Scottish tablet is a traditional Scottish sweet made from sugar, butter, cream, vanilla and that most wonderful of ingredients, condensed milk. With that list of ingredients you just know it's going to be good, right?
Tablet is very sweet and very rich similar to fudge in almost every way except that tablet has a crumbly rather than smooth texture. Eating it reminds me of my childhood holidays, it's the kind of thing you can pick at seaside stalls and gift shops, I used to buy it as a holiday gift for my Grandma out of my pocket money!One of the things I was most worried about when I first made this was that it just wouldn't set, that I'd be left with a sickly sugary gloop in a pan rather than crumbly cubes of butter tablet. I needn't have worried, it turns out this recipe is almost foolproof, as long as you cook the mixture for the full length of time and never, never leave the pan and stop stirring then I give you my guarantee that this will set.
The traditional, and my favourite flavour for tablet is pure vanilla but you could add other flavours if you really want to. Whisky would work quite well or you could try chopped nuts, or dried fruit.The recipe is adapted from Barbecues And Grilling by Antony Worrall Thompson, I'm not really sure what it has to do with barbecues but it's a good recipe! I've adapted his original recipe, changing the quantities slightly, I also added some sea salt, I just love the combination of salt and caramel flavours.
Recipe:
Ingredients:- 1 can of condensed milk (397g)
- 150ml of milk
- 2 vanilla pods
- 450g Demerera sugar
- 100g butter, diced
- A good pinch of sea salt
- Grease and line a 20cm square tin
- Split the vanilla pods and scrape out all the seeds, put the pods and seeds in a large saucepan along with all the other ingredients.
- Place the pan over a medium heat stirring all the time, the mixture should start out golden and gradually become darker. Cook for 15 minutes stirring continuously.
- After 15 minutes remove the pan from the heat and beat the mixture for about 5 minutes, this will give your tablet it's wonderful crumbly Texture.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and leave until completely cooled before cutting into squares.
- Enjoy!
20 comments:
Oooh, that looks so sweet and delicious. I feel that in the spirit of cultural exploration I ought to give it a go! :D
I like this. I like to always have a snacking-size sweet around for when people come over, or I just want something small, and this falls right in that category!
Your tablet looks perfect and not too crumbly.
I could eat a few squares now and at's only 7:40am!! Looks so smooth and creamy
oh yum. This is the sort of thing I'd eat tons of, feel ill and blame it on anything other than the butter tablet!
And not a calorie in the lot I'm sure. :-D
Is it very hard to beat, Sam?
That tablet looks a lot like fudge and good!
Yum, yum, yum! How fun to discover the different names people call similar things--I would call that penuche candy here, which was a precursor to fudge.
But by any name, it's delicious stuff! Well done--and great photo!
Wow you definitely had me at the list of ingredients. I'm going to have to give this a try. I'm all for yummy and foolproof ;-)
That looks absolutely divine! Yum!
Magic! Reminds me of travelling round Scotland, being inundated by the sight of tablet in every single gift shop. Looks delicious, love the simplicity (although adding vanilla pods is a bit posh!!)
Looks like fudge! I'm not sure about the crumbly texture though...
I can feel my arteries hardening just looking at the pics! Looks like the real deal, Sam!
My nieces & nephews will love this butter tablet so much!
Wow, sounds and looks delicious! I am a total sucker for caramelly, butterscotchy things. I bet these would be great with a thin coating or drizzle of dark chocolate, too.
Oh my that looks and sounds gorgeous, please feel free to send me any leftover! ;-)
Oooh, I know I'd really like this, so you can send me some leftovers too!
This looks just like the tablet that my grandmother would bring over from Glasgow when she came for a visit. She'd have 3 or 4 tins hidden in her luggage! My favourite.
Condensed milk or sweetened condensed milk? We have both here and I am unsure which you are referencing in this recipe, but would love to know!
Hi Wren, this recipe uses sweetened condensed milk, it's a different thing to evaporated milk which might be what you're thinking of. It should be quite thick and syrupy in the can.
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