The Four-Ingredient Solution

When you're pressed for time, nothing's more daunting than a long list of ingredients in a recipe. But what if we told you that you can make easy, yummy desserts with just a handful of ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry or refrigerator?

It's true—and we have the proof right here! It takes only four or five ingredients (tops!) to make all the desserts we're spotlighting this season… and most of those ingredients are items we bet you already have on hand. We were privileged to have the help of baking expert Abigail Johnson Dodge, whose new cookbook, Desserts 4 Today, includes 125 easy-to-make recipes with just four ingredients each.

Baker's Profile

Abby Dodge

Cookbook author and pastry chef Abby Johnson Dodge has quite a culinary résumé. She studied at La Varenne, the famous cooking school in Paris, and later worked under superstar French chefs Michel Guerard and Guy Savoy, specializing in pastry. She's a contributing editor to Fine Cooking magazine and founded the magazine's test kitchen. And she's written about baking and cooking for more than three dozen special-interest publications.

But those credentials tell just one side of the Abby Dodge story. As the video tutorial on her website, abbydodge.com, demonstrates, she's utterly down to earth and approachable, with a playful sense of humor that comes across in her motto: "Baking the world a better place, one recipe at a time."

In the News

Love to Bake? Enter a State Fair Contest!

Is your pantry always stocked with baking ingredients? Do you get inspired to create original recipes? Are you a fan of TV shows about competing chefs and bakers?
If you answered "yes" to those questions, why not test your skills in a state fair baking contest?