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Tablet

Two weeks ago, dissatisfied with the shortcomings of offerings unveiled elsewhere, I decided to set upon the task of making my own tablet. What? Oh! No, not that sort of tablet.

I decided to follow what is by all appearances the canonical page on the subject of making tablet on the Internets; Stewart Russell’s recipe. Firstly, I decided to go with his recommendation of using vanilla sugar, which meant leaving a vanilla pod inside a bag of sugar for two weeks to allow the flavour to be absorbed.

— Two Week Intermission —

Having removed the vanilla pod from the sugar, I then assembled the other ingredients; condensed milk, unsalted butter and half a cup of milk.

First, I added the sugar to the pan along with the milk. Stirred together, this made a slow-moving, gritty thick paste to which I added the butter (sliced up into smaller pats) and the condensed milk. Once this was reasonably well mixed and there were no dry patches, I turned on the heat to begin to bring the mixture to the boil.

Within a few minutes, the mixture began to froth and expand massively — Stewart wasn’t kidding that you need to use a much bigger pan than the ingredients themselves require. After about 10 minutes, the mixture will be properly boiling and the heat will need turning down, to allow it to caramelise.

After about 20 minutes of simmering, with occasional stirring, the mixture is not only frothy, but will begin to turn a golden, caramel colour. This means it’s nearly ready for the final stage. As our recipe suggests, if you take a teaspoon full of the mixture and immerse it in cold water, it’ll quickly cool (at least, on the outside!) and you can see how it flows at low temperature. If it slowly drips then it’s ready for the next step.

The recipe wasn’t explicit about this, so I had to do this step with one hand stirring whilst the other reached desperately for the fridge and the rest of the block of butter; grease a tin or pan of suitable size (about 18”x12”) and take the mixture off the heat. Stirring the whole time, feel for when the mixture begins to thicken slightly and the bottom of the pan starts to feel slightly gritty. At this point, pour the mixture into the tray.

I’ll have to report back on how good this stuff tastes once it’s had time to set. It certainly tastes good when molten (but really; be careful — it’s incredibly hot when in liquid form). Now I have to go wash the saucepan before it becomes a permanent fixture…