Nigella's How To Be A Domestic Goddess Recipes

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…

Autumnal Birthday Cake

There is no reason on earth why this, adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, has to be a birthday cake, but since the first two times I made it were for my sister-in-law's and a friend's birthdays…

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…

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

Banana Bread

I haven't done a tremendous amount of fiddling with this, but I did once make it, for friends who are more chocolate-crazed than I am, by replacing 25g / 3 tablespoons of the flour with good cocoa pow…

This is the best banana bread I have made and I’ve made very many. The recipe and cooking instructions are perfect as one has come to expect from Nigella. Wonderful!

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…

Brownies

I don't know why people don't make Birthday Brownies all the time — they're so easy and so wonderful. Brownies are much quicker to make than a cake, and they look so beautiful piled up in a rough-and-…

Butter Cut-Out Cookies

It’s not hard to make biscuits that hold their shape well while cooking; it’s not hard to make biscuits that taste good and have a melting, buttery texture: what’s hard is to find a biscuit that does…

What a find. Taste on a par with the enjoyment the children get from making them. A keeper. Thank you!

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…

Cherry Almond Loaf Cake

I have a nostalgic fondness for this yellow slab punctuated by waxy halves of scarlet cherries — the cake we called station cake at home — but this is best with those dark and glossy natural-coloured…

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

I use a sour cherry preserve (or conserve) for this, but if you're going for jam (which is sweeter), reduce the sugar in the cake a little. And if you have any Kirsch about the place, then add a splas…

Christmas Creme Brulee

I don’t need to tell you how beautiful this is: you can see. It’s extravagant, certainly, but it’s meant to be. And it feels like a treat, breaking through that gilt-tortoiseshell crust to the voluptu…

Christmas Cupcakes

These beauties also make a very good alternative to mince pies. I buy the icing ready made and dyed (which is why it isn’t a very convincing colour for holly, let’s be frank) and use cranberries as th…

Coconut Macaroons

These are a very English kind of macaroon, the sort you always used to see displayed in bakers' shops alongside the madelines (those sponge castles dipped in luminous strawberry jam and dredged in thr…

Courgette and Chick Pea Filo Pie

This is a wonderful pie for those of you who don't feel like making your own pastry: it's made with shop-bought filo, and is easy — and rather calming — to assemble. I learnt to make the Italian Pizza…

Cupcakes

At about the time I started getting into top cupcake mode, ostensibly for children, I noticed that the people who really seemed to get excited by them were the children's parents. Instant Royal Icing…

This recipe really makes the best cupcakes ever. A friend's mum who has been baking for years tried one and asked me for the recipe!

Easter Nests

Yes, these are cute; yes, they are kitsch, but I love them all the same. I used to make them with my children when they were little. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients l…

Easy Almond Cake

You just will not get the marzipan to ooze into the cake batter if it starts off fridge-cold. In dire straits, I have cubed it and given it a quick whirl in the microwave. And if you wanted to replace…

Did exactly what it said on the "tin"...worked a treat with the raspberries, jug of custard was an added treat for my guests! Love it.

Egg and Bacon Pie

This recipe (which started off as Boxing Day Pie) comes from Beryl Scoffield, the mother of one of my oldest friends, and a woman with a reputation for her pies. It’s wonderfully old-fashioned and com…

Fresh Gingerbread With Lemon Icing

I’ve been making this gingerbread since the turn of the century — it was one of my go-to recipes for the countless bake sales at my children’s schools when they were little — and my love for it never…

Galette Des Rois

I should come clean about my interest in the traditions of the Epiphany: it also happens to be my birthday, and I am more than ready to follow French tradition by eating this. The galette itself is si…

Gin and Tonic Jelly

This is so far from being the sort of jelly you'd expect at a children's party as can be imagined! The white currant decoration may be unavailable, but what matters is the drink-made-dessert itself! I…

Gooey Chocolate Stack

This is for those days or evenings when you want to usher a little something out of the kitchen that makes you thrill at the sheer pleasure you've conjured up. It isn't about showing off, it's about i…

Lily's Scones

These are the best scones I’ve ever eaten, which is quite how it should be since they emanate from one of those old-fashioned cooks who starts a batch the minute the door-bell rings at teatime. Yes, I…

I've eaten a lot of scones. I've made scones a handful of times. I am not a good cook. I'm not a terrible cook, but I'm definitely more critic than chef! I made these scones, and followed the recipe to a tee - except I used a round ravioli cutter as i didn't have any other options! These are without a doubt the best scones I have ever eaten - and I never say that about my own food. My friend said the same thing - and he too, has never once said that about anything I have made! HIGHLY recommend this recipe!

London Cheesecake

This is one of the best sort of recipes — a family hand-me-down. My paternal grandmother instructed me in the art of adding the final layer of sour cream, sugar and vanilla towards the end of the cook…

I made this for my family over the Easter break and it was pure heaven! I'd never had a cheesecake this good before, and even better, I'd made it myself!

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…

Molten Chocolate Babycakes

These are the acceptable face of culinary cute: their intensity guarantees the triumph of chic over prettiness. And, what's more, they're easy to make. You can make the mixture up a few hours in advan…

My Mother-In-Law's Madeira Cake

I don't know if I ever ate Madeira cake as a child, but just the sight of this golden-yellow loaf with its long crack down the middle makes me feel satisfactorily nostalgic. This recipe, given to me b…

Best Madeira cake I've ever made, love it...love the crispy top!

Nigellan Flatbread

Look, the name is meant to be a bit of a joke, but what I'm talking about is a pitta-like bread, glazed golden with beaten egg and sprinkled with nigella seeds. This is what I make when I'm in mezze-m…

Norwegian Cinnamon Buns

The Northern Europeans, and especially the Scandinavians, are wonderful bakers and eating these for breakfast or tea on a cold winter's day makes me feel grateful for a climate many moan about. But th…

Nutella Cake

Not only is this one of the easiest cakes to make, it happens — joyously — to be one of the most delicious. My household is totally addicted! Please don't feel obliged to rush out and buy a bottle of…

Om Ali

I first ate this at Ali Baba, an Egyptian restaurant in London that the great Claudia Roden took me to about 30 years ago, and have loved it ever since; it found its way into my second book, and I've…

Passionfruit Curd

As wonderful as this is to eat piled on top of fresh white bread, it is exceptional sandwiching a Victoria sponge, dolloped over muffins and pancakes, or poured into a cooked and cooled pastry case.

Pizza Rustica

Pizza rustica is not a pizza in the way that we've come to understand it, though anyone who's spent time in Italy might well have come across it. The word pizza simply means pie, and this term denotes…

Steak and Kidney Pudding

I often double the quantities for the meat filling, then freeze half, so I'm only a defrost away from another pudding. Traditionally, oysters were added to steak and kidney pud; I thought a little oys…

Steamed Syrup Sponge

I know a steamed pudding sounds stodgy, but I cannot tell you how glorious this is: light beyond words, feathery textured and comfortingly, not cloyingly, sweet. This is predicated on two things. You…

Strawberry Shortcakes

I've long been fascinated by this American confection, which isn't really a scone so much as a tender, buttery sponge with scone-like properties, split and crammed with strawberries. There is nothing,…

Welsh Cakes

I feel that if I’m talking about Welsh Cakes, I should really introduce them first by their proper, Welsh name, Picau ar y maen, which simply means “cakes on the stone”, and the stone being the flat g…

Cheese Blintzes

The cheese blintz is a wonderful thing: a pancake cooked on one side only, filled with a mixture of curd cheese, lemon zest, vanilla and egg yolk, folded into a parcel and then fried in butter before…

Cheese, Onion and Potato Pies

This is the picnic food of fondest imagination, although I’m not much of a picnic-person, so to ensure they get the number of outings they deserve and I need, I’ve always made them for more convention…

Gateau Breton

I came across this Brittany butter cake in the wonderful Anne Willan’s Real Food, and as she says, it’s really a cross between shortbread and pound cake. It’s hard to decide whether it’s cake or pastr…

Double Apple Pie

I don’t want to nominate favourites, but even so, I have to say this is a pie I am ecstatic about – perhaps because it’s so far removed from what I’ve spent my life cooking. The notion of putting Ched…

Danish Pastries

I came across Beatrice Ojakangas’ joyfully easy way of making Danish pastry in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Julia. I’ve adapted it to fit my practice and prejudices, but her idea of mixing everything…