Eating Melbourne

Ali’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Actually, the recipe isn’t mine. But Dad and I have made these cookies so many times I think I have the right to rename them! I have to take some cookies to school camp soon, and these ones are definitely going. I love them and so will you.

Here’s what you need:

125g of softened butter
1 cup of brown sugar
A few drops of vanilla
1 egg
1 cup of plain flour
1 cup of self-raising flour
1 cup of desiccated coconut
300g of chocolate chips (I recommend a mixture of both dark and white chocolate chips)

And here’s how you make them:

• Combine the butter, vanilla and sugar in a mixer and cream together for around 10 minutes.
• Add the egg and continue creaming until well blended.
• Add the flours, coconut and chocolate and stir through gently until well combined.
• Roll small handfuls into balls, place evenly spaced on a baking tray and flatten slightly with the back end of a fork.
• Bake in an oven pre-heated to 190C for around 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the cookies from oven and let them cool on the tray.

Serving these cookies while they’re still warm is the best, along with a glass of milk or, even better, a hot chocolate. The recipe only makes 20 cookies so you might have to double the ingredients 'cause they are so yummy!

The Battle of the Chocolates!

I love hot chocolate! So does Dad. So we decided to try out what are supposed to be two of the best places in Melbourne for hot chocolates. Here’s what I thought.

Koko Black
Shop 4, Royal Arcade
331 Bourke St. Melbourne
9639 8911
http://www.kokoblack.com

Very good! Though there’s only one version to choose from--the Belgian Hot Chocolate--I loved the rich texture, the chocolate pattern drawn into the creamy part at the top, and most especially the fact that you could drink all of it without feeling sick!

I loved the atmosphere of the place too. We sat upstairs where we could overlook the beautiful arcade below through these large arched windows. And there are these great big chocolate brown chesterfield chairs to sit in too. It wasn’t too busy and the service was great--fast and friendly. The only thing I didn’t like was that the choices on the menu were quite limited. Overall, though, I think it is a great place to stop, enjoy a delicious hot chocolate and maybe choose a few Belgian chocolates on the way up (please Dad!?).

There are two Koko Blacks in Melbourne now. They call them salons! We went to the one in the Royal Arcade. The other one is on Lygon Street in Carlton. And there’s another one coming out at Chadstone.

My rating: 8 / 10

Max Brenner
Menzies Alley,
Melbourne Central Shopping Centre
Latrobe St., Melbourne
9662 4442
http://www.maxbrenner.com.au

Max Brenner is much more of a chain. They seem to be all over the place now. Dad says they started in Israel. Apparently there’s about ten of them in Sydney and now there’s four here in Melbourne. I love the atmosphere. Just walking in makes you feel like you are in a chocolate heaven! It’s always very busy though, which takes a lot of the atmosphere away. It always feels too crowded to me, and most of the time it takes a long time to get served. For example, my friend Bridget and I had to wait 45 minutes for our order!

That said, I love the choice of what you can have at MB’s. Although I’ve discovered some of it isn’t very good quality, the hot chocolate that I had was presented beautifully. I had the Italian Hot Chocolate. It was in what they call a ‘hug mug’ which is very cute. It started off wonderfully but, I have to confess, after a few sips it got very sickly!

Overall, I think that Max Brenner is a great place to for some really delicious desserts and maybe a hot chocolate to go with it. But you may not be feeling great on the way out!

My rating: 6 / 10

As you can see, Koko Black gets my vote. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give Max a try as well. And tell us what you think! Have you had a great hot chocolate somewhere that we should know about? I'm ready for some more taste testing!!