Chez Dre, South Melbourne

Chocolate tart: chocolate ganache, peanut-cocoa nib tuile, 
chocolate mousse. Make sure you do not leave here without 
one of these babies!

I first came to this hidden gem while browsing for a new cafe for delicious cake and coffee.  After reading some online reviews I was hooked.  It is conveniently located near the South Melbourne Market and easily accessible by trams.  I love the decor, sort of revamp of an old industrial building with an open kitchen located in the heart of the restaurant.  There is a small outdoor area which is heated in the cold Melbourne winter - bonus!

One you passed through by the busy diners and hectic kitchen you will arrive at the cake display - oh wow what a selection!  There is a vast range of delightful cakes, petite macaroons and to die-for croissants available.  The first time I came here we shared cakes and quiche and later returned for brunch the second time.  To be honest that the cakes and the quiche were FANTASTIC, BUT...I was disappointed with the brunch food and their specialty hot chocolate (Ganache Chocolate is still the best in my personal opinion).  I suppose I was expecting more from their food with such good cakes available, this is why it is always dangerous to have high expectations...  If you're a fussy brunch eater like me this probably isn't the place for you.  However, I will definitely return for more cake and coffee once in a blue moon. The cakes are delicious but expensive, $8.50 per cake according to their menu online which I believe is an older version and think it was $9.00 when I went last week.  I will just have to add this place to the collection of my "treat list" for special occasions, since it is always so hard to resist delicious Gateaux!

Hazelnut-Praline Crunch: hazelnut dacquoise, gianduja mousse, hazelnut and chocolate crumble.  10/10 for desert.  Crunchy base, smooth creamy 
mouse and was definitely nutty from the hazelnut.
 YUMMY!

Quiche of the day: ham and cheese with salad. 

The pastry was so amazing my mouth waters just 

thinking about it.

Braised Mushroom Ragu: Swiss field and button mushrooms, soft polenta, poached egg & truffle oil.
This dish was delicious but lacked seasoning. I wish there was slightly more acidity to balance out the dish.  Towards the end of the meal it I found it was too rich to finish.

Brioche French Toast: caramelized pecan, vanilla mascarpone & berry compote.  The brioche was excellent and pecan nut were very delicious.  Individually they are fantastic but when you combined them it was sugar overload.  Maybe slightly more salt in the brioche, more acidic berry or more sauce could have helped.

OVERALL

FOOD: Coffee and cakes are delicious, not so convinced by their breakfast menu items.

PRICE: Cakes are expensive and brunch food price is on the high end or pricey.

SERVICE: Services have always been good with tentative and friendly staff members.
ATMOSPHERE: This is definitely a hip brunch place and it is also family friendly and a great place to catch up with friends on a lazy Sunday morning.

Summary:  Coffee and cake is all I need to say!

Chocolate Boutique - Parnell

The delicious Italian Denso!
Served with whipped cream 

Chocolate Boutique is a well hidden treasure on 1/323 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland and specialises in...CHOCOLATE!  From hand-made chocolate to chocolate drinks and desserts, ice cream and lollies, you won't be disappointed here.  I thoroughly enjoy having my 'guilty pleasures' here after a meal in Parnell with their traditional Italian Denso - which is basically a thick melted dark chocolate drink with cream, oh it's heavenly!  The smooth warm rich dark chocolate contrasting the cool light whipped cream, it is so good that words cannot describe how good it is.  For the adventurous type, they do the chocolate drink with chilli and it's really lovely to have in the winter times.  If dark chocolate or chilli isn't your thing, worry not, they have a wide range of other chocolate drinks available as well as sundaes for a hot summer day, so why not try them all, no all at once of course ;)

The shop is surprisingly small and the layout just doesn't make sense resulting in big queues and chaos in the shop, reasons why I dislike sitting inside - unfortunately outdoor area isn't as pleasant on a cold and/or raining day.  NOTE, do not go have a hot chocolate first thing in the morning, had a couple of very bad experiences as they weren't prepared, instead of refusing the order they ended up making very bad chocolate Italian denso...other than that, every other times when I had their chocolate, it has been delicious and I ensure you the chocolate is worth every minute of your waiting time!

From the left: Hazelnut Chocolate; Lemoncello Cup; Bailey Cone

I have never left this shop empty handed, taking home with me a couple of my little bro's favourite chocolates; hazelnut chocolate, lemoncello cup and bailey cone.  There is a huge variety of hand-made chocolates on offer and you need to be lucky to get this delightful lemoncello cup, as it is an all time favourite and their supply is limited! These little chocolate treats are really great gifts for special occasions and especially with Christmas coming soon!

For a lazy afternoon indulgence, there is no option other then their cake, LOVE their chocolate mud cake, moist and dense on the inside with not overly sweetened chocolate icing served with fresh whipped cream - it is heavenly!    Be sure to try out their Tiramisu as well, equally delicious.  Coffee with a piece of chocolate cake, what else would you need on a sunny lazy afternoon?

So if you're in Parnell next time, be sure to check out this little chocolate shop and I'm all your guilty pleasures will be satisfied and be left wanting for more! :D

OVERALL

FOOD: Good

PRICE: Moderate

SERVICE: Good and can be improved

ATMOSPHERE: Cosy with limited seating

Summary: A great place to fulfill you guilty pleasures, but do take-out unless you're lucky enough to find seats.

Delicious Tiramisu with fresh cream

Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies

Freshly baked Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies - YUM!

I have been baking a lot lately in an attempt to help fundraise for my little brother's Ice Speed Skating Club: Hauraki Racing Club at Paradice Ice,  Avondale.  The cookies have been an absolute hit and raised lots of money for the club.  So I thought I would take this opportunity to share this mouth-watering Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies recipe with you.

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies?  I didn't grew up with chocolate chip cookies, I know how shocking!  In Taiwan, we have many delicious cookies that are mainly short-bread based and coated with sugar or chocolates, and many varieties of wafers.  Growing up in Taiwan also meant eating many traditional snacks that seems to be a lost art these days, so I didn't really needed a fix from the Western cookies at the time.  It wasn't until the mid 90s, when my family immigrated to New Zealand that I was slowly introduced and later hooked on by these delicious chocolate chippy cookies.  First introduction was your normal supermarket brand cookies that you'll have during morning teas, or at camps.  Later in primary, we had "technology" days were we went out to Orewa North Primary School and learnt different skills such as woodworking, sewing and of course cooking.  I will always my first encounter with the Vanilla Chocolate Cookies, I still have the recipe!  Over the years, as I was busy concentrating on important things rather than "how to make myself a good house wife or baker", I began to buy the Double or Triple Chocolate Cookie Times!  During my varsity years it was the chocolate cookies from Subway just down the road.  However, none of which is or will ever be as good as the ones bake at home.

It has been a year since the life-changing earthquake first struck on our beloved garden city, Christchurch in the south Island, and it will be a year since I first tasted these "Soft-Centre Chunky Chocolate Cookies" made by Nishani Dayaratne.  Many of us put our science into good use and created delightful baked goodies to fundraise for the people in Christchurch, this was when Nishani made her cookies.  Come to think of it, she hasn't made the cookies since, where I have for multiple occasions - what can I say?  I HEART COOKIES!  I later discovered the recipe is very similar or near exact to the one I already had from the "Taste" magazines I ordered one year, the differences are the types of sugar and how the ingredients were measured - one by weight and the other by volume.  Not sure how many of you are keen bakers out there, although from a scientific point-of-view, I do have to agree that measuring dry ingredients by weight is more accurate than by volume.  However, it is so much quicker to do it by volume and if you're only baking something like cookies, a slight error wouldn't matter too much!  So this is the recipe I like to share with you today - the one measured out by volume.  It is delicious!  If you warm up the cookies in the microwave for 10sec, it'll become heavenly!  Enjoy :)

Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted 1 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 250-280g dark chocolate, cut into approx. 1cm2

Preheat the oven to 160°C.  Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.  In a medium bowl, sift through and mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugar.  I tend to cream the butter with sugar until it becomes paler (Image 1).  Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well blended (Image 2).  Whisk in the vanilla.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in the dry ingredients until combined (Image 3).  Stir in the chocolate (Image 4). Using a spoon, scoop up some dough and roll it into a ball and place it onto the baking sheets leave a 5cm gap between each doughs (Image 5).  I make sure there’s at least 2 pieces of chocolate chunks in each cookie and weigh them (32g per ball).  It is important to make sure the chocolate chunks are on the top, so it won’t melt away from the side or burn at the bottom of the cookie. Bake for 12min and check (depending on your oven) until the centre has melted and slight colouring in the edges (Image 6).  Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets or a wire rack.

How do you know if you made a good cookie dough in this particular recipe?  By hand actually!  When you roll the dough out in your hand, it should not stick and all it should leave on your hand is layer of glossy butter and melted chocolate afterwards.  If your dough is too wet, adjusts slightly with some more flour, but be careful not to add too much!  When you whisk in the eggs, don't overdo it - just enough to incorporate the eggs into the mixture.  When I do it, I whisk it slightly to breakdown the egg and then mix it in by stirring.  I tend to bake cookies one tray at a time since I like them evenly browned, however if you're short on time, baking two trays in one go still yields good results.  If you like your cookies to spread out more, then press it down gently before you bake them, I like my cookies chunky as it tend to retain moisture better.  You can also try making the cookies in 40g, they are also quite good but I wouldn't make it bigger than 50g each.