How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
This is a book about baking, but not a Baking Book. The trouble with much modern cooking is not that the food it produces is not good, but that the mood it induces in the cook is one of skin-of-the-teeth efficiency, all briskness and little pleasure. Sometimes that's the best we can manage, but at other times we don't want to feel stressed and overstretched, but like a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in her languorous wake...' How to be a Domestic Goddess is not about being a goddess, but about feeling like one. What this deliciously reassuring and mouthwatering cookbook demonstrates is that it's not actually hard to bake a tray of muffins, or a sponge layer cake, but that the appreciation and satisfaction they bring are disproportionately high. The 'domestic goddess' has to maintain her (or his) cool when faced with pastry, too, of course - but with Nigella Lawson's guidance even puff pastry can be pain-free. Here at last is the book which understands our anxieties, feeds our fantasies and puts cakes, pies, pastries, pudding, breads and biscuits back into our own kitchen. This is the art of baking and comfort cooking made simple and alluring for the modern cook - with everything from cup cakes to certosino, brownies to bagels, peach cream pie to pizza, game pie to blueberry boy-bait, from rhubarb schnapps to Barbie cake - not to mention children's cooking, festive foods, pickles and preserves.

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Synopsis
Nigella shows that there can be more feelgood mileage from running up a tray of muffins or baking a sponge cake than in almost any other cooking - and that it's not actually hard! A domestic goddess has to maintain her cool when faced with pastry, it's true- but with Nigella's guidance even shortcrust pastry can be pain-free. How to be a Domestic Goddess is the book that understands our anxieties, feeds our fantasies and puts cakes, pies, pastries, preserves, puddings, bread and biscuits back into today's kitchen and our lives. Everything from cup cakes to chocolate cakes, from brownies to bagels, from gooseberry-cream crumble to double apple pie, from pizza to pistachio macaroons, scones and muffins to cheesecakes and steamed syrup sponge, from baklava to a Barbie cake, as well as children's cooking, Christmas baking and other wonderful family festive treats.

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From the Publisher
This gorgeous, deliciously reassuring book is not about being a goddess, but about feeling like one. It taps straight into every woman's cooking fantasy and demonstrates that it's not pie-in-the-sky but a real mouthwatering cake in the oven.

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About the Author
Nigella's bestselling books, How to Eat, How To Be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella Bites (Winner of a WHSmith Award 2002) and Forever Summer, together with her TV programmes, have made her a household name, not only in the UK but all over the world. She now writes occasionally for various publications and newspapers and is a regular contributor to the New York Times. She has two children and lives in London.

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Excerpted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ROSEBUD MADELEINES

It was the curled-in smallness of these tender sponge biscuits, as well as the fact that they’re flavoured with rosewater, that made me name them as I have. I like them with coffee when pudding’s been just a plate of cheese, but eat them with whatever and however you want. The dried rosebuds in the picture are obviously not an obligatory ingredient: for me, it’s just a Citizen Kane kinda thing.

50g unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon for greasing
1 large egg
40g caster sugar
pinch of salt
45g plain flour, preferably Italian 00
1 tablespoon rosewater
icing sugar for dusting
24-bun mini-madeleine tin

Melt all the butter over a low heat, then leave to cool. Beat the egg, caster sugar and salt in a bowl for about 5 minutes, preferably with an electric mixer of some sort, until it’s as thick as mayonnaise. Then sprinkle in the flour; I hold a sieve above the egg and sugar mixture, put the flour in and shake it through. Fold in the flour with a wooden spoon and then set aside a scant tablespoon of the cold, melted butter for greasing the tins and fold in the rest along with the rosewater. Mix well, but not too vigorously. Leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour, then take out and leave at room temperature for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/gas mark 7.
Generously brush the insides of the madeleine tins with the tablespoon of butter (melting more if you feel you need it) before filling them with half the cake mixture (this amount does 2 batches). About 1 teaspoonful in each should do: don’t worry about covering the moulded indentations; in the heat of the oven the mixture will spread before it rises. Bake for 5 minutes, though check after 3. Turn out and let cool on a rack, then arrange on a plate and dust with icing sugar. Repeat with the remaining half of the mixture.
Makes 48.

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Customer reviews

review by: Ania date: 2008-08-01 rating:
More like Domestic Failure...
Nigella Lawson goes out of her way to convince the reader that it is oh-so-easy to bake mouthwatering cakes and achieve a wonderful sense of satisfaction as a homey domestic goddess...unfortunately, after trying 70% of the recipes in her book and following them exactly, the only thing I feel like is a frustrated domestic failure. I don't know why everyone else raves about this book so much, but I suspect it might be just because it looks good on the shelf, and there's no doubt about it, the photos really do look wonderful. But I'm not convinced that all the positive reviewers have tried many of the recipes, and if they have I would love someone to let me know how I could modify them so that I too can feel like a domestic goddess?

I have tried the chocolate cake - made it for a special occasion and it was a disaster, the entire centre sinking from 5cm to a mere 1cm; the sour-cream chocolate cake was actually unpleasant; the almond cake with fruit was burnt to a crisp by the time I took it out the oven 30 minutes later than the cooking time specified; the polenta base for a fruit tart which was supposed to feed 6 came out so small that it barely fed me and my partner and I was left with a tin of cherries that would not fit on the base; the peanut butter biscuits which were said to be heavenly were ordinary and I got bored of having to eat them after 2 days; the banana muffins didn't rise at all; the lemon cake had to sit in the oven 35 minutes extra before it cooked inside while the outside was hard and brittle. All these failures convince me that most of the recipes have not been tested prior to being published. I use the Leith's baking bible regularly and everything always turns out fine, just as it should - nothing burns or needs to be baked for an extra half an hour or sinks after being taken out the oven.

Two stars only because of the lemon and rspberry muffins which were rather nice (although of course also flat and did not rise at all...and yes, I have checked the validity of my baking powder!) Overall, a book with wonderful potential and beautiful photos - if only someone tried the recipes and modified them so that they actually work.

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review by: date: 2007-11-25 rating:
Truly Comforting
This book reintroduced me to the kitchen after long avoiding it (it's amazing how long you can survive on cold spaghetti hoops and sandwiches). I admit I was entranced by the cover picture, and for about two weeks it sat wrapped up on the side with me wondering what on earth posessed me to buy it.
When I did finally pluck up the courage to read it I was so glad I did. It not only serves as the most wonderful food porn, but it's non-patronising and really easy to follow.
Not only do I love lusting over the sound of the confections, I really really enjoy baking them. I've had only one item go awry-the courgette cake-but even as a sunken mess it tasted fantastic.
I think anyone who loves cakes should have this on their shelf.

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review by: date: 2007-08-03 rating:
Wonderful, Simply Wonderful
I've had this book ever since it came out, but the only reason I'm writing this review now is because I feel the need to defend Nigella's recipes. Any person who says her recipes are 'guesstimates' either doesn't own this book or hasn't ever cooked from it.Of the 100+ cookbooks I own, this is the one I've used the most and have yet to come across a recipe that has failed. If you love to bake then you must have this book and if you love to cook, then it is imperative that you own all her books.

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review by: AML date: 2007-06-29 rating:
Enjoyable to read but...
I don't think the quanties in the recipes are right. I have watched Nigella on the T.V. and she rarely measures things out. She cooks like my Mum, by sight. Therefore, like my mum, the quanties in the recipes are 'guesstimates'. I much prefer Mary Berrys books as you know if you follow exactly as she she says you'll get the cake/meal etc she promises.


review by: date: 2007-05-21 rating:
Essential Kitchen Staple
In every kitchen there are essential staples that allow you to create really great food and without which no kitchen would be complete.

This book is one of those staples. Every recipe sounds delicious but unlike some books, this one actually delivers every time.

Because this is the sort of book that you can rely on without fear of disappointment, and because of the quality of writing and the recipes themselves, I highly recommend it and I have bought it as presents for friends who all agree.

I keep coming back to the carrot cake muffins and the chocolate brownies recipes again and again-they're absolutely divine! People say to me they're the best they've ever tasted. Try them for yourself and see.

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Similar categories

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Accessories

Braun MR5550 M HC&BC Multiquick Professional Hand Blender
Kenwood KM001 Chef Stainless Steel with glass liquidiser
Kenwood compact chrome food processor FP116
Russell Hobbs Breadman Rapide
Nigella Lawson Living Kitchen Bread Bin Beech/Cream

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