Abby Dodge. If you met her you’d swear you know her from somewhere. She’s one of the neighbors you haven’t had a chance to get to talk to yet—the one that smiles a lot. The one that brings the fabulous desserts to all the neighborhood parties and picnics.
Yep. That’s Abby Dodge. She’s fun and creative and can whisk white chocolate laced whipped cream as nonchalantly as if she were stirring milk into her coffee—all the while talking to you about all things dessert.
Abby is all that and more. She’s a well known pastry chef who studied her art in Paris, a food writer and instructor, a cookbook author seven times over. Just as important—she’s witty and friendly and readily shares her knowledge with you. (Met her at the Big Summer Potluck. Lucky me!)
Abby’s latest book is soon to be released—Desserts 4 Today. I know two things about the book—all, ALL, the recipes have only 4 ingredients (cool!) and one of those recipes is Nutella Brownies. That’s the recipe making it’s way around the net wowing the foodies.
So, you know what this post is about. Nutella Brownies…well, almost.
Abby’s brownies contain only 4 ingredients: Nutella, an egg, flour and hazelnuts. The first three of those are not in my sensitive pantry. (Nutella has skim milk so it’s out for me—click here for the company’s statement on gluten if you think you may want to use it.)
So, I played with the recipe a little. This version has a few more than 4 ingredients and probably doesn’t taste exactly like Abby’s original Nutella Brownie creation. Still, they disappeared off the counter in no time flat. That’s a really good sign in my book.
Alice of Savory Sweet Life has posted the original Nutella Brownie recipe and a review of Abby’s book.
Almost Abby Dodge’s Nutella Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place mini cupcake liners into a mini cupcake pan.
Here’s what you’ll need:
A faux egg (1 teaspoon EnerG Egg Replacer whisked into 3 teaspoons warm rice milk) or a real egg*
1/2 cup chocolate nut butter or Nutella*
1/2 teaspoon agave syrup
4 tablespoons gluten-free flour blend
1/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
12 pecan halves
In a small bowl mix together the chocolate nut butter, faux egg and agave until smooth and satiny.
Add the flour and stir to combine. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Scoop a teaspoon of the dough into each cupcake liner. Top each brownie with a pecan half.
Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
*Notes: The italicized ingredient alternatives may not be GF CF EF and/or vegan but you can use them if you do not have diet restrictions that prohibit their use.
Also, there are a lot of recipes for homemade nutella—I ran across one posted on In Jennie’s Kitchen that looks easy and very good. For a nut-free version of that recipe try subbing out Sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds) for the hazelnuts. I haven’t tried this but suspect it will work well.
The chocolate nut butter I used is gluten-free and vegan: Dark Chocolate Dreams.