Trick or treat! Scottish tablet

I've wanted to try this for a long time.  I wasn't sure what it was, but had an idea -- it's basically caramel that's been agitated to create tiny crystals, turning it into a semi-firm block.  It's extremely sweet, like eating frosting, with a buttery, penuche-like flavor.  Thing is, I'm not a fan of overly sweet things, so it wasn't something I was going to be eating.  I don't know how people feel about kids getting homemade products at Halloween, but I did it anyway and will be handing these out to the kids.  I was concerned about the small quantity this made, but it's so sweet that it really has to be served in small pieces.  

I looked at several recipes; they were all pretty similar, so I cobbled together my own list of ingredients then followed instructions from a couple of others.  This made about 100 pieces (about the size of a Mary Jane candy).  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup salted butter
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
4½ cups granulated sugar
2 pinches of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
1 can (397g/14 oz) condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a 13 x 9" baking pan, line with foil, then lightly grease again.  In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the butter, milk, cream, sugar, and salt over medium-low heat. Stir constantly, removing any sugar crystals or splatters from the sides of your pan with the wet pastry brush (do this throughout the entire process) and slowly bring to a boil.  Once the mixture is boiling and the sugar has completely dissolved, stir in the cream of tartar, then the condensed milk.  Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-low heat, still stirring continuously.  Once boiling, stop stirring.  Allow the mixture to cook, wiping down the pan sides as necessary with the wet pastry brush to remove any crystals.  Once it reaches 240F, remove from heat and beat with a whisk for about 5-10 minutes; this will encourage proper crystallization.  (I used an electric hand mixer wit the whisk attachment on the lowest speed.)  Continue to mix until the mixture has thickened and cooled slightly but is still pourable.  Quickly pour the mixture into your prepared pan and smooth the surface; remove any air bubbles by tapping the pan on the counter top a few times.  Allow to cool for several hours before cutting (or scoring so you can break it later).  To make cutting easier, lift the entire slab by the foil out of the pan and set on the counter.  Store in an airtight container.

This was pretty easy to make.  I had a slight issue of a spot in the bottom of my pan that cooked hotter, creating browning that pulled up and resulted in a few hard, dark pieces of candy mixed in, but I picked those out and used caution scraping the bottom of the pan.  (One recipe recommends stirring occasionally while it's cooking in order to keep this from occurring.  An undamaged pan shouldn't have this problem.)  The only tricky part was knowing when to stop whisking after it's cooked.  I whisked too long, I think, so that the mixture was cooler than it should have been when I poured it out.  It was firming up quickly while I was trying to scrape the last out of the pot.  Then when I tried to smooth the top, it just dragged the mixture around.  On top of that, I found my counter is not level, so one side of the pan was substantially thicker than the other.  Also, some areas of the candy were softer and creamier than others, which I can only assume had something to do with the cooling process since it all came from the same place.  I used a slender, sharp knife to cut pieces about 1.5" x 1" x 1/4" and wrapped them in waxed paper.

Conclusion:  Delicious!  Tooth-achingly sweet, but nice to nibble on in tiny bits, and good with strong coffee.  For an adult version, I would add rum or bourbon instead of vanilla.  Coconut or nuts would be good too, as long as they don't burn.  (Maybe have them in the pan already and pour the candy on top.)  One could also try dipping an edge in dark chocolate.

Original recipes:  Scottish tablet via Not So Humble Pie and Old English Butterscotch 1934 via The Vintage Kitchen

International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ya-hoy! Buttered Rum Cupcakes on rough seas

 

Things have been a tad rough lately, right?  Nothing like a little pandemic to make life more difficult.  Fun cupcakes to the rescue!  

I've been wanting to make these for Speak Like a Pirate Day for years.  I guess I thought they'd be complicated and time consuming, but they really weren't. In fact, since the recipe uses a packaged biscuit, they're easier than most baked items.  The only tricky part was making sure you didn't over cook the syrup.

The original recipe said it made 18; I cut the original down to one third.  Here's what I used:

Butter-Rum Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
5⅓ teaspoons heavy cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons Lyle's golden corn syrup
1 tablespoon spiced rum
1/6 teaspoon vanilla extract

Rum Ball Cupcakes
1 16.3-ounce can ready-made buttermilk biscuits (non-flaky)
1/6 cup butter-rum sauce
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1/6 teaspoon nutmeg
1/6 cup spiced rum

Butter-Rum Ocean Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon butter-rum sauce
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2/3 drops black food coloring
5 drops blue food coloring plus 1⅔ more drops

For the butter-rum sauce, heat the butter, cream, brown sugar, and golden syrup in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat so that the mixture retains a slow but constant boil. Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every minute. The mixture should be thicker at the end. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the rum and the vanilla extract until completely blended, but be careful as the mixture will likely spatter a bit. Set the sauce aside to cool to room temperature.

For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium-sized bowl, mix 1/6 cup of the butter-rum sauce with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum in a large bowl until well blended.  Cut the biscuits into eighths and place them in the rum marinade, gently tossing them in the mixture with your hands to ensure that they are evenly coated.  Allow them to soak in the mixture for 5 minutes, tossing with your hands every minute or so to prevent them from getting too stuck to one another.  Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Fill each of the cupcake liners about 3/4 full with the rum balls.  Spoon any sauce left at the bottom of the bowl over each of the cupcakes before placing the pan in the oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until the cupcakes are golden brown.

For the frosting, mix together the butter, butter-rum sauce, and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until a smooth frosting forms.  Remove 1/3 of the frosting and set it aside.  Add the black food coloring, and the 5 drops of blue food coloring to the larger amount of frosting and mix until combined.  Add the remaining 1/3 frosting back in and stir until partially blended, so that there are still a few lighter streaks in the frosting. Add the remaining blue food coloring, placing each drop over a different area of the frosting, and stir with a large spoon or spatula a few times until there are bright blue streaks throughout.

Remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.  Drizzle a little of the remaining butter-rum sauce over each one.  Then, using a spatula, smear the frosting on top of the cupcake to create an ocean wave.  For decoration, cut out sail and boat shapes from brown and white paper and attach them to the cupcakes using a toothpick.

 

I used Pillsbury Grands Southern Homestyle Buttermilk biscuits, "fluffy".  Cutting into them was a sensual joy, all soft and springy.  It was a 16.3-ounce package, and I thought I was making 6 cupcakes (one-third of 18 for the original recipe) but ended up with 10.  I probably could have done 9, but that would have been it.  They were a little browner than I would have liked at 30 minutes; I wish I'd checked a few minutes sooner.

The biscuit part was rather tough.  That might have been from being overbaked, or it might be the constraint of the muffin cup, or it might just be the product.  The butter-rum sauce is delicious-- that could be used in soooo many ways. (Some more adult than others.  Hint hint nudge nudge.)

Conclusion:  These were tasty, but they tasted pretty much like Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, which are so much easier!  (But not as cute.)  The prepared biscuits have such a distinctive taste that I couldn't get past it.  I ate them for breakfast with coffee.  I found dribbling them with the syrup before frosting made them too sweet, so I left that off.  Otherwise, the quantities were just about perfect.

Recipe:  Buttered Rum Cupcakes via Adventures in Cooking