Fudge/Tablet recipe: will not stain quilts...

There's a large red topped table in the middle of the kitchen, but
Granny and I have our backs to it. We are sirring a thick sided pot on
the Raeburn fast hotplate, faces scarlet and dripping, smiles wide,
fingers toasted... We are making tablet, and I am standing on a low
stool, being not quite tall enough to help without it. The kitchen
smells of hot butter and something savoury is baking away in the oven...

Granny's Tablet recipe:

125g/4 1/2oz unsalted butter - the Scots white kind if you live there.
1kg/2 1/4lbs soft brown sugar (light Muscovado is ideal)
half a pint (300ml/10 fl oz) full fat milk
200g/7oz tin sweetened condensed milk
a pinch of salt if you like...

I like my tablet plain, but you can add a little vanilla if you like.
Use the pure vanilla extract rather than 'vanilla flavouring'

You need a good thick based reliable saucepan for this, otherwise you
risk it sticking and burning. DO NOT use an enamel saucepan! Stainless
steel is best. You also need a good smooth wooden spoon..., Oh, and
butter a Swiss Roll type tin while you're at it. 23cm X 33 cm or 13" by
9" is about right.

Melt the butter in the saucepan and add the sugar and milk and a pinch
of salt. Heat gently and stir occasionally until all the sugar has
dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer over a fairly high flame for 10
minutes. Stir frequently, making sure you get in all the corners! I
like a spoon with one flat edge for this.

Add the condensed milk, mix it in well, and simmer again for 8-10
minutes stirring constantly. You should get bubbles, but it shouldn't
do a Vesuvius, like jam! So not too fierce, ok?

After 8 minutes it should reach the soft ball stage, so test it: drip a
few drops into a mug of iced water. If it forms little soft balls, you
got it right! On a sugar thermometer it should read 115 C/240 F.

Take it off the flame and place the pot on a sturdy non-slip heatproof
thing: damp tea towel will do fine. At this point you can add the
vanilla. Now you stir madly for 10 minutes with a balloon whisk, or
beat it for 4 or 5 with an electric beater. You should feel the mixture
begin to stiffen and go sort of slightly sandy... At this point pour it
into the Swiss Roll tin. Scrape everything you can out of the pot...
Leave it to cool. Also leave the tray of tablet to cool! When the
tablet is just warm, mark it into squares with a blunt knife. This
makes it easier to break up later. It will store well for months in an
airtight tin if you can ignore it that long... We never could.

Give the saucepan to the helping kid, along with a teaspoon for
scraping... It will need a bath later anyway! Make sure you remember
to wash the tablet out of the hair.

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Thanks for painting such a homey scene, I almost felt like I was there with
you!
I for one will definitely be trying these if I think my ingredients are
close enough to what's called for.
allyson

"Kate Dicey" wrote in message
...


There's a large red topped table in the middle of the kitchen, but
Granny and I have our backs to it. We are sirring a thick sided pot on
the Raeburn fast hotplate, faces scarlet and dripping, smiles wide,
fingers toasted... We are making tablet, and I am standing on a low
stool, being not quite tall enough to help without it. The kitchen
smells of hot butter and something savoury is baking away in the oven...

Granny's Tablet recipe:

125g/4 1/2oz unsalted butter - the Scots white kind if you live there.
1kg/2 1/4lbs soft brown sugar (light Muscovado is ideal)
half a pint (300ml/10 fl oz) full fat milk
200g/7oz tin sweetened condensed milk
a pinch of salt if you like...

I like my tablet plain, but you can add a little vanilla if you like.
Use the pure vanilla extract rather than 'vanilla flavouring'

You need a good thick based reliable saucepan for this, otherwise you
risk it sticking and burning. DO NOT use an enamel saucepan! Stainless
steel is best. You also need a good smooth wooden spoon..., Oh, and
butter a Swiss Roll type tin while you're at it. 23cm X 33 cm or 13" by
9" is about right.

Melt the butter in the saucepan and add the sugar and milk and a pinch
of salt. Heat gently and stir occasionally until all the sugar has
dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer over a fairly high flame for 10
minutes. Stir frequently, making sure you get in all the corners! I
like a spoon with one flat edge for this.

Add the condensed milk, mix it in well, and simmer again for 8-10
minutes stirring constantly. You should get bubbles, but it shouldn't
do a Vesuvius, like jam! So not too fierce, ok?

After 8 minutes it should reach the soft ball stage, so test it: drip a
few drops into a mug of iced water. If it forms little soft balls, you
got it right! On a sugar thermometer it should read 115 C/240 F.

Take it off the flame and place the pot on a sturdy non-slip heatproof
thing: damp tea towel will do fine. At this point you can add the
vanilla. Now you stir madly for 10 minutes with a balloon whisk, or
beat it for 4 or 5 with an electric beater. You should feel the mixture
begin to stiffen and go sort of slightly sandy... At this point pour it
into the Swiss Roll tin. Scrape everything you can out of the pot...
Leave it to cool. Also leave the tray of tablet to cool! When the
tablet is just warm, mark it into squares with a blunt knife. This
makes it easier to break up later. It will store well for months in an
airtight tin if you can ignore it that long... We never could.

Give the saucepan to the helping kid, along with a teaspoon for
scraping... It will need a bath later anyway! Make sure you remember
to wash the tablet out of the hair.

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

We do something similar in my family. It sounds like sucre a la creme, but
we just call it fudge, cuz translating it to English doesn't sound as good
(creamed sugar).

Sucre a la creme
----------------------
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup cream
2 cups packed brown sugar

Mix together lightly and place in the microwave for 5 to 6 minutes on high.
When it comes out, let the "foam" die down a bit, and add one cup of icing
sugar/powdered sugar and a tsp of vanilla, and mix well, either by mixer or
by hand for about two minutes. Placed in a greased pie plate, in the fridge,
until it sets. if done by hand, the fudge will be rock hard. If you use a
mixer, it will be somewhat softer.

Michelle in Gander

Thank you Kate! I know what I'm making this weekend.

-georg

Kate, what a lovely scene you portrayed. I was there with you,
overheated and drooling! It sounds like the 'penuche' frosting my granny
used to spread on her heavenly chocolate cake, just for me. I could sit
and eat the whole thing, if allowed. Nancycog in MD where it's snowing
like mad

Allyson Brown wrote:

Thanks for painting such a homey scene, I almost felt like I was there with
you!
I for one will definitely be trying these if I think my ingredients are
close enough to what's called for.
allyson

Soft brown sugar of the sort that clogs together is better than the dyed
stuff. Nestle make the condensed milk, so you may find it.
--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Michelle in Gander wrote:

We do something similar in my family. It sounds like sucre a la creme, but
we just call it fudge, cuz translating it to English doesn't sound as good
(creamed sugar).

Sucre a la creme
----------------------
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup cream
2 cups packed brown sugar

Mix together lightly and place in the microwave for 5 to 6 minutes on high.
When it comes out, let the "foam" die down a bit, and add one cup of icing
sugar/powdered sugar and a tsp of vanilla, and mix well, either by mixer or
by hand for about two minutes. Placed in a greased pie plate, in the fridge,
until it sets. if done by hand, the fudge will be rock hard. If you use a
mixer, it will be somewhat softer.

Michelle in Gander


I shall file that one! These recipes ought to go in our cookbook...

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

wrote:

Kate, what a lovely scene you portrayed. I was there with you,
overheated and drooling! It sounds like the 'penuche' frosting my granny
used to spread on her heavenly chocolate cake, just for me. I could sit
and eat the whole thing, if allowed. Nancycog in MD where it's snowing
like mad

Glad you liked it! I must have been about 5 the first time we made this
together.

My mum makes a chocolate fudge cake with a fudgy filling/frosting that's
a softer version of this. I'll get it from her...

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

georg wrote:
Thank you Kate! I know what I'm making this weekend.

-georg

Let me know how it turns out. Must be 20 years since I made it!

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 20:21:11 +0000, Kate Dicey
wrote:

My mum makes a chocolate fudge cake with a fudgy filling/frosting that's
a softer version of this. I'll get it from her...

I'd like a shot of that recipe! Tablet is far too sweet for me. I
can hardly finish any of the choclate-covered caramels I made
either... Sandy come and help me eat them!


-- Jo in Scotland