Nutella Brownies....well, almost.

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.

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Grilled Cabbage & Potato Packets

Cabbage seems like a fall vegetable to me. It should be paired with corned beef or boiled with potatoes. It should be blanched, stuffed with rice and ground beef, covered with tomato sauce and steamed in the pressure cooker. That’s fall cooking in my book.

So why—in the middle of the hottest summer in 70 years—am I getting a cabbage at every CSA pick-up? What am I going to do with all that cabbage?

I can tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to boil it or blanch it or steam it. My kitchen—and my hair—won’t tolerate all that heat and moisture. Nope.

You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to grill it.

The first cabbage grilling attempt: cut into quarters, brushed with oil,  sprinkled with salt and pepper and seared on a hot grill. Then roasted with the grill turned down to medium/medium low, lid closed, until tender. It worked well but was bland.

It needed to be jazzed up a bit. Enter the onions and new potatoes and grated pecorino romano cheese. Oh yeah. That’s what it needed.

So, go ahead, CSA. Give me more cabbage. We had this twice in one weekend and we’re ready for more.

Grilled Cabbage & Potato Packets

What you’ll need to make one packet, which is enough for 2 or 3 people as a side dish:

1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

1 small red or yellow onion, thinly sliced

5 or 6 small red potatoes, sliced about 1/8 inch thick

olive oil, about 1 or 2 tablespoons total

salt and pepper

grated cheese, 1 or 2 tablespoons per layer (about 1/4 cup total)

Heat your grill.

Cut off a piece of aluminum foil—about 14-16 inches. If your foil is very thin double it. Line the foil with a piece of parchment of the same size.

You’re going to create a mound in the middle of the parchment by layering the ingredients. This should be maybe 5-6 inches wide by about 8-9 inches long.

Layer in this order (see the pictures above): cabbage, onions, potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and grated cheese. Repeat one or two more times. End with a layer of cabbage.

Wrap the parchment tightly. Wrap the aluminum foil around the parchment packet closing the top and ends tightly.

Reduce the heat of the grill to medium (use your best judgment since some grills are hotter than others). Place the packet on the grill and cook about 30 minutes turning once. You can test the potatoes by carefully (really carefully! ‘cos it’s going to be hot and steamy in there) by removing the packet from the grill and gently opening it to take a peek and test with a fork. Return to the grill if the potatoes are not soft.

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