a stab in the dark recipe? Horlicks tablets?

[RAPPLEBY2000]

just a stab in the dark,
does anyone know how i could go about makeing some Horlicks tablets (malted milk),

i know you can get hold of malties(from india) but they seem expensive for what they are.
i've already surfed the web and looking at them they must be quite easy to make!

i'm guessing the tablets are either:

compressed horlicks drink mix,

or a cooked paste made from horlicks.

any ideas possibly from the older generation?

 

[g4ghb]

I thought you could buy them , kinda like glucose tablets in chemists. Personally I can't stand horlicks but I'm sure I remember my mum buying them in the past!

 

[led]

I don't think they make them any more. You used to be able to get them from Boots, but I've not come across any in the last 20 years or so.

 

[g4ghb]

was a while a go to be fair!

 

[innocent bystander]

Is this close enough ?

http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/aaasmt/index.php/url_indprod?ltrev=14&xlc=101

Or a little further afield :

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/...=PRODUCT&path=1,2,5,39,174&KickerID=95&KICKER

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

k, for those that didn't know,

Horlicks made tablets for years the army got issued them in WW2! as emergency rations as well as the RAF untill quite recently.

i bought some from boots about 7 years ago and loved them, but Horlicks stopped making them.

Glaxosmithcline (or whatever it is) took over Horlicks and now sells a simular product called "Malties" in india and the far east.

you can buy malties on the internet,Idon't want to,
i want to make some far more cheaply for myself!


i just wanted to know if such a simple thing could be made from home! as it seem fairly easy i'm just not a cook so i don't know where to start.

any bright ideas?

 

[stonyman]

Sorry, but I have no idea about how to make your own Horlicks Tablets, it's a shame they don't make them anymore I used to love them, I used to be able to con my Mum into getting them for me on the pretence that they were healthy, well you could get them in chemists, so they must have been.

 

[innocent bystander]

Well, you could follow this chain of thought. :

Horlicks is made very near to Maltesers.
Apparently the same goop is used to make the two.
To make the maltesers they mix the malty stuff with dried skimmed milk and salt. If they use full fat, it expands to the size of a football in the vacuum process.Apparently.

So you could mix the plain horlicks with dried milk, and maybe sugar. Mix it with water, and you would have to experiment with the quantity. You'd probably need some kind of waxed paper to dry it on. And maybe some kind of weight/press to make it into blocks.

Or I may be wrong.

 

[Toddy]

Dissolve a jar of horlicks in as little warmed evaporated milk as you can get away with. Pour into a clean, unscratched nonstick baking tray, just like you would tablet. Let it set for a little while then dry the tray out either on top of a radiator or sitting in a very low oven with the door slightly ajar. You don't want to cook it, regardless of how good it smells , just dry it out. Before it sets hard press a clean, wetted in hot water, knife blade into the paste to make a grid of small squares. As soonas it's dry enough to turn out of the tray, turn it upside down and allow the base to dry out too. Break up into the marked squares and store in an airtight bag. Smells great, tastes wonderful and has all of the calorific impact of a neutron bomb

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

:You_Rock_

that's what i was after! cheers guy's!

what sort of time scale before they "go off"?
or would i have to experiment?

 

[Toddy]

Never managed to keep them longer than about a fortnight
I have found an opened bag with two left in though from the previous outing and they'd gone a bit foosty and sort of manky.
If really, really dried out properly, and kept dry, I think you'd get at least a couple of months from them, and can't see why not a fair bit longer.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Tony]

Would it help if they were vacuum packed? I know that now and then you can pick up little vacuum packers from the likes of Aldi

 

[Toddy]

Now that's a good idea If they were really dry first, it ought to work fine.

atb,
mary

 

[match]

I've been told by a friend who makes a lot of sweets that if you add a bit of bicarb to the mix when making sweets with milk in them, they keep for a lot longer - I've no idea how much though - too much and you'll end up with fizzing sweets

 

[Toddy]

Maltesers again yeah....okay, I like Puff Candy and I make it by adding bicarb or baking powder.
Thanks for the information Match. my recipe would probably work with water too, but the evaporated milk adds more depth to the flavour.
For those on the other side of the Atlantic; candy is toffee, usually hard, crispy toffee. Puff Candy is sometimes called Cinder Toffee.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

I tried making some last night, it all seemed to be going well till afetr hours they were still squishey, this morning i dried them again only annoyingly because my kids were baout i had to close the cooker, what i've ended up with is sort of a toffee which is about the consitancy of warm tarmac(very chewy) so a failed attempt BuT it does taste nice and has the same ingredients so someone else might like to try it if they prefer a toffee to a tablet!

i will have another go at the tablets though!

 

[Toddy]

There is another way, but it can leave them very crumbly.

Line a baking tray with tinfoil.
Cover with an even layer of Horlicks (up to 1cm thick)
Spray with a plant mister bottle (or the iron if you've only ever used clean water in it).
Let the powder absorb the moisture for about 20 mins or so, then, using the back of a spoon, press it down firmly into the tray.....like making the base for a cheesecake.
Mark into squares and dry out.
There's a knack to getting the mix *just* moist enough to hold, but not so wet it becomes syrup.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

fair enough, i'll give both a try this time! :You_Rock_

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

hi i tried something different this time, it may work for others too.

i mixed the horlicks powder with a small ammount of water (1 table spoon?), and mde the mix dry enough to make a sort of pastry.

i then rolled it adding more powder as i went untill it was sort of dry but still pliable, then as suggested using a wet knife i cut it into lines of squares.

i left it in the low open oven for an hour or so, my wife suggested putting it in a container in the sun which i tried.

it seemed to be going well and then i left the tablets(sweets) out overnight just airing, on a sheet of greaseproof paper.

inthe morning... disaster or so i thought, the sweets had become very firmly attatched to the paper, but after a few minutes of folding the paper at the lines i had cut, and slowly they all came off

whats slightly annoying is they are still sticky even though they are dry, so i thought back to other "old" tinned sweets and remembered they are always covered in some powder(glucose) well i didn't have any glucose and i didn't want to spoil the flavour, so i have put the lot in a small tupperwear box with a handful of Horlicks powder as well as stopping them sticking to the box it should hopefully leach out any more excess moisture still present.

i shall report what happens if anything!

by the way my 2 year old girl loves them, my son(5) has gone off them and my wife also likes them!

 

[Thrap]

Always a good idea to check out and see what our great grandfathers would have used. Check this out: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Antique-victo...ryZ15911QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Or there is this, but it seems a trifle costly: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Herbal-Vitami...ryZ19260QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Simply add ovaltine and squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze it.