A traditionally British school-dinner pudding from the 70s.
I’m too young to remember this and I suspect that Mr. L is too but when I found the recipe and asked him if he remembered it from his school days, he swore blind he did. I don’t believe him… I think he just heard the words chocolate, sugar and butter and decided to play a bit of a blinder in the bluffing stakes.
I made it anyway…
It’s definitely authentic, it tastes a lot like 1970s Britain. Particularly if you take the dryness from the Summer of 1976 and mix it up with some bleakness from ’79.
160g/5 1/2 oz Butter
1 Egg
25g/1 oz Cocoa powder
225g/8 oz Self Raising flour
175g/6 oz Granulated sugar1. Pre heat oven to 170ºC (160ºC fan)
2. Gently melt the butter in a pan
3. In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together before making a well in the centre.
4. Pour in the melted butter and beat well to combine.
5. Add a well beaten egg to the flour mixture.
6. Place the mixture into a greased square tin and gently flatten and press into the corners.
7. Brush with water and sprinkle with sugar.
8. Place in the top half of the oven for 45 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 mins before cutting into pieces and placing on a wire rack to cool.
I’m so pleased I was born in 1981.
Do you remember Chocolate Concrete?
I’m a 90s child but we had this in primary and secondary school! Where did you read that it was a 70s food only? My sister and I went to different schools but it was served at our schools. It was called tarmac (close enough to chocolate concrete) and it was very popular with the kids! I loved it, and it was a treat when they were being sold in the school cafe. I’m surprised that you’re sharing the recipe though, when you’ve just given it a less than glowing recommendation. :s I love tarmac but the description you’ve given of “bleakness” and “dryness” puts me off! I take it you didn’t like it much!
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No, I didn’t like it much but put the recipe up for nostalgia’s sake and the fact that one taste doesn’t fit all!
We definitely didn’t have this in our school and none of my friends remember it either so I (wrongly) assumed it must have died out in the early 80s.
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I’ve never eaten it (90s schooling) so perhaps it was a regional thing? I grew up in Plymouth which seems to be in a time-zone all of it’s own!
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I’ve never heard of it, but it looks so yummy!
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Ok, Ok, so I’m old all right? I was born in ’70 and I remember this clearly, and to top it off it was always served with green coloured mint custard! YUM! I’m going to be making it this afternoon with my daughter, she’s a worse chocoholic than me (not easy!) and has been pestering me every day to make something with her. So your timing is perfect and I thank you most generously! I won’t be making the mint custard though…!
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OMG! Mint custard, now that’s just plain wrong, it’s gotta be Pink with the concrete, as in sloppy warm blancmange, yeah, that’s how we rolled in the late 80′s/early 90′s South Yorkshire dinner halls
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Yes, I’m a 90s child as well and we had this in our school! My mom is also a school cook and still makes it now I think – which is great for me as I occasionally get some brought home! However, chocolate hedgehogs totally beat chocolate concrete
(Your photo does make it look far tastier than the stuff at school though!)
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OMG I remember this may need to give this ago I’m sure we had pink custard with it
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They look delicious, thanks for the recipe.
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Sounds delish. I’m bookmarking this recipe!
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Well I’ve just taken it out of the oven and so far so good. My daughter had a ball making it which in my book is already a big thumbs up, regardless of how it tastes! It doesn’t look as fancy as yours though, what else did you sprinkle ontop?
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hoorah! mine’s got a dusting of icing sugar on top (mostly to hide the ugly sugar cracks that got a bit ‘well done’)
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I wonder if this is what we used to call Australian crunch? That was rock hard and served with mint custard I LOVED it
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Thanks so much for sharing the receipe. We used to have this every Monday at school and I absoutely loved it. Can’t wait to give it a try myself! x
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