Gunge is one of those odd recipes that is a massive part of my childhood. It’s so old that recipe has weights in imperial measurements. My Mother made a double batch of it for my wedding and it went down an absolute storm, so I’ve finally got the recipe and am sharing this treat with you.
To me it is delicious, but then I adore Bounty bars. If you think they’re the devil’s chocolates and they are all that are left in the tin of Christmas Chocolates then this isn’t the recipe for you as it makes use of desiccated coconut.
Makes 36 portions.
Time: 1 hour in batches
Including:
- Chocolate preparation 10 mins, plus cooling/freezingtime
- Preparation time 10 minutes
- Cooking 20-25 mins
- Cooling time.
- Freezing time
Equipment
- Baking tin with reasonable sides (I used a 7″/ 20cm square tin)
- Tin foil
- Bain Marie/microwave
Ingredients
- 4oz (125g) Plain Chocolate
- 4oz (125g) Sugar
- 4oz (125g) Margarine (needs to be suitable for baking)
- 4oz (125g) Desiccated Coconut
- 8 or 9 Glace cherries
- 1 egg (medium)
Method:
Part 1: Chocolate base.
- Line the tin with the foil, so it comes up the sides. This is so you can get it out of the tin at the end.
- Melt the chocolate. You could microwave it to melt it, or put the chocolate in a bain marie (glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, which is what I did)
- Pour the melted chococlate into the bottom of the tin foile line baking tin. Spread to cover the base
- Place in the freezer to set the chocolate. This may take an hour or so, or overnight.
Part 2: Gunge
- Pre heat the oven to Mark 4 (180C)
- Weigh out the sugar and desiccated coconut into a bowl.
- Rinse and chop the glace cherries. Personally I cut them small as I really can’t stand large lumps of the things, but they add something to the flavour.
- Melt the margarine
- Pour the margarine into the sugar/desiccated coconut and mix well.
- Add the glace cherries and mix well.
- Add the beaten egg. Yes, it does look unpleasant at this point, but trust me the results are delicious.
- Pour into the tin on top of the chocolate and spread across the tin.
- Bake for 20-25 mins until golden brown on top.
- Leave to cool
- Once cool put in the freezer (or fridge) to set the chocolate again. It can quite happily stay in the freezer until the day before you need it.
- If frozen allow to defrost and then cut into squares (2-3cm squares work well. This may sound stingy but they are very rich tasting and very very moreish)
Storage
As you freeze itn after it’s cooled, you can just leave in the freezer until you need it. I took it out the morning I needed it, defrosted it in the fridge which kept the chocolate solid so I could cut it with a sharp knife.
So that’s my Gunge recipe. It’s a little bit fiddly, as it takes time to set the chocolate and to cool again, but for me it’s pure nostalgia.
Let me know how you get on if you decide to do this yourself.
Tim
