What is your favourite Nigella recipe? And what's your worst?

[TuttiFrutti]

I love her style of writing, but I find the recipes are very hit and miss. Some work brilliantly, but I've also had some spectacular failures. So I'd really like to save myself some time by finding out what has worked for other people, and what hasn't.

OK, I'll go first: I love the curry-in-a-hurry from Nigella Express, the quesadillas from the same book, and from Domestic Goddess the basic victoria sponge and fairy cakes are good, so is the banana bread and dense chocolate loaf cake. I have had failures with the flapjacks, snickerdoodles and macaroons from Domestic Goddess, and the cheese stars from How to Eat. I also find that baking times are often way too short, for cakes and meat dishes.

Anyone else?

OMG the big oniony scone thing? The, umm, onion super pie? Something like that. Make that so often I don't even have to get the book out for it any more. It is awesomely delicious. Light cheesy scone with rich, caramelised red onions on top. And so easy. YUM.

yyy, the pear and chocolate pudding was a disaster here too.

Oooh, we love the onion pie scone thing....haven't made it for a while but I now feel the need to make it soon.

We like the onion scone too, but always do far more onions than she specifies. I do it whenever we have gravy left over from a roast, as it's a bit dry on its own.
Snickdoodles and banana muffins were a disaster for us.
Chocolate orange cake from Goddess is a foolproof standby, I keep pots of Bon Maman and slabs of chocolate in the larder at all times so I can knock one up at a moment's notice.
Ham in coca cola and the peanut butter noodles from Express are also good.
I do her chickenny creamy children thing from Feast quite a lot, with added sweetcorn and I swear by her Party Popcorn from Express, although that's a bit marmite IYKWIM.

Hmm, maybe I'll have to re-try the onion scone thing then.

Oh, meant to say, we do the chicken pot pies from Feast all the time - ds1 says it's his all-time favourite, although we vary the veg in with it.

I made the chocolate fudge cake which was really easy to make and delicious.

This has been a revealing and helpful read! The best recipes have been from Nigella Bites - chocolate cloud cake and ham in cola are the best, but yeah, snickerdoodles are good, too. A friend made the lemon sponge pudding when I last ate there, and it was gooooood
The pineapple upside down cake from Express was a bit crap, though.

Old fashioned chocolate cake from Feast is fab -- the one with sour cream.

Brownies from Dom Goddess also good, and ricciarelli.

Xmas morning muffins were bad here but have heard them much praised on MN.

Carbonara from Feast v nice.

Chocolate cheesecake good.

Onion supper pie slightly meh.

Aromatic beef noodle soup v v nice, not sure which book, I found it on her app, which I like having paid 59p for but would not recommend at full price.

Friend made the lemon meringue cake thing over Christmas. It was nice but tbh I'd rather have lemon meringue pie OR cake, rather than the two combined.

I only have feast, but have never had a failure. Apple and almond cake, brownies, sage and onion roast chicken and of course quadruple choc cake the best. Dh and i didn't like yule log icing, but dc loved it

Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake with Margarita Cream

If you haven't tried it, please do at your earliest convenience. It is literally the best cake in the universe. And you need to buy Cointreau to make it

Second Slubber on the truly awful hideousness that is the Girdlebuster Pie. Looks great in the book, it's fairly faffy to make then - YUCK!

This weekend i've made the Lemon polenta cake and Coffee Toffee Meringues - both frm her kitchen book. Both fab. Big hits here and i'll be making again...

What is it?

Girdlebuster I mean

Did Christmas morning muffins for the first time this Christmas and while they were nice, think I def need to add a few extras to make them nicer.

Girdlebuster pie sounded so so good but was a great disappointment. Far too much biscuit base, half that amount wouldv'e been enough.

Sticky chicken and ribs from "Express" really nice, dead easy and add a bit of vavoom to chicken portions and ribs!

Love love love the banana butterscotch muffins, also from Express

It's a pie that has been invented in the imagination of a 3 year old.

Imagine being pushed into a giant vat of molten golden syrup whilst simultaneously mainlining saccharine.

The most disgustingly overly sweet pile of hideousness I've ever had the misfortune to ingest.

AND it was a complete and utter bitch to get out of the dish.

Yep Slubber sums it up once again.

Thing is - it should be quite yummy in a too sweet kind of way. But just doesn't work.

Girdlebuster is basically biscuit base with a ton of coffee ice cream on top then a gooey boozy sauce. Looked divine in the book, looked a bloomin mess in reality and didn't taste all that

It not only oversteps the line of sweetness, it nakedly cavorts over the line, charging into the distance with a layer of your tooth enamel.

MissHellToe - thanks for that. I love flourless recipes as my mum's gluten free and I have a bottle of cointreau to use up.

I LOVE her choc fruit cake in the Christmas book and make that all year. Also the white choc and cranberry cookies, ham in coke, storecupboard choc cake with marmalade in it, pink grapefruit marmalade, spicey apple chutney...I make loads of her recipes.

I've done the red onion scone thing a lot too, I ADORE it but dh has decided red onions don't agree with him. He is clearly getting old.

The instant chocolate mousse is the best fall back pudding if we've got people coming over. Doesn't take long to make, and works really well if you use white chocolate instead. Oh, and no raw eggs means its a mousse you can feed to pregnant woman (which as all my friends seem to be getting pregnant at the moment, is kind of handy!)

I've also made the clementine cake several times and really liked it, but it is has a touch of bitterness and the dc hate it.

Have also made the chocolate orange storecupboard cake, and agree it is nice and very easy (although again the dc, usually very unfussy when it comes to cakes, turned their noses up at it).

Am intrigued by all the comments about the onion scone thing - will look it up and think about having a go.

slubberdegullion at your further details of the girdlebuster.

I've done the Cambodian Beef Salad from "How too Cook" (I think) low fat and delicious. And "lamb patties in pittas" from Nigella "Summer". Both yummy. No real disasters yet.

Not had any Nigella disasters (although wasn't keen on the mini key lime pies.
I love the moonblush tomatoes, ham in coke, sticky ribs and chicken, the chocolate brownies are the best ever.
I've also made cheese stars lots, chicken pot pies, lemon syrup loaf, Thai curry from Express, rocky road
Yum, feeling hungry now!!

... and thank you MissHellToe for the chocolate lime cake recommendation.