Chocolate Concrete is a School dinner classic treat that couldn’t be easier to make at home. All you need is five basic store cupboard ingredients!
Chocolate Concrete (or crunch, as some people call it) is fondly remembered by many people in the UK. I personally don’t think we had it in my school – although I do remember the simple vanilla sponge traybake with icing and sprinkles that was called School Dinner Cake!
I was recently reminded of this wonderfully simple recipe while reading through one of my old recipe notebooks. It was given to me by a friend who was brought up in England and made it regularly for her children. It’s a very useful recipe to have up your sleeve – it’s not fancy by any means, but it’s cheap as chips and very, very easy to make.
I knocked up a batch that afternoon and it was just as good – no actually, even better than I remembered. If I had to compare it with something, I would say it’s sort of like a super chewy, crispy chocolate brownie. It’s delicious with a cup of tea or coffee or as a pudding with custard – which is exactly how they served it in school!
If you aren’t familiar with chocolate concrete, you might be wondering where the name came from! I’m not 100% sure, but I’m assuming it’s to do with the fact that it’s quite crispy and chewy to eat – and it’s very likely it was just a tad overbaked, hence the name!!
Adding an egg is the only change I made to the recipe – it makes the chocolate concrete slightly softer to eat (and easier on your teeth!)
ingredient list
Butter
Caster Sugar
Plain (all purpose) Flour
Cocoa Powder
Egg
I also add a pinch of salt to enhance the chocolate flavour, but it’s not crucial to the recipe.
how to make chocolate concrete
It literally couldn’t be simpler to make – all you need to do is melt the butter, pour it over the dry ingredients, add the egg and mix with a wooden spoon or your hands until it all comes together to make a chocolate dough.
Press the mixture into a lined tin and bake!
tips for making this recipe
Be careful not to overbake the chocolate concrete – when you remove it from the oven it should still seem quite soft, but that’s fine – it firms up quite considerably on cooling. If it’s too hard and brittle, then it’s definitely been in the oven too long!
If that does happen, then I recommend serving this chocolate slice with custard – it was traditionally served with pink or mint green custard in many schools!
Did you make this recipe?
I really hope you loved it! Let me know what you thought of the recipe by leaving a comment below – or if you need any help, just ask!
Chocolate Concrete
Chocolate Concrete (or Crunch) is a retro School Dinner classic in the UK. Why not give it a try for a taste of nostalgia?
Ingredients
- 200g Plain (all purpose) Flour
- 200g Caster Sugar
- 50g Cocoa Powder
- A pinch of fine salt (optional, but enhances the chocolate flavour)
- 100g Butter
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a 22cm square tin.
- Combine the flour, caster sugar, cocoa powder and salt if using in a large mixing bowl.
- Melt the butter and pour over the dry ingredients. Add the egg and using a wooden spoon, electric hand mixer or your hands combine until the mixture comes together to make a soft dough.
- Press the mixture into the lined tin, smooth the top and bake for around 20 minutes. It will seem quite soft but will firm up on cooling. Sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to cool completely in the tin.
- Serve with coffee, tea or as a pudding with custard - pink or mint green for the full retro school dinner experience!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 151Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 70mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 1gSugar: 18gProtein: 1g
Calories and nutritional information are provided by a third party application and should be viewed as indicative figures only.