When I first made chocolate mousse, when I was about 10 years old, my sister, a devoted chocolate lover steadfastly refused to eat it as it contained raw egg. She has a “thing” about eggs (the worst thing for her is finding stray pieces of egg shell in her food). Come to think of it my mother also loathed eggs while pregnant with her so you’d suppose this has been passed on to her. This recipe is ideal for her and anyone who dislikes the idea of eating raw egg. It’s also ideal for those short on time, who don’t have hours to wait for a mousse to set.

It is ludicrously easy and sets straight away. The only thing that you might find is that it takes a while to melt the marshmallows (and don’t forget the water like I almost did, it will burn if the marshmallows are sitting at the bottom of the pot) and I wanted to set aside some time for the chocolate mixture to cool so that my thick whipped cream didn’t collapse. I set the pot of melted chocolate in a cold water bath and within 5-10 minutes while I was whipping the cream it had started to set and cooled well enough to fold in the cream. I used milk chocolate as I had used up all my dark chocolate on other things and didn’t have the time to buy some. The most fun part about this apart from eating it is dolloping it in the glass, it has the perfect dolloping texture and holds its dolloped shape. And whatever you do, don’t refrigerate it like I did, it becomes a bit too hard and loses it light mousiness. Keep it at room temperature and it will be lovely, soft and light.

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I was in two minds as to whether to put this recipe up. Mainly because I didn’t really like this sauce much and the sauce is really the main bother with this. I actually preferred my humungous Australian King Prawns plain or with the mayo by itself or even with the bought Thousand Island that it resembled in look, if not entirely by taste.

For me, the harissa was just too strong, bitter and spicey. I dutifully bought a good Mayonnaise as Nigella suggested (not Organic but an expensive Swiss style mayo); gorgeously fresh and sweet and perfectly textured prawns (most measuring between 17-20 cms long prawns on steroids the polar opposite of the small shrimp that Nigella had); authentic Moroccan Harissa which was finally found in a Kirribilli deli; fresh lime and honey. What I failed to do was read her blurb before the recipe which says to work up to the amount of harissa below which was the fatal mistake. If I had listened to her and worked my way up to the quantity, it would have been much nicer. Tread lightly with the Harissa if you have an authentic, hot one.

If you do want to make this I’d suggest making much less sauce. With 500g of the large prawns, I halved the sauce quantity and even then we hardly made a dent into the sauce. And go for Tiger rather than King Prawns if this is for more than 1 person. 500grams of Gigantic King Prawns will only get you between 8-10 prawns.

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Ahhh Winter, I have fully surrendered to you by now with this recipe. This is an unashamed Winter Warmer recipe designed to make you less resentful of the cold weather by helping you embrace it.

It’s a sweet caramelly version of a bread and butter pudding, the milky caramel soaking into the croissants on the bottom side leaving the topping lovely and crunchy with sugar. Nigella suggests that this feeds 2 greedy people. I’d say that for dessert this would feed 4 greedy people but perhaps she means as a main. If anyone would suggest eating this as a main, it’s Nigella. Which is why of course we love her.

Caramel Croissant Pudding

Serves 2 greedy people

• 2 stale croissants (I used 3 fresh croissants)
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 x 15ml tbsp water
• 125ml double cream
• 125ml full-fat milk
• 2 x 15ml tbsp bourbon (I used scotch)
• 2 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

2. Tear the croissants into pieces and put in a small gratin dish; I use a cast iron oval one with a capacity of about 500ml.

3. Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan, and swirl around to help dissolve the sugar before putting the saucepan on the hob over a medium to high heat.

4. Caramelize the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away, without stirring, until it all turns a deep amber colour; this will take 3 to 5 minutes. Keep looking but don’t be too timid.

5 Turn the heat down to low and add the cream – ignoring all spluttering – and, whisking away, the milk and bourbon. Any solid toffee that forms in the pan will dissolve easily if you keep whisking over a low heat (there was a large lump of toffee which took about 5-8 minutes to whisk and dissolve away). Take off the heat and, still whisking, add the beaten eggs. Pour the caramel bourbon custard over the croissants and leave to steep for 10 minutes if the croissants are very stale (as my croissants were fresh, I skipped the steeping).

6 Place in the oven for 20 minutes and prepare to swoon.

Recipes by Nigella Lawson from Nigella Express