Trusted British chef recipes, tested at home
Nigella Lawson’s cappuccino pavlova is a coffee meringue, espresso powder whisked into a marshmallowy pavlova base, topped with softly whipped cream and a cappuccino-style dusting of cocoa. It yields 8 to 10 slices, from her book Nigellissima. She’s inordinately proud of this one, and not ashamed to say so. A self-confessed “pava-holic”, she calls it …
Nigella Lawson’s chocolate olive oil mousse is a voluptuously soft, rich dark chocolate mousse made with extra virgin olive oil in place of cream or butter. It’s a five-ingredient, no-cook dessert for 6, from her book At My Table. She first tasted a version at Morito in London, one of her favourite places to eat, …
Nigella Lawson’s Basque burnt cheesecake is a crustless, deliberately scorched cheesecake of cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, eggs and cornflour, soft under its burnt top, with an optional liquorice sauce. It bakes at 200°C in 50 minutes and cuts into 8 to 12 slices. In Cook, Eat, Repeat (2020) she calls it a total joy: …
Jamie Oliver’s fig tart is a no-cook dessert with a blitzed fruit-and-nut base, a vanilla Greek yoghurt filling and fresh figs, finished with honey. It’s a five-ingredient, briefly-frozen tart that serves 8 in 10 minutes plus freezing. In 5 Ingredients Mediterranean (2023) the whole point is a show-stopping dessert with no baking and barely any …
Jamie Oliver’s lemon curd tart is a citrus-swirled puff pastry case filled with a fresh stovetop lemon curd and topped with raspberries. It’s a five-ingredient dessert that serves 6 in 30 minutes. In 5 Ingredients Mediterranean (2023) the clever part is the pastry. You dust ready-rolled puff with icing sugar and lemon zest, roll it …
Jamie Oliver’s banoffee fro-yo tart is a no-bake reimagining of banoffee pie: a date and almond base layered with caramel, lime-tossed banana and vanilla Greek yoghurt, then briefly frozen. It’s gluten-free and serves 10, in 15 minutes. In Simply Jamie (2024) the twist is that nothing is cooked and there’s no pastry. The base is …
Jamie Oliver’s mango crème brûlée is a silky baked custard of double cream, tinned mango purée, egg yolks, sugar and lime, finished with a torched caramel top. It’s a Ravneet Gill recipe from Jamie: Fast & Simple, and it serves 5 to 6. Ravneet Gill, the pastry chef Jamie calls a “queen of puddings”, created …
Jamie Oliver’s chocolate tiramisù swaps the usual sponge fingers for his flourless chocolate cake, soaked in coffee and Cointreau and topped with a ricotta and mascarpone cream. It serves 16 and takes 42 minutes. In Simply Jamie (2024) he calls it an “evolved tribute” to the classic, and the twist is the base. Instead of …
Nigella Lawson’s chocolate raspberry pudding cake sits somewhere between a dense chocolate cake and a warm mousse, with sharp raspberries buried inside like garnets in mud. Dark chocolate, coffee and a splash of Chambord make it rich and grown-up. It serves eight and is best eaten warm, about an hour out of the oven. The …