Sunday 22 November 2009

Chocolate crunch / chocolate concrete / chocolate tarmac


I mentioned chocolate crunch on Facebook last week and had lots of people writing to me for the recipe.

Depending on which area of the country you come from, you'll have heard this as either chocolate crunch, chocolate concrete or chocolate tarmac!

Chocolate crunch takes me back to my school days where it was served with bright pink custard; like Tellytubby custard ...

When I worked at the bank, chocolate crunch was back on the menu again; this time with a more grown up chocolate sauce.
Now I know why institutions serve it up - it's amazingly easy and quick to make and the ingredients are pretty frugal.

I discovered 'by accident' that you can also make chocolate goo: depending on your preference, you can bake this long and slow for a crunchier texture or give it a blast for 15 minutes, where you will end up with a crispy coating and a gooey interior. My two prefer the latter so this is what I now do.

Chocolate crunch

Ingredients

  • 7 oz butter
  • 5 oz fructose
  • 10 oz self raising flour
  • 1 oz cocoa powder
  • 2 eggs

Method

  • Preheat oven - 150 for a crunchy texture or 180 for gooey.
  • Melt the butter in a large saucepan.
  • Meanwhile, weigh out the rest of the ingredients.
  • Take the butter off the heat once melted and mix in the other dry ingredients - bung it all in the saucepan; I'm one for making the washing up easy!
  • Add the eggs and beat all the ingredients well together.
  • You don't need to be too fussy with this recipe; just beat it up and don't worry about lumps of cocoa or bits of flour that are not mixed in properly.
  • Put in a greased oven proof tray; I use a brownie tin. Choose the size of tin dependant on the texture you want - it you want it crunchy, choose a larger tin and spread the mixture thinner. If you want fudgy goo, keep the tin small so the mixture is thicker - play around and have some fun experimenting.
  • Bake for 30 minutes at 150 for a crunchy texture or 180 for 15 minutes for a gooey inside.