A Contest! I’m lucky to have met Abby Dodge on Twitter even if so far we are really only ‘virtual’ friends. I hope know that will change but in the meantime, I’ve loved building a relationship with this wonderful, funny and talented woman. Although I had been following Abby on Twitter, I first really communicated with her when it came to my attention that she was the recipe developer behind this beautiful Peppermint Meringue Cake I made last Christmas.
I wanted to tell her how much I loved the cake so sent an email through her website and was surprised and delighted when she wrote back to me with tips and different flavors suggestions for occasions other than Christmas…how nice was that?!
Turns out she is also the whiz behind my all time most favorite cake ever! My daughter won first prize at a Nieman Marcus contest for employees last year with our version of her Espresso Chocolate Cake that we had found in Bon Appetit magazine. We revised it a bit…but it really is my favorite cake of all time. Not kidding!
Abby is an established cookbook author with seven cookbooks to her credit including many authored under the Williams-Sonoma label (this is starting to sound a bit stalkerish cause I just opened my WS version of Desserts (took a wild guess) and sure enough…recipes and text by…well, you know who! As if that isn’t enough, Abbie is a pastry-chef and a Fine Cooking Magazine contributing editor. Whew!
I was so looking forward to the release of her cookbook Desserts 4 Today. The idea is genius; an entire cookbook devoted to desserts you can make with four ingredients. Yes, as in 4…really!
I love making desserts but sometimes I tend toward the more complicated and time consuming (see those two above!) so having a resource for 125 simpler desserts from a cookbook author I already trusted; I could not wait, I just loved the idea. We all lead such busy lives so we need and crave fast and simple solutions; with this book we can combine that with our passion to make it homemade. So many of the recipes use ingredients you have on hand; the beautiful photos give you a clear idea of what they are supposed to look like and I love that Abby also includes some suggestions for alternates (Switch-Ins)…sure helped me when I decided to make her Nutella Fudge Brownies.
I’ve seen several others make this amazing brownie but despite having a Costco sized supply of Nutella (you know what I mean!) I did not have any chopped hazelnuts on hand so it kept getting delayed. Abby herself reminded me of the Switch-Ins and then Tuesday night the perfect opportunity presented itself. It was my daughter’s birthday and we were supposed to go out for dinner. A late afternoon phone call and plans were changed to meet at Lime, a local Mexican food restaurant where she and co-workers and friends would show up too. A quick call to the manager and I was given the OK to bring in a dessert; what could be more appropriate than the Nutella Fudge Brownies with cinnamon…seemed perfect to finish a Mexican meal!
No kidding…from phone call to completion? Twenty minutes and I had 3 dozen of these adorable bites ready to take with me. I sprinkled the tops with a combination of powdered sugar and cinnamon and they were devoured (yes, I made sure to save a couple for that very gracious manager!).
As I’m sure happens with many of your children, birthdays are seldom just one day of celebration here. Wednesday night was a late night for Lauren’s visual team at Nordstrom’s so it was requested that I make another batch for her to take in to work and this time, with a bit more forewarning, I did dress them up a bit with a Mocha Buttercream Frosting. I can’t deny they were, well, amazing, but remember this was part of a birthday celebration. For everyday, in 20 minutes…I’m still good with them minus the frosting!
Now for the Contest!
To top it all off, Abby has graciously offered me TWO BOOKS to give away to my readers; so excited! One copy I would like to offer to everyone that gets my feed via email. I’ve recently changed to a new paid service for my feed and in the event I lost some readers during the transition I am willing to bribe you to come back! I plan to include all of my email readers in upcoming contests so once a registered reader through email, you’ll be included in all of the contests…but of course I would still love your comments. Please? I’m not begging, really…just love to hear from you.
The 2nd book will be for everyone that follows BOTH Abbie and I on Twitter. Abby is @abbydodge and I’m @vinoluci; just let me know in your comment that you are stalking following us!
I’ll collect your entries, use random.org to determine the winners and announce results in one week….next Friday, the 24th. So you have til Thurday, September 23rd at midnight to enter the contest.
US and Canadian Residents Only
Good Luck!
In the meantime I would not leave without giving you the recipe!
Nutella Fudge Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Nutella spread
- 1 large egg
- 5 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup hazelnuts (not having these, I substituted with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon added with the flour)
Preparation
- Heat the oven to 350
- Line 12 -cup mini muffin pans with paper or foil liners
- Put the Nutella and egg in medium bowl and whisk until smooth and well blended. Add the flour (and cinnamon if using) and whisk until blended in.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins (about 3/4 full). If using hazelnuts, sprinkle those on top of brownies.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out with wet, gooey crumbs, approximately 11-12 minutes. I’m in dry Denver, I took mine out at 10 minutes.
- Set on a rack to cool completely.
- Serve as is or frost with Mocha Buttercream Frosting if desired.
Mocha Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
- 1 3/4 to 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1/8 c unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 cup warm milk
- 2 tsp dry espresso or instant coffee
Preparation
- Combine butter, sugar, cocoa and vanilla in a medium bow and mix slowly until everything is moistened.
- Combine milk and dried coffee; add slowly to mixture in bowl.
- Beat at high speed with an electric mixer until uniform and fluffy.
- If necessary, add up to 1/4 cup additional confectioner’s sugar until the mixture is somewhat firm.
- Pipe or spread onto the top of cool cupcakes
Other Bloggers Who Could Not Help Themselves and have made Abby’s Nutella Chocolate Brownies:
- Savory Sweet Life
- A Chica Bakes
- The Sensitive Pantry (sort of – checkout this gluten free revision!)
- Make-Ahead Meals for Busy Moms
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I just re-subscribed to your email and already follow the two of you on twitter :).
Love Nutella! Can’t wait to make these for my family! The mocha buttercream recipe is looking pretty good on a birthday cake for my husband’s 50th in March!
Ooh, love Nutella. What a fabulous looking brownie!
We LOVE desserts…..and Nutella. Always up for a beautiful new recipe book with yummy desserts. :)
I’m in. Of course I already am addicted to your tweets and just added Abby. GREG
Barb-I am in love w/those cupcakes!wow!You did an amazing job!:) Sign me up for the 2nd cookbook (you know I follow you both on twitter:)
xxoo
Consider me entered! I follow both of you on Twitter, and I would love to have a resource like that at my fingertips! Because, yes, the brownies/cupcakes, whatever you’re calling them, look TO-DIE-FOR!
Now following you both on Twitter, and you can expect a post about baking these soon! Yum…
Gorgeous! And following you both now, thanks to Abby’s RT.
Great photo Barb and great giveaway. I guess I am not eligible tho…
Yes you are; at bottom of post – US and Canadian residents!
Found you through a retweet by one of my followers, now I’m following you both! Isn’t Twitter great? :) @FWJoiedevivre
Of COURSE I follow both of you. How could I not? :)
Oh, wow. These look simply amazing. I have an unopened jar of Nutella in my pantry just waiting for this recipe [don't even ask why it's unopened - clearly, I'm crazy.].
I must have the book to make these lovilies. I am so stalking the two of you.
I love her Weekend Baker book! And I just subscribed ;)
OOps, totally forgot to mention that I’m an avid stalker of both you and Abby on twitter. :)
Oh hello lovelies! I MUST MUST MUST MUST make these ASAP. These look so moist that I think I could eat one if I drink enough milk with it! YUMMMMMMY!!!! That is so serendipitous that Abby was the creator of the Peppermint Meringue Cake! You and I have talked about that cake on more than one occasion, so I know how much you love it! I subscribe via email!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I recently met Abby through Twitter too! She’s my baking idol too, and I couldn’t believe I “met” her online! Too cool!
Beautiful!! I’m sure those Nutella brownies were AMAZING with mocha buttercream… You can never go wrong with chocolate, hazelnut, and espresso!
PS – Since I already have a copy of D4T, feel free to take my name out of the giveaway so someone else can enjoy it! :)
Those brownies look great! I am trying Abby’s recipe this afternoon. Btw I just signed up for email updates and have been following u both for quite some time now :)
Have a lovely day and thanks for this opportunity to win Abby’s book!
These brownies look mahvelous!! I especially love the addition of Mocha Buttercream Frosting. Thanks so much for linking to my gluten-free vegan version! BTW – I stalk both of you on Twitter. And, as soon as I’m done commenting I’ll be signing up for your email updates.
Oh these look decadent and sinful. In an irresistably delicious way of course. :)
These are going on my “must make” list!
Just want to bite right into it! Lol.
Barb – Love the post! Love your pictures! And of course Loveeeee Nutella! And love the mocha buttercream combination with the nutella brownies… :)
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