you try this recipe you’ll never make tiramisu any other way. It is the best ever! People talk about it for years and years. Thank you.

Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

You just cannot beat a pav in my book, and I glory in particular this dark beauty. The crisp and chewy chocolate meringue base, rich in cocoa and beaded nuggets of chopped plain chocolate, provides a…

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Chocolate Pudding for Christmas Pudding Haters

Christmas pudding isn’t for everyone and, even though I have faith in my pudding’s ability to convert, there’s no point nagging or, indeed, fighting against real, die-hard antipathies. Besides, I have…

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Eggnog Cream

The traditional sauce for Christmas pudding is a "hard sauce", that's to say brandy butter but I can't help feeling that this corner-cutting Eggnogg Cream, devised for my Express festivities last year…

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Crepes Suzette

This is probably the queen of retro desserts and deservedly so. My version is a speeded-up and simplified one by virtue of using shop-bought crepes. But there is no need to feel this is a cop-out. For…

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Arabian Pancakes With Orange-Flower Syrup

Don't think breakfast pancakes, but rather a dreamy, light, aromatic and sweet pudding, slicked with orange-flower syrup and nubbled with pistachios, to go after a vaguely Middle-Eastern dinner eaten…

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Spiced Peaches

I've used bottled peaches, I've used canned peaches, and it honestly doesn't matter which, but I'm afraid you have to resist the healthier peaches canned in fruit juice rather than syrup. If you can f…

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Cheesecake Ice Cream

This started off as something of a culinary conceit: I wanted to recreate the flavour of cheesecake in ice-cream form. I don't claim it's an original idea — I'd once eaten cheesecake ice cream in a re…

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae

This is the ultimate ice cream sundae. Obviously, if you're not a peanut-eater, it won't be for you, but for everyone else it is the stuff of dreams. Last time I made this sauce, I nearly had to make…

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Honey Semifreddo

A semifreddo is not quite an ice cream, as the name — semi-cold, in translation — suggests. There's no custard to make, and no churning required as it freezes, which makes life very much easier. What…

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Ice Cream Cake

I don't think a cook's job should be to deceive, but there is something appealing about the fact that this looks and tastes as if it were incredibly hard work and yet involves no more than a bit of st…

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Ice Cream With Cranberry Syrup

Cool, satiny ice cream with a cranberry syrup so jewel-bright and shiny it could be made of molten lip gloss. My great aunt used to make an ice cream studded with raisins and candied peel that she cal…

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No-Churn Bitter Orange Ice Cream

I first made this with Seville oranges, but since these are available only in January here, it would be unhelpfully restricting to suggest no substitutes out of season (though you could always freeze…

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No-Churn Chestnut Ice Cream

In my view, there is no bad way to eat chestnuts, ever: my greatest — and exquisitely extravagant treat — is a marron glacé. Nothing, though, gives me quite the same frisson of intense, sugary delight…

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No-Churn Pina Colada Ice Cream

Flushed with the success of an earlier creation, the no-churn margarita ice cream, I bring you the no-churn piña colada ice cream. Rich coconut, sharp pineapple, smooth cream: we are in business! You…

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No-Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream

It's not hard to think of a pudding that can be made in advance. But mostly the advantage is simply that all the effort is upfront and early. The thing about this recipe is that you do it in advance —…

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I'm not a natural in the kitchen and this was easy to make, tasted indulgent and lovely, and I can't believe I made ice-cream. Thank you Nigella.

Image of Nigella's Salted Caramel Bourbon Ice Cream — Photo by Jonathan Lovekin

No-Churn Salted Caramel Bourbon Ice Cream

If I don’t have a tub of this in my deep-freeze, I just don’t feel right about things. I have made many no-churn ice creams in my time, but this is the one I make (and eat) the most. And it’s so very,…

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Stunning! Can only describe it that way. Easy, tasty and very very moreish.

One-Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream

I'm almost embarrassed at how easy this is but, as you will find out, simple though it is to make, its flavour is deep, complex and utterly compelling. So, here's how it goes: you don't make a custard…

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I have been making this for years and can't recommend it highly enough! Not only easy to make, but guests are always knocked out by it, can't believe that I haven't bought it from a specialist shop and beg for the recipe.

Redcurrant Slush Sorbet — Photo by Petrina Tinslay