How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking - Softcover

Lawson, Nigella

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0676974112 ISBN 13: 9780676974119

Publisher: CHATTO & WINDUS, 2001

Synopsis

Now in paperback: the gorgeous, bestselling modern classic puts baking back on the agenda, and makes it simple and alluring for today’s cook.

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 hard to bake a tray of muffins or a sponge layer cake -- but the rewards they bring are disproportionately high.

Here is the book that feeds our fantasies, understands our anxieties and puts cakes, pies, pastries, preserves, puddings, bread and biscuits right back into our kitchens and our lives. There’s everything from cupcakes to chocolate cakes; from brownies to bagels; from gooseberry-cream crumble to double apple pie; from pizza to pistachio macaroons; scones and muffins; 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 -- all illustrated with ravishing photographs throughout.

About this title

Review:

While the title How to Be a Domestic Goddess may at first make a modern woman bristle, the book itself is just as likely to inspire the woman who brings home the bacon to start baking cakes. And what's wrong with that? "This isn't a dream," writes British cookery deity Nigella Lawson in her preface. "What's more, it isn't even a nightmare." Lawson--the author of How to Eat, food editor of British Vogue, and star of her own TV cooking show, Nigella Bites--has been suspected of upholding the woman-laboring-in-the-kitchen paradigm, but there are lots of hard-working women out there who derive great satisfaction from cooking, even after a long day at the office. For those women, Lawson, who looks more Elizabeth Hurley than Martha Stewart, is the perfect guide to the wondrous world of baking.

"You know, I'm not a cook-to-impress kind of girl," Lawson says midway through the book, but she must admit there are few things more rewarding than putting a warm homemade pie or fragrant cake on the table--especially after preparing a home-cooked meal. How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking makes just such a reward possible, in fact positively enticing, with its delicious selection of easy-to-make cakes, pies, cookies, breads, even jams, presented in Lawson's chatty, pleasantly glib manner. Turns out, you don't have be a Pierre Hermé to make to-die-for chocolate confections; nor do you have to spend hours "faffing around" with hot pans and jars to have jam at teatime. You just need to try baking once, then again, and next thing you know, you'll be turning out cookies and desserts every chance you get. Many of the recipes are hand-me-downs or adaptations from other sources, be it a favorite cookbook or a restaurant in some far-off region, but all are imbued with Lawson's wit and distinctive touch. Profiteroles, My Way are "monumentally impressively better" than the original, thanks to burnt-sugar custard and toffee sauce. Her Coffee and Walnut Splodge Cookies are "American-style cookies; in other words just dropped onto the baking sheet free-form," and so on.

A sophisticated female alter ego of British mop-top Jamie Oliver, and considerably more sly and comedic than most American gourmets, Nigella is sure to convince more than a few up-and-coming hostesses that baking is indeed women's work. --Rebecca Wright

About the Author:

Nigella Lawson is the author of How to Eat, How to Be a Domestic Goddess (for which she won the British Author of the Year Award), Nigella Bites, Forever Summer, and Feast. She has been profiled in the New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, and many other publications. She lives in London with her two children.

About this edition

• Publisher: CHATTO & WINDUS
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0676974112
• ISBN 13: 9780676974119
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384