To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t heard of traditional Scottish Tablet before I came to Scotland, but I’m really glad I’ve heard of it now! When I try and explain it to people who’ve never heard of it or tasted it, I usually compare it to fudge, and I have heard it called Scottish fudge before, although it has a medium-hard texture rather than soft as a fudge usually does. As well as these suggestions, you could experiment with other spirits such as Rum or Baileys. Add these in the same way as whisky above. Chocolate would completely change the taste, but you could add some cocoa powder to the recipe if you want to give it a go. There’s no getting away from it; Tablet is definitely not diet-friendly! It requires a lot of sugar, but I firmly believe we all deserve a treat now and then, so why not Tablet?

It’s delicious sugary goodness, and seriously addictive. Not so good for the waistline, but definitely the perfect treat when you want something sweet! As noted above, I used the microwave in the first part of this recipe. This is a little controversial! Tablet purists might say that it should all be done in a pan on the stove. My first Christmas, someone finally bought me some, and I realised I had been missing out big time! Tablet is well known to be temperamental, and it’s no surprise we’ve had many questions since we released this recipe!I also realised we have something really similar in New Zealand called Russian Fudge (although I can’t seem to find any reason why it’s called that, and all recipes seem to originate in New Zealand). It’s essentially the same but with Golden Syrup added to it as well.

Scottish Tablet was originally made with sugar and cream, but it’s now more commonly made with sweetened condensed milk and butter since it’s so easy to burn the cream. This is what we do in our Tablet recipe. But I have to say the homemade stuff has always been better than the shop-bought kind because it doesn’t need preservatives or any substitution for milk products. Other essences, like the floral ones, can be added near the end once removed from the heat and just before you beat it. Tablet is a wonderfully tasty, sugary, sweet (or candy) with a slightly grainy texture that melts in your mouth. From here, you need to bring it all to a boil. This is a really important step because if you don’t get the mixture hot enough, the Tablet won’t set properly later on.

The Tablet recipe then calls for a “brisk simmer” for about 20 minutes which means not fully boiling but not on a low heat either.