Tablet is the grainier, harder, older cousin of fudge. It’s delicious.
Yield and time
- Makes: about 50 small squares from a 20cm square tin
- Hands-on: 45 minutes, almost all of it at the stove
- Total: under an hour to make, then 1-2 hours to set
Ingredients
- 1kg caster sugar (granulated is the traditional choice, but caster is what I always have in, and it works fine, see the note below)
- 250ml whole milk
- 125g unsalted butter, cubed, plus a little extra for the tin
- 1 tin (395g) sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a pinch of fine salt
You’ll need a large, heavy-based pan, far bigger than you think, the mixture climbs the sides when it boils, a sugar thermometer, and a sturdy wooden spoon. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper and butter it.
A note on the sugar: tablet is traditionally made with granulated, but I almost never have it in the cupboard, it’s caster or nothing here, so that’s what I use. Caster is just granulated ground finer, so it behaves the same in the finished tablet; the only differences are at the stove. It dissolves faster, which makes the first step quicker and lowers the risk of stray undissolved crystals later, that’s a plus. But the finer grains also froth up more enthusiastically when the mixture boils, so give yourself an even bigger pan than you think you need and don’t step away. If anything, caster gives a slightly finer, smoother grain in the set tablet, which is no bad thing.
Get set up first
Tablet moves fast at the end and you can’t walk away, so do all the prep before any heat goes on. Line and butter the tin. Clip the thermometer to the pan. Have the condensed milk open and the vanilla measured. Once you start beating you won’t have a free hand.
Dissolve, then boil
Put the sugar, milk and cubed butter into the big heavy pan over a low heat. Stir gently and don’t let it boil yet — you want every grain of sugar fully dissolved first. Rub a little of the mixture between your fingers; if it’s still gritty, keep going. Undissolved sugar now is the usual cause of a grainy-in-a-bad-way result later, so take your time. With caster this goes quickly, a couple of minutes and it’s smooth; granulated takes a little longer, so give it those extra few minutes.
When it’s smooth, stir in the whole tin of condensed milk and the pinch of salt. Now bring it up to a steady boil.
The boil to soft-ball
Keep it at a rolling boil and stir constantly — condensed milk catches and scorches on the base in seconds, and a burnt note runs right through the batch. Scrape the corners of the pan with the spoon as you go. Made with caster it foams up high as it comes to the boil, so keep the heat steady rather than fierce and be ready to lift the pan off for a moment if it threatens to climb over.
Boil until it reaches 115°C (soft-ball stage) on the thermometer. This usually takes 15-20 minutes. The mixture will darken from cream to a warm caramel gold and smell of butterscotch. If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a little into a glass of cold water: it should form a soft, pliable ball you can squash between your fingers.
Watch it closely past 110°C, the last few degrees come quickly, and tablet boiled too high sets rock-hard.
Beat it until it grains
This is the step that makes it tablet. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the vanilla (it’ll splutter), and let it sit for 2-3 minutes to come off the boil. Then beat it hard with the wooden spoon.
Keep beating for 5-10 minutes. You’ll feel it change under the spoon: the gloss dulls to a matte finish, it thickens, and it starts to feel slightly grainy and stiff as the sugar crystallises. That’s exactly what you want. The moment it looks thick and matte and is just starting to grab, stop, if you beat too long it’ll set in the pan.
Pour and mark
Working quickly, pour and scrape the mixture into the lined tin and smooth the top with the back of the spoon. After about 10 minutes, while it’s still warm and soft enough to mark but firm enough to hold a line, score it into squares with a buttered knife. Marking now means clean snaps later.
Leave it to set fully at room temperature, 1-2 hours. Don’t put it in the fridge, it can go sticky and sweat.
Cut and store
Once cold and firm, lift it out by the paper and snap or cut along your scored lines. The edges should be crisp and the cut faces should show a fine, matte, sandy grain, that’s the signature.
Store in an airtight tin between layers of baking paper, somewhere cool but not the fridge. It keeps for 2-3 weeks and arguably improves after a day or two as the grain settles.