Valentine's Desserts

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

To make this hot chocolate you will need to have prepared my Salted Caramel Sauce.

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Bacon Brownies

I don’t deny bacon in brownies sounds weird, but it does really work in a quite straightforward way. Even people who shrink from the very idea find the actual outcome all-too-compelling. I like to use…

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Vanilla Shortbread

Even if you have never baked anything in your life, you will be able to make these with untroubled ease. And I hate to say this — as someone with a once-serious Bahlsen habit — but they are so much be…

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Baci Di Ricotta

I don't deny that having to stand stoveside frying 30 teaspoons of ricotta at the end of dinner is a slight drawback, but these are so good, I really do think it's worth it. Besides, there's no gettin…

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Peach Melba

This is it — summer on a plate. Most days I take the view that cooking fruit rather loses the point of its delectable freshness, but this somehow intensifies it. Besides, most peaches are disappointin…

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Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

I am willing to believe that a confectioner wouldn't call this proper fudge, but it tastes divine, and you won't need a sugar thermometer or have to test for frightening soft or hard ball stages. I li…

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Along with chocolate, there is much comfort to be gleaned from reading cookbooks. This recipe combines two loves by being chocolatey to the point of madness and having revealed itself to me after a co…

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These are the best cookies I've ever eaten. It's impossible to only cook half the batch. In fact they're so good I just double up all the ingredients and freeze 12 and cook 12!

Love Buns

In another time I'd have been satisfied with calling these Valentine's Day Cupcakes but, as the saying goes, if you're going to get wet, you may as well go swimming. And please read the Additional Inf…

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Ricotta Hotcakes

These are breakfast pancakes summer-style, ridiculously light, and lemony somehow even without the addition of lemon. If you imagine the flavour of cheesecake combined with a texture that's best descr…

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These have become a firm family favourite! When I'm stuck for an after school meal idea I turn to these hot cakes. Not only does my 4 year old love these with cheese/ham/fruit/honey, he'll also gladly help with the measuring and whisking. Fab!

Doughnut French Toast

My weaknesses are mainly savoury — think salt and vinegar crisps or cheese and biscuits — but there are times when only a doughnut will do. This craving can get desperate late at night when the shops…

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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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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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Red Velvet Cupcakes

Even though I do give instructions below as to how to make these into one big Red Velvet Cake, I like them so much more as cupcakes. Yes, they do use food colouring — and I advise the paste rather tha…

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Made this twice and believe me, this recipe makes the best red velvet cake/cupcakes ever. The cake was super moist, fluffy and sweetness was at perfection. Red velvet cake can not get any better than this. Thanks for sharing this recipe, Nigella. We loved it.

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…

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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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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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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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No-Churn Margarita Ice Cream

This is a cinch to make, and easy-easy-easy to eat. If you want to serve it in glasses with rims dipped in sugar and salt, by all means do. But it is so good that, even as someone who is not a committ…

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I love this recipe! I've made it a few times and every person who tries it adores this ice cream! So easy to make and eat ... One of my favourite treats!

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.

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.

Vin Santo Ice Cream With Cantuccini

One of the loveliest puddings, if it quite counts as that, to order in restaurants in Tuscany, is a glass of vin santo, that resinous, intense, amber-coloured holy wine, with a few almond-studded bisc…

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