She and my aunt make dinner. It is usually a big meal, typically Greek food (that’s the Greek side of my family) and always accompanied by a big salad, freshly baked bread and Greek pies, called pita.

My aunt, who has her own blog called Simplest Most Delicious Food, always makes something delicious for dessert. There has been things like coffee panna cotta, strawberry crumble, lemon tart and creme caramel.

I typically work all day on Saturdays and Sundays, and hardly ever have the time to bake something special to take (because although I’ve always got some underbaked chewy cookies around, not everyone shares my love for them!). But finally, I had a Saturday off recently, and made these blueberry tartlets. I took my time making the pastry, resting it, chilling the pastry cream, and assembling the tarts. It was fun!

It was nice being able to take something for dessert, to say thank you for all those dinners, to share my food with my family too. Because that’s what baking is all about for me – sharing. If there’s no one to eat my baked goods, then what’s the fun is baking?

The tartlets were a hit. The pastry, even though I served them on the second day, stayed crisp, crumbly and short. the pastry cream was sweet and creamy, and a lovely balance to the tart blueberries. It was a nice, fresh, summery end to big, Greek Sunday dinner. You should totally try these.

LITTLE BLUEBERRY TARTS

For the pastry
Adapted from Ellie’s recipe for lemon tart in Masterchef magazine.

1/3 cup icing sugar (55g)
1 cup plain flour (150g)
100g cold unsalted butter, cubed
2 egg yolks

For the pastry cream
Adapted from Flour.

1 1/4 cups milk (300ml)
1/2 cup sugar (100g)
1/4 cup cake flour (30g)
OR 3 tbsp plain flour + 2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

To serve
250g fresh blueberries

To make the dough, process the icing sugar, flour and butter in a food processor or stand mixer until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolks and process until a dough forms. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Meanwhile, make your pastry cream.

To make the pastry cream, pour the milk into a medium saucepan and scald the milk – heat until bubbles appear around the edges, but it is not boiling.

While the milk is heating, mix together the sugar, flour and salt in a small bowl. In a large heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla. Whisk the flour mixture to the egg yolks slowly. It will be thick and pasty.

Once the milk is heated, slowly pour it into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Once it is all incorporated, pour it back into the saucepan and heat over a medium heat. Whisk continuously and vigorously until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil.

Once the mixture is thickened and just beginning to bubble, whisk vigorously for 10 seconds and then turn off the heat, This cooks out the taste of flour.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, putting the plastic right onto the surface of the pastry cream. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or until cold.

Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 160 C and grease a 12-hole muffin tin.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out pastry to a 32cm round. Use a cookie cutter or upside down glass to cut 12 rounds out of the dough. You may need to gather together the excess and re-roll it.

Line your muffin holes with the pastry, pressing it into the corners and edges. Refrigerate, uncovered, for 30 minutes to prevent pastry from shrinking in the oven.

Line your tart shells with baking paper by first scrunching it together and then unfolding it and lining the pastry. Fill with dried beans or rice and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove beans and baking paper and bake tart shells for a further 8-10 minutes, or until golden. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing the tart shells.

To assemble the tart, evenly divide the pastry cream among the tart shells.

Arrange the blueberries on top of the pastry cream and dust with icing sugar to serve. Makes 12 little tarts.

They are not muffins, or naked cupcakes, or cookie cups or super thick cookies.

They are blondies. The Baked Brewer’s Blondies to be exact.

I love blondies. Except for all the edges. I really don’t like how dry and crunchy the edges of a pan of blondies gets. They totally get overcooked while you’re trying to get the centers set.

Its annoying.

So I thought I’d fix the problem by baking little blondies. In cupcake liners. It’s the same blondie mix. They taste the same as big blondies. Except the texture issue is fixed; no overcooked edges. Just a crisp outer shell, and a chewy blondie middle.

And bonus – you don’t have to wait for the slab of blondies in the pan to cool before you cut them. You don’t have to actually cut them at all. Just pick one straight up and eat it!

I’ve been meaning to make this recipe for ages. It has been sitting on my Pinterest Things I want to bake pinboard for forever. And I’ve had the recipe open in a tab in my browser for ages. And a big bag of Maltesers has been taunting me from my cupboard for weeks.

But my local supermarket has moved everything around recently and they don’t sell malt anymore so I had to hunt it down. And these blondies kept being put off. But I’ve finally made them!

MALT BALL BLONDIES
Adapted from Tracy’s Culinary Adventures.

210g unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups plain flour
2 tbsp malted milk powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup malt balls, roughly chopped
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line 2 muffin trays (18 holes) with cupcake liners.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and the vanilla and beat well.

Turn the mixer to a low speed and add the flour, malt, baking powder and salt. Mix until just incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and malt balls and mix until dispersed.

Using a medium ice cream scoop, scoop a rounded scoop of cookie dough into each lined muffin hole.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Makes 18 blondies.

Then I started seeing recipes for semifreddo everywhere, which didn’t require an ice cream maker, or churning, or constantly hand-mixing the ice cream every hour. So I thought I’d try one out.

In Poland, there’s an ice cream shop called Grycan, and they make the most amazing ice cream in every flavour you could possibly imagine. They had a large selection of fruit sorbets too, and each one tasted exactly like its fruit. The pear one tasted like real pear, the apple like real green apple, and the raspberry like real raspberries.

I was inspired, and I wanted to make ice cream that tasted like peaches.

Now, I wanted to use yellow peaches. But my dad accidentally bought all these white peaches, and I didn’t know what to do with them except go right ahead and make the semifreddo.

The peach flavour wasn’t very strong though, and the creaminess of the semifreddo was more pronounced. So if you make this, I suggest you use juicy, ripe, flavourfull yellow peaches. Or you could always substitute with mangoes or similar fruit.

But hey, I made ice cream for the first time, and without an ice cream maker, so I’m happy!

PEACH SEMIFREDDO
Inspired by Coles magazine Summer issue.

8 large, ripe peaches
2 tsp lemon juice
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar
600ml thickened cream

Cut the peaches into quarters, removing the pips. Place them in a food processor or blender, skins on, along with the lemon juice and process until smooth. Refrigerate.

Meanwhile, whip cream to firm peaks. Set aside.

Place eggs, egg yolks and sugar into a large heatproof bowl. Place over a pot of simmering water, not letting the base of the bowl tough the water.

Using electric beaters, beat the egg and sugar mixture for about 5 minutes, or until very pale, thick and increased in volume. Remove the bowl from the pan.

Fold the egg mixture through the cream until evenly combined, then lightly fold through the peach puree.

Pour into a cake pan or loaf tin lined with baking paper. Freeze overnight, or until firm, then enjoy!

Or how about some Nutella?

A chocolate chip cookie, maybe?

Or a brownie?

Tough choice?

How about we mix them all together, bake them in a cupcake liner and then eat them all at once?!

YES!

These brownie cups have a layer of my favourite chocolate chip cookie, the New York Times, right there down the bottom. Then there’s an Oreo, just because we love them. And then on top, is a layer of my new favourite thing, easy Nutella brownies. I am clearly obsessed with them, because I have made 4 or 5 versions!

Chewiness of the cookie, gooeyness of the brownie, crunch of the Oreo, deliciousness of the Nutella, all smooshed into one.

Want to smoosh this in your face? Yeah, me too.

LITTLE OREO, CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE AND NUTELLA BROWNIES
I used New York Times chocolate chip cookies for this recipe, because I had some in the fridge doing its resting time. But you can use any chocolate chip cookie dough you like!

1 cup Nutella (280g, 10 oz)
2 eggs
10 tbsp plain flour
pinch of salt
cookie dough (about 12 tbsp)
12 Oreos

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.

In a small bowl, combine the Nutella, eggs, flour and salt.

Drop tablespoons of cookie dough into each cupcake liner, flatten them and press into the edges. Place an Oreo on the top. Then divide the Nutella brownie mixture evenly between each liner, about 1 tablespoon in each.

Bake for 12 minutes. Makes 12 brownies. Try one warm!

Nutella brownie recipe adapted from Abby Dodge.

Well, not really running out of things to bake. Because there are a million things I could bake.

But all the things I wanted to bake have Biscoff in them. Or Speculoos. Or whatever you want to call it.

Biscoff blondies, Biscoff bars, Biscoff cookies, Biscoff stuffed things, Biscoff pies. I’ve been seeing it all, everywhere.

But I can’t get Biscoff here.

It’s not for sale in Australia, and I can’t order it online or get someone to post it to me because our customs won’t let it through because they’re crazy.

Denying me Biscoff. How dare they.

So out of frustration and desire for Biscoff (which I have never even tasted) I decided to take my two favourite things of the moment and put them together.

Easy Nutella brownies and cookies cookie dough.

The Nutella brownies are ooey and gooey and the easiest thing to make. And putting a ball of cookie dough in the middle was genius. Genius, I tell you.

The baking time wasn’t enough to cook the cookie very much so what was left was a ball of cookie dough in my Nutella brownies.

Oh, yes.

Cookie dough.

Enough said.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE FILLED NUTELLS BROWNIE CUPS
Nutella brownies adapted from Abby Dodge.

I used New York Times chocolate chip cookie dough for this because I had some dough marinating in the fridge. You can do the same, or use your own favourite cookie recipe. Any leftover dough you can just bake into cookies. I’m sure no one will complain!

1 cup Nutella (280g, 10 oz)
2 eggs
10 tbsp plain flour
pinch of salt
cookie dough (12 tbsp)

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.

In a small bowl, combine the Nutella, eggs, flour and salt.

Divide the brownie mixture evenly among the cupcake liners, about 1 tablespoon in each.

Take small tablespoons of cookie dough and roll them into balls. Place them in the middle of each brownie, pressing down so they are submerged.

Bake for 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Last Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend bought me a giant square chocolate chip cookie from Mrs. Fields. With “I Love You” iced right on it. And I ate it. All. In one sitting day.

Yep.

And in the 8 or so months of my little blog’s life, I have baked a heck of a lot of chocolate chip cookies.

That is partly mostly because I like to eat them, but also because I wanted to test out all the different chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, to see which ones I liked, which ones I loved, and which ones I would never make again.

There have been Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies, Baking Illustrated’s Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Wholewheat Chocolate Chip Cookies, Lindor Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oreo Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies and Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and way more, but I don’t want to scare you (or myself!).

There have even been things like Chocolate Chip Cookie Pots and Nutella and Peanut Butter Cookie Cups. And I’m sure there will be many more cookie recipes in the future!

I have blogged about these New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies before. The thing is, that as a food blogger, I feel the need to be constantly trying out new recipes and blogging about new things. But I really like the New York Times cookies. And I wanted to make them again, for Valentine’s Day. So why not blog about them again? Why not share my baked good loves with you?

Because after making these cookies for the first time over 4 years ago, they have remained my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Ever. Even after starting this blog and spending the last 8 months testing out all the cookie recipes I could find, these are still my absolute ultimate recipe.

They are chewy inside, with crisp edges, they make large, thick cookies, an they stay great the next day without going soft. They make a huge batch, and you can keep the dough in the fridge for a few days while the dough marinates and bake from it daily.

See? Perfect. So go and make them. Hear me? Now. For your Valentine. Or just for yourself.

NEW YORK TIMES CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Adapted from the recipe by Jacques Torres in the New York Times.

2 cups minus 2 tbsp cake flour (8 1/2 oz)
OR 1/4 cup cornstarch + 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp plain flour
1 2/3 cup bread flour (8 1/2 oz)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp sea salt (plus extra for sprinkling)
275g unsalted butter, softened (1 1/4 cups, 2 1/2 sticks)
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar (10 oz)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp white sugar (8 oz)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups chocolate chips or chunks of your choice

In a large bowl, sift together the cake flour (or combination of cornstarch and plain flour), bread flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix to combine and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and both sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

Turn the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Now, Jacques Torres says that the cookie dough needs to sit in the fridge for a couple of days to marinate for the best flavour, and he is absolutely right. So put it into a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it down onto the top of the cookie dough and refrigerate for 24 – 72 hours. The flavour develops and they become even more deliciously delicious (if that is possible).

36 hours is the ultimate marinating time, but this recipe makes such a large amount of cookies that I never stick to the rules. I always bake a batch straight away, then another the next day, and a third one the day after that. The flavour of the cookies intensifies and is fantastic.

So whenever you are ready to bake, Take your dough out of the fridge so it can soften a little. Preheat the oven to 175 C and line a few trays with baking paper. Use a cookie scoop to scoop rounds of the dough onto the trays, allowing room for spreading.

Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake for 9-11 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges. Makes about 60 cookies.

And I really, really love custard.

And I really, really LOVE pie.

And all three of them together? Magic.

I’ve recently been playing with putting custard inside my pies (see here and here) and I absolutely fell in love when I first tasted strawberry pie so I decided to combine the two together.

And I’m so glad I did, it’s fantastic! Sweet, tart, fresh, fruity strawberries mixed with smooth, creamy custard are a match made in heaven. Combine that with crumbly, butter pastry and you’ll be on cloud nine.

This recipe makes little galettes. Like individual tarts. So you can eat lots of them. Because you will want to eat lots of them.

And then I drizzled mine with Nutella. Because, you know, why not go all out?

MINI STRAWBERRY AND CUSTARD GALETTES
I used packet custard here because I was feeling lazy and wanted that pie in my mouth ASAP. Feel free to use whatever you like.

For the pastry
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
125g cold unsalted butter, cubed (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp)
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp cold water

For the filling
250g strawberries (1 punnet)
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
pinch of salt
2 cups of custard

To make the dough, put the flour, sugar, butter and salt in a food processor or electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolk and cold water. Continue to mix on low until a dough forms. Gather the dough together and form it into a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. Meanwhile, get your filling ready.

Remove the stems off the strawberries and thinly slice them. In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line 3 trays with baking paper.

Remove the dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll it out until it is a couple of millimeters thick.

Use an upside down saucer or small bowl as a guide and run a knife around them to cut circles out of the dough. Place the rounds on the baking trays and re-roll the pastry and cut more circles. You should end up with about 10 rounds of dough.

Spread about 2 tablespoons of custard around the center of each pastry round, leaving a 2cm (1 inch) border. Spoon 1 – 1 1/2 tbsp of the strawberries (not the juice) on top of the custard. Fold in the edges of the pastry.

Place on lined trays and bake for 30 minutes, until golden. Makes 10 little galettes.

The Nutella brownies have 3 ingredients. Literally. Nutella, eggs and flour. And some salt, for flavour, but is that really considered an ingredient? Oh, and some chocolate chips thrown on top if you’re feeling a little crazy.

So basically, they are the easiest thing to make in the world. 2 minutes of mixing with a bowl and a spoon, then 12 minutes of baking and you have almost-instant gratification in your mouth.

I’ve been know to quickly whip these up while watching episodes of Pan Am (I totally LOVE that show!). Just as a quick TV snack, to satisfy all those chocolate-baked-good cravings that run through my head. They are THAT easy to make.

Anyway, so the super easy Nutella brownies taste totally like Nutella with a gooey brownie texture and are just the best thing ever and I can’t get over them.

So I put Oreos in the middle.

Yep. Oreos. And Nutella. And brownie.

Want some?

Go make it. It’ll only take you 15 minutes.

OREO AND NUTELLA BROWNIE BITES
Inspired by Abby Dodge’s 4-ingredient Nutella brownies.

1 cup Nutella (280g, 10 oz)
2 eggs
10 tbsp plain flour
pinch of salt
12 Oreos

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a 12-hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, mix together the Nutella, eggs, flour and salt.

Scoop a small tablespoon of the Nutella mixture into each cupcake liner. Top with an Oreo. Divide the remaining Nutella mixture among the 12 liners.

Bake for 12 minutes. Then eat!

I thought these were going to be gross.

I was inspired by a brown sugar blueberry cookie recipe on How Sweet It Is. But I didn’t want my cookies to have cinnamon in them or for them to taste like muffins; I was just intrigued with the idea of putting fruit, blueberries specifically, into cookies.

And like I said, I thought they weren’t going to be very good, so I only made a small batch. But I suggest you make a whole, big batch, because these cookies were absolutely amazing.

I have a deep love for all things chocolate chip cookies, and if you check out my recipe index you’ll see I make them all the time, but these were a nice refreshing change. Literally.

The blueberries made the cookies refreshing. What is usually thick, chewy and sweet (and in my case, commonly underbaked) cookie dough was lightened up and refreshed with the bursts of tart, fruity blueberries.

We loved them over at my house. I’ll definitely be baking these again.

BLUEBERRY COOKIES
Cookie dough recipe adapted from Meg Cabot’s Boy Meets Girl.

220g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups + 3 tbsp plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line 3 trays with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until well blended.

In a separate bowl, combine the plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Pour half the flour mixture into the butter mixture and beat on a low speed until just combined.

Mix in the remaining flour mixture and blueberries by hand, being careful not to overmix.

Using a medium cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop scoops of dough onto lined baking trays.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Makes 32 cookies.

Summer break has ended, there is no more time for the beach and all the kids are back at school, with their silly uniforms and backpacks.

For me, that means the beginning of culinary school and a patisserie course!

Starting this course, I feel like I am going back to high school. After one year off travelling and three years of college, it is a rude shock. I was self-sufficient in college. I never went to lectures. I went to 4 one-hour tutorials a week and did whatever I wanted the rest of the time. All I needed to buy was notebooks and a pen, and some textbooks. I was in control of my studies, and all I needed to do was my assignments; writing essays basically.

This course is a whole different ballgame. I had to buy a uniform all over again (chef’s whites this time, but still). I had to buy a toolkit full of baking goodies (that part I was super excited about) and there are lots of rules again, like when I was in high school. Rules about what I can wear, how I wear my uniform, representing the school and my behaviour in my chef’s whites, my jewellery, how I do my hair… Like I said, I feel like I’m in high school all over again. And the hours! 3 full days per week.

The difference? This time, I’m looking forward to going, and to learning, because I love to bake, I love being in the kitchen.

As I started culinary school, my brother started high school. Unlike in America and Europe, there are only two stages of school here; 7 years of primary school and 6 years of high school. So this is a big step. I went with him to buy his uniform, I laughed a little on the first day as he tried to put his huge school backpack full of books on his back, I listened as he acted all cool afterwards, telling me all about his first day and his new friends.

What does all these have to do with brownies? Well, my brother fell in love with these Easy Nutella Brownie Cups and asks me to make them ALL the time. And Maltesers are his favourite movie-watching snack, so I combined the two and made him little Malt Ball Nutella Brownies.

Because he was starting high school, and all that. And because sometimes I need to be a nice sister, and all that.

LITTLE MALT BALL NUTELLA BROWNIES
Brownies adapted from Abby Dodge.

1 cup Nutella (280g, 10 oz)
2 eggs
10 tbsp plain flour
pinch of salt
60 malt balls

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.

In a small bowl, combine the Nutella, eggs, flour and salt.

Divide the brownie mixture evenly between the cupcake liners, about 1 tablespoon in each.

Press 4 malt balls deep into each brownie, and place 1 on top.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Makes 12 brownies.