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Dulce de leche is a caramel made from sweetened milk found all over the Spanish-speaking world. My traditional recipe just uses milk and sugar and results in sweet, caramelised perfection!
Prep: 5min
Total:
Yield: 1 cup
Servings:
Nutrition Facts :
Ingredients:
- 4 cups milk
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instruction:
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir together the milk, sugar, and baking soda. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat and gently simmer, uncovered, for about 45 minutes.
- The milk should now have started to thicken! Keep the pan on the heat, stirring more frequently to prevent burning as the sugar starts to caramelise. Once the milk has turned a rich golden brown, add the vanilla extract and remove from heat. Leave it a little less thick than you want it, as it will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Pour into a glass jar. You can store dulce de leche in the fridge for about two weeks.
Learn to make sweet, creamy dulce de leche the classic (long) way—cooking down milk and sugar—plus our shortcut using sweetened condensed milk.
Prep:
Total:
Yield: Makes 1¼ to 1½ cups
Servings:
Nutrition Facts :
Ingredients:
- 4 cups milk
- 1¼ cups sugar
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
Instruction:
- Stir together 4 cups milk, 1¼ cups sugar, and ¼ teaspoon baking soda in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until caramelized and thickened, about 1½ to 1¾ hours. (After about an hour, stir more often as milk caramelizes, to avoid burning.) Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Makes about 1 ½ cups.
- Heat oven to 425°F with rack in middle. Pour the contents of 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate and cover tightly with foil. Set plate in a roasting pan and add enough hot water to pan to reach halfway up pie plate. Bake milk in middle of oven 45 minutes. Check water level and add additional, if necessary, then continue to bake 45 minutes more, or until milk is thick and brown. Remove pie plate from water bath and cool, uncovered. Makes about 1¼ cups.
Recipe for homemade manjar or dulce de leche, a traditional Latin dessert made by caramelizing milk and sugar.
Prep:
Total: 180min
Yield: 2
Servings:
Nutrition Facts :
Ingredients:
- 8 cups of whole milk
- 2 to 2 ½ cups sugar or panela/piloncillo raspadura (adjust based on the level of sweetness you prefer)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
Instruction:
- Combine all the ingredients in large pot over medium low heat, stir until the sugar or panela is well dissolved. Reduce the heat to low.
- Continue cooking until the mixture is significantly reduced and starts to thicken while the color changes from a creamy beige to a caramel tone – it will take between 2 ½ hours to 3 hours for the dulce de leche to be done.
- During the first 1 ½ hours you will need to stir occasionally to prevent it from boiling over and sticking. During the last hour it needs to be stirred more frequently and has to be watched very closely to keep it from burning – you can also decrease the heat to low. Cook it until it has a dark amber or caramel tone and has a creamy consistency. Keep in mind that it will thicken more when it cools down.
- Can be served warm or cold and must be kept refrigerated.
Prep: 0 5min0
Total: 0 3h5min0
Yield: about 1 cup
Servings:
Nutrition Facts :
Ingredients:
- 1 quart whole milk
- 12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
- 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Instruction:
- Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.
Be sure to stir the milk constantly soon after the sugar is added so that the milk won’t stick to the pot. Also, maintain the milk to a steady boil over medium-high heat so that it can cook down to a spreadable consistency. At the end of it all, it will be two hours well spent.
Prep:
Total: 2h
Yield:
Servings:
Nutrition Facts : properties {‘servingSize’: ‘Makes 6 cups’}
Ingredients:
- 1 gallon pasteurized or raw whole cow’s milk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 cups granulated pure cane sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, split with seeds scraped into a small bowl
Combine milk and baking soda in a heavy copper or aluminium pot, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until milk is warm.
Gradually add sugar, stirring constantly to prevent milk from sticking to the pot, until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
Add a tablespoon of warmed milk in a small bowl and stir in vanilla seeds until they dissolve. Then add vanilla mixture to milk in the pot, and stir. As the milk begins to boil, it will foam and rise in the pot. If it appears to overflow, lower the heat and continue to stir.
Once the milk settles down, maintain a steady boil over medium-high heat, and stir every few minutes to keep milk from sticking to the pot, for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes more.
When dulce de leche is a deep golden color and coats the wooden spoon, test for doneness. Place a spoonful on a cold plate. Let it cool for a minute and tilt the plate. If it doesn’t run, it is done. If it is still runny, continue to boil the mixture for 5 more minutes.
When dulce de leche is done, remove from the heat and transfer to a metal bowl. Then place it in an ice bath in an extra-large bowl. Stir the milk caramel for about 15 minutes to prevent overcooking or crystallizing.
When ice is melted, transfer bowl to a cooling rack and let cool for 1 hour.
If the cooled dulce de leche is lumpy, press the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into another bowl. Spoon the mixture into Mason jars, cover tightly and store in refrigerator for up to a month.