Recipes

Nigella Lawson

It’s not that I felt my usual Rocky Road Crunch Bars needed any improvement (though fiddling with recipes is one of life’s pleasures) but I thought they would benefit from some seasonal adjustment. So, out go the Rich Tea biscuits and in come amaretti and — in the seasonal spirit — I’ve crammed in some Brazil nuts and glacé cherries (as red as Rudolph’s nose), along with snowy mini marshmallows. The fresh snowfall of icing sugar on top might seem seasonal enough, but not for me. So I add some edible glitter in Disco Hologram White.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

These are delectable little bonbons made by mixing up cooked and cooled Christmas pudding (see Additional Information below), liquor, syrup and melted chocolate, rolling them into small balls, then dripping melted white chocolate on them and arranging small pieces of red and green glacé cherries on top. And, although they look like miniature Christmas puddings, they taste like meltingly rich, spiced chocolate truffles. These babies have got everything going for them. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

I have never quite understood how people can go in for vast, rich breakfasts on Christmas morning. I am hardly a modest eater by anyone

Nigella Lawson

I can’t tell you how long I’ve yearned for a Christmas loaf cake, nor why I’ve come up with one only now. But I won’t waste my time or yours by lamenting the lost years without it; I’d rather concentrate on the happiness that it’s in my life now. I certainly don’t disavow all my traditionally shaped round Christmas cakes but I’ve always felt that a loaf of fruit cake would cut into the perfect slices, especially pleasing when eaten with cheese (Kirkham’s Lancashire or a good Wensleydale for choice) and this is, indeed, the case – emphatically so. Form alone would not be enough, though: flavour is what food is about, and this little beauty certainly rewards on that front; boosted by brandy and warmly infused with ginger, every slice is a seasonal taste sensation. I’m not saying you couldn’t make it with rum or whisky but, on the basis of my testing and retesting, I came to the conclusion that it was only brandy that gave it the flavour I wanted; ginger needs a partner sprightly enough to stand up to it! While the recipe below is for a 2lb/900g loaf tin I’ve also used the mixture to make two little 1lb/450g loaves very successfully. (And do see Additional Notes, below.)  In theory, I see no reason why you couldn’t halve the mixture to make just one 1lb loaf, but even if you want just one little cake yourself, it feels more in the Christmas spirit to give the other one away as a present.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

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 the holly berries. The cake underneath is somewhere between chocolate and gingerbread. If you’re thinking of taking anything to friends’ houses, may I suggest these? And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson

For parties or any type of seasonal entertaining, I like a cocktail that gets poured together in a jug rather than mixed up by the glass. And this is the perfect drink for Christmas: the fizzy white wine (any dry white will do) adds sparkle, while the cherry brandy brings a tongue-in-cheek touch of great-aunt’s tipple and the ginger ale provides the perfect seasonal spiciness. Obviously, you can fiddle with the proportions if you want to make the wine stretch more, but this is my starting point. And I can get all the component parts from my local supermarket.

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

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 voluptuous depths of egg-nog-scented cream beneath. The tip of freezing the bowl before pouring in the smooth cream-custard I culled from Simon Hopkinson, for which and for whom I am always grateful.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Chutney is not the most obviously festive, seasonally indulgent, must-have foodstuff, but it is the cornerstone of my Christmas pantry. I begin to hyperventilate, now as I write, even at the idea of not having a stock of it. Cold cuts and Christmas Day leftovers are impossible to contemplate without chutney (and the Christmas ham first-time-out must have it as well); and since it is easy to prepare a lot at one time, you can get a tidy number of presents seen to out of one under-an-hour stint in the kitchen, too. This unsubtly named Christmas Chutney — in jars decorated as they are here, with squidgy, cut-out snowflake ribbon — is just so full of Christmassiness, crammed as it is with dates, cranberries and clementines, and spiced with cloves and cinnamon. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson

I love these dark, fat patties of chocolate shortbread exuberantly topped with festive sprinkles. There’s something so cheering about the sight of them, but they have more in their favour than looks: they are a doddle to make, and meltingly gorgeous to eat.

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

This is the perfect supper on those days when a knife and fork seem like just too much work. It

Nigella Lawson