Scottish Tablet - Seriously Yummy & Tooth Achingly Sweet !

If you have a sweet tooth - this stuff is going to send you to seventh heaven....

Tablet is like a very smooth and crumbly fudge. There is no chewiness to it and it should be smooth in texture and melt in your mouth. One piece is NEVER enough.

Although there are few ingredients, it's a bit of a hassle to make and requires a lot of stirring and is fairly time consuming. As it also involves boiling sugar, do take extreme care and keep little ones well out the way.

Whilst Oliver was sleeping this afternoon, I made a batch as a present for a friend.

Ingredients

2lb of granulated sugar

1 cup of water

125g butter (I used salted)

1 can of condensed milk

2 > 3 tsp vanilla extract

Put the water and butter in a large, heavy based pot. If you have a pressure cooker - the pot from that is ideal. Better too big a pot than too small !

Melt the butter into the water. Add the vanilla and sugar and slowly bring to a simmer stirring constantly. Do NOT put on a really hot heat - if you get it too hot too fast, your tablet will go all gritty.

Once all sugar is disolved, add the condensed milk and bring to the boil. Don't stop stirring this stuff.

The pot above was the largest one I have - apart from my pressure cooker pot - which I'll use the next time instead. This was very very near overflow !

Boil the mixture for approx 20 > 25 minutes until it becomes a butterscotch colour. When dropped into cold water, it will start to ball. Temperature should be soft ball stage.

In the picture above - it's almost ready to come off the heat. It bubbles like a volcano and needs constant stirring to keep the frothy bubbles under control.

Remove from the heat and beat with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick and sugary. This takes a long time - about 15 mins of constant stirring.... so don't get fed up with it too quickly !

Pour into a WELL BUTTERED TIN - or alternatively, a silicone lasagne mould works a dream and needs no greasing. This stuff can be a horror to get out of a tin, and silicone really does make a breeze of the job.

Leave to cool or several hours - preferably overnight.

Turn it out of the mould or tin (as pictured above) and slice into squares. It will be crumbly and break up a bit - but the rustic look is the sign o good tablet.

If it doesn't set, you've either not boiled it long enough or not beat it long enough (or both !) Better a little over done than under done. My dad reckons boil for 20 mins - I find it needs 25 mins - nearer 27mins this time as I had to remove from the heat a few times to prevent volvanic eruptions all over the cooker

After you have chopped it up, it's ready to put into a tupperware box to be kept in a cool, dry place - or gift boxed / bagged.

I've used my Top Score Board to make this card board gift box (see blog entry re massage bars for more info).

I've recently discovered vellum. Vellum is a glassine type material that is used by crafters for card making. However, it's also greaseproof and comes in lots of pretty colours or patterns. It's lovely for lining gift boxes for cakes, cookies and sweets. The vellum I've used has a pink foiled paisley pattern on it.

I blogged about some stunning butterfly Kanban card last month. Coudn't resist it and bought some. The butterflies on the card are in different hues of pink and varying sizes. It adds a lot of depth and looks really classy made into a gift box

This is it - all wrapped and ready to go....

Well - when I say ALL - only about half of what I made. There was a lot in this box too - it was a fair size !