When the phenomenon of creme egg recipes combines with my own passion for Scottish recipes you get a seriously sweet Easter treat. Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs are combined with traditional Scottish Tablet for a confection that is seriously naughty but nice.
Easter. Time for chicks, eggs, lambs, flowers, bunnies, chocolate and CREME EGG BAKES! They seem to have become a real 'thing' in recent years and I've watched my fellow food bloggers create some absolute masterpieces incorporating them. Last year I jumped on the bandwagon for the first time with my Creme Egg Pancakes. This year I'm taking the sweetness even further with Creme Egg Scottish Tablet. Tablet conjures up many childhood memories for me. My Grandma Corntown was a prolific maker of it for sales of work but hers came with an unexpected added ingredient. The unmistakable stench of cigarette smoke (Embassy No. 1 as I recall). Tablet is a particular Scottish Confectionery, not to be confused with fudge or toffee (although sometimes it's know as Swiss Milk Toffee) It has a crumbly medium hard slightly grainy texture and should be consumed strictly in moderation.
You do need to be a serious sugar junkie to enjoy Tablet. Even moreso this Easter version. It's a fund raising staple of School Fairs and Cake and Candy Stalls up and down Scotland where it's sold wrapped in greaseproof paper. Unless you are an expert maker of tablet I'd recommend that you use a thermometer to gauge the exact temperature required. My first batch went a wee bit over and was already setting as I poured it out of the pan. The recipe below is based on one from an old Young Farmers cookbook which I've converted to metric, swapped out margarine for butter and vanilla essence for extract. To ensure perfect tablet here are my top tips...
Top Tablet Tips
- Use a deep heavy based pan - the mixture doubles in volume when boiling
- Ensure the sugar is FULLY dissolved before you bring the mixture up to the boil
- Stir CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon throughout the whole process
- Don't boil too severely - a light rolling boil is better than a fierce one
- Temperature to aim for is 116c - soft ball stage
- Don't leave it too long before scoring the tablet otherwise it will be difficult to cut
- Cut into SMALL pieces - it's super sweet!
Creme Egg Scottish Tablet
250ml Milk
110g Salted Butter (plus extra to grease)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
900g Granulated Sugar
397g Tin Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 x 89g Packs of Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs
Grease a Swiss Roll Tin with the extra Butter.
Cut one pack of the Mini Creme Eggs into halves and the second pack into quarters.
Put the Milk and Butter into a large heavy based saucepan (mixture will double in quantity as it heats) and warm through until the butter has melted.
Add the vanilla extract and granulated sugar and heat until the sugar is FULLY DISSOLVED.
Turn up the heat and Boil for 10 minutes (rolling boil) stirring CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon.
Add the condensed milk, bring back up to the boil continuing to stir CONSTANTLY for approximately 10 minutes or until the temperature reaches 116c (soft ball stage)
Beat for 2-3 minutes with a wooden spoon and pour into the buttered tin.
Work quickly to carefully place the pieces of creme egg into the tablet.
Leave to set, scoring squares after about 5 minutes.
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