Capture school canteen nostalgia with home-baked chocolate concrete

Do you remember walking into your primary school canteen at lunchtime and heading straight for the dessert section? Apple crumble, treacle sponge and rice pudding may all be staple school canteen puds, but none shines so bright as chocolate concrete.

Although the name doesn’t sound all that appetising, there’s something satisfying about diving into this simple, yet delicious dense chocolate dessert (alongside lashings of custard, of course). Back to school days may be long gone, but with the help of our high cocoa cooking chocolate, we’re going to show you how to make chocolate concrete from the comfort of your home.

What is chocolate concrete?

For those who don’t know the answer to “what is chocolate concrete?”, then don’t worry, you’re not having a memory blip. Unsurprisingly, it’s official name was probably overlooked back in the days: what is technically chocolate concrete was probably just known as chocolate cake to me or you.

Put simply, chocolate concrete is a traybake chocolate cake. Its texture is somewhere between a biscuit and a cake. It doesn’t have a big rise to it, meaning chocolate concrete has a fairly dense finish. No icing is needed: once cooked the cake is dusted with sugar, cut into squares and served with pink custard (more on this later).

Where does chocolate concrete come from?

Chocolate concrete is a variant of the chocolate cake. It might not be the fanciest type of chocolate cake to exist, but we love the simplicity of it. In some cases, less is more.

The concept of chocolate cake date dates all the way back to the 17th century, when bakers began to use cocoa imported from the Americas to flavour their cakes. As chocolate was a rare and expensive ingredient, these chocolate cakes were only available to the elite.

However, popular demand for chocolate meant that it wasn’t destined for the palates of the super-wealthy only. With the rise of new technologies in the 19th century, chocolate became a lot more accessible to the general public. In 1828, Coenraad van Houten invented the machine that separated the cocoa bean into butter and solids, pathing the way for the modern production of chocolate. 

After Rodolphe Lindt created the process of conching in 1897 – which helped to make chocolate smoother and silkier – it was a lot easier to bake with. This is because the conching process meant that cocoa powder amalgamated easier with other ingredients in a cake batter.

It wasn’t long until chocolate became a classic ingredient in baking. Over time, countries have got creative with the concept of chocolate cake, putting their own twist on it for a touch of nationalism. France has the buche de noel, Italy has the torta de caprice, America has the Devil’s food cake, and England? We’re perfectly satisfied with our chocolate concrete.

Can you make chocolate concrete at home?

If you’re asking yourself – ‘Where can I buy chocolate concrete?’ – then we advise you to consider making it yourself, from scratch. Because chocolate concrete only has a few ingredients in, you’ll want to use top quality ingredients for a light and flavourful sponge.

Because supermarkets can get away with making chocolate concrete as cheap as possible, they tend to cut corners. This means you may find that shop bought chocolate concrete is a lot drier and slightly bland. You could douse it in custard, but then that would overshadow the humble chocolate concrete.

The secret behind how to make chocolate concrete is to use good quality ingredients to let all the flavours shine…

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 200g granulated sugar
• 100g butter
• 50g cocoa powder
• Raisins, chocolate chips, fudge pieces, salted caramel, chopped nuts (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4. In a mixing bowl, combine sieved flour and cocoa butter with sugar. You want to use good quality cocoa powder here to keep the chocolate flavour strong.

Next, melt the butter in a microwave or over the hob, making sure it doesn’t bubble and burn. Mix into your dry ingredients and use your hands to combine everything together until you have a crumble-like consistency.

At this point you may choose to add your own fillings, such as raisins or chocolate chips, but if you want to keep things traditional then head on to the next step.

Pour into a baking tray and press down with your hands or the back of a spoon for an even finish. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes. Once out of the oven, sprinkle with sugar and leave to cool slightly so that you can cut it into pieces, but still enjoy it warm. Serve with pink custard.

What is pink custard?

Remember that startlingly-pink shade of custard dolloped on top of your chocolate concrete? Pink custard might not be the most civilised way to enjoy your creme anglaise, but since we’re sticking to the classics it would be rude not to go all out.

Choose a custard of your choice and colour with a pink food dye or ingredient. Although any old food colouring will do, if you want to stay away from artificial additives – like we do – then beetroot or raspberry powder adds a distinctive pink pop without altering the flavour. If you’d like to add an extra zing to your custard then raspberry coulis adds a tart backdrop and a gentle pink tinge.

Cooking with chocolate allows you to get creative. If you need some more inspiration then we’ve taken a deeper look into everything you need to know about cooking with chocolate. You might want to try more elaborate bakes, but for a quick and simple throwback, chocolate concrete really is the perfect bake to capture that sense of nostalgia.