500 grams or 1lb1oz Granulated
sugar (Tate and Lyle cane sugar is
best.)
500 grams or 1lb1oz Demerara
sugar
150 grams or 5oz butter
Tin of Nestles condensed milk 397 grams
200 ml or a mug of fresh whole milk
Add sugars with the fresh milk in a good sized
heavy bottomed saucepan making sure the mixture has room to more than double in
volume without boiling over. I use the pressure cooker pot. Stir over a low to
medium heat until evenly blended. Add the butter cut up into bits and stir with
a wooden spoon until the sugar and butter is melted and the mixture becomes
smooth and starts to boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the condensed milk.
Return to the heat and bring the mixture back to boiling. Allow to boil for
exactly 12 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent it catching on the base of
the pot and burning. Remove from the heat and stir briskly until the mixture
begins to grain. As soon as you feel the grains of sugar forming and see the
mixture starting to show signs of cooling and setting turn it out quickly into a
suitable flat swiss roll tin which has been lightly buttered. Leave to cool for
a few minutes then lightly score the surface into squares with a sharp knife.
Leave in a safe place until cold before turning out and breaking up into
squares.
Some people prefer to add a few drops of
vanilla essence at the end of the boiling period but I prefer the butter to be
the main flavour and would always use good quality butter. Unsalted butter is
recommended but I often just use salted butter as I always have plenty and
it’s just as good.
It must be stressed that boiling
sugars is a very dangerous practice and extreme care should be taken at all
stages to avoid any splashing of such mixtures, it is still very hot when off
the boil and will cause severe burns if coming in contact with the skin. Never
be tempted to taste these mixtures whilst cooking or pouring as they will burn
you as sugars boil at much higher temperatures than water and take much longer
to cool. It goes without saying that the children will love the end result but
should not be allowed near the kitchen when boiling sugars.