Chocolate Crunch - a rehearsal reward

One of the first recipes that I tried from the Children's Choice collection was Chocolate Crunch. You might remember this as a dish served with pink custard as your school dinner pudding or just a snack at break time. 

In my spare time, when I'm not baking or enjoying the results, I'm part of a theatre company, hands on theatre. Sometimes rehearsals can be a tiring, physical experience as the video below shows – a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire – so a tasty chocolate treat always goes down well afterwards.

Chocolate Crunch recipe

Ingredients

130g margarine

130g caster sugar

250g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160°C or gas mark 3

2. Place the margarine in a saucepan and melt over a low heat.

3. Mix in the rest of the ingredients to the melted margarine.

4. Grease a 8in sandwich tin and then press mixture into it firmly.

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and sprinkle with sugar.

7. Allow to cool then cut into pieces. 

Welcome to Ate it in the '80s

So, how did Ate it in the '80s come about? Well, it was down to the discovery of one old cookbook: Children's Choice 40 Easy To Follow & Nutritious Recipes.

A spring clean revealed a cookery book that had been produced by my old primary school from the '80s. A leaf through uncovered lots of recipes that brought back memories of school dinners and queuing for the tuck shop at break times to provide enough energy for the next round of Stuck In The Mud and hopscotch.

I was inspired to dust down the weighing scales, wander down a tasty memory lane and hopefully let others remember fondly food from the decade of shell suits, Rubik's cubes and Party Rings.