Chocolate Concrete

If you’re looking for a nostalgic recipe for chocolate concrete, you have come to the right place. I have the recipe that’ll hit the spot!

As mentioned above, this recipe is another recipe that has been around for many years and enjoyed by many people. If you were at school any time between the 1970s and the 2000s, then you should remember this being served at lunch times every now and again. If you remember this, do you remember pink custard? Chocolate concrete and pink custard are a match made in heaven.

I’m not sure if this is a local or national thing, people from (and around) the West Midlands know it as chocolate concrete and others know it as chocolate crunch, whichever you know it as, here is the perfect recipe for you to make at home. If you’re not sure exactly what it is, well… It’s a traybake biscuit x cake, it’s not one or the other, it is it’s own thing. You can enjoy it on it’s own or with a serving of pink custard.

This is probably one of the simplest things to make, like ever. It only requires a few ingredients, minimal mixing and a short time in the oven… Why don’t you make a batch? So, to make the chocolate concrete dough, place all of your ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix until a clear dough has formed. That’s it, seriously it’s that simple. You place that into your 8 inch/20cm square cake tin, bake in the oven at 175˚c/350˚f for 25-30 minutes. While your concrete is cooling down, you can make your custard. It doesn’t take that long to make, you will want to make it just before you intend to serve it. I’ll leave the full method down below, if you’re interested in making them.

Once fully baked and out the oven, you’ll want to scatter a generous amount of sugar on top and allow it to cool completely before you serve it. This is best served either on it’s own or with a generous serving of the pink custard.

Ingredients – 

Chocolate Concrete:

445g Plain flour.
1 tsp Baking powder.
50g Cocoa powder.
250g Granulated sugar.
370g Butter.
1 Egg.

Bake at 175˚c/350˚f for 25-30 minutes.

Pink Custard:

200ml Whole milk.
2 Egg yolks.
20-30g Granulated sugar.
1 tsp Vanilla extract/bean paste.
1 tsp Plain flour.
Food gel (to colour).

 

Method: 

Chocolate concrete:

• Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, preheating your oven to 175˚c/350˚f and preparing your 8 inch/20cm square tin with greaseproof paper/parchment paper.
• Place the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, sugar, butter and egg into your mixing bowl and mix them all together until a clear dough forms.
• Once your dough is ready, transfer it from your mixing bowl to your lined tin and press it into all the corners and try and get it as level as possible by pressing it down using a spatula or cup measurement.
• Place the tin in your preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and scatter over some granulated sugar and allow to cool completely before cutting.

Pink Custard: 

• Start by weighing up all the ingredients you will be using to make the custard.
• Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and place it onto the hob over a medium heat until it reaches a boil.
• In a medium sized bowl, place the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract/bean paste and flour and mix until it’s well combined and become one consistent colour.
• Once your milk has come to a boil, add a small amount of the milk to your egg mixture and whisk constantly. This is to temper the egg mixture so it doesn’t scramble when you add the remaining milk.
• Add the remaining milk and whisk to combine. Once combined transfer the mixture back to the sauce pan.
• Add a small amount of colour paste and whisk that in until combined, then return to the heat and stir is with a spatula constantly until the mixture thickens. *please note the custard doesn’t thicken very much, this is because it’s a pouring custard*.

Serving:

• Slice your chocolate concrete up into squares or rectangles and enjoy it either on it’s own or with a generous amount of the freshly made pink custard on top and tuck in straight away.

Don’t forget, if you make anything using my recipes, feel free to share your creations with me over on Twitter and Instagram!