Scottish Tablet

A friend of mine tasted my salted caramels and asked me if I'd ever heard of tablet. Tablet? It's a Scottish candy that's sort of crumbly, slightly grainy, melts in your mouth,  harder than fudge and has the flavor of dulce de leche. Tablet is made up of sugar (lots of it), condensed milk (yes more sugar), butter, and water. You need a big pot. In fact, make half of the recipe in one large pot and the other half of the recipe in another large pot. Mine boiled over even though I thought my pot was quite big. And it didn't get hot enough. When it didn't set, I reboiled it in two pots, to 250 degrees F, and it came out great. Be very careful when it boils. I got burned on my hand from bubbling sugar. Wear gloves or mitts!

Scottish Tablet
Inspired by the recipe at http://britishfood.about.com/od/scottishregionalrecipes/r/tablet.htm

500 ml water

225 g unsalted butter, chopped

1.8 kg caster sugar

450 g condensed milk ( I had to buy 2 cans though I only used a little of the second one)

1. Butter a 9x 13 inch baking pan. Line with parchment paper. Cut the parchment paper bigger than the pan and cut the corners at a diagonal so it fits into the pan nicely.

2. Heat water to a simmer then add the butter. Stir until melted. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Put on gloves or oven mitts.  Turn the heat up to high and boil for 5 minutes at 250 degrees F. stirring constantly (hard ball stage).

3. Add the condensed milk slowly. Be careful it may splatter. Stir the mixture well then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. The candy will start to darken a little.

4. When mixture is thickened, remove from heat and pour into a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat for 5 minutes until it is the consistency of caramel sauce. Pour into parchment lined pan.

5. When it is cool but still soft, score into 1 inch squares. Let it sit at room temperature overnight. Break or cut into squares. Wrap in waxed paper or parchment and store in airtight container.