Dulce de Leche Recipe
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Dulce de leche is a combination of milk and sugar that has been slowly cooked until the sugars caramelize, producing a thick, creamy, intensely flavored spread. A simple, safe way to make it is by baking sweetened condensed milk in a water bath (no need to constantly monitor the stove or worry about scorching sugar). Dulce de leche is extremely versatile and can be used as an ice cream topping, a dip for fresh fruits, or the filling in Alfajores cookies.
This recipe was featured as part of our Argentine Grilling menu.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oven to 425°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
- Pour milk into a pie plate and sprinkle with salt. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and place in a roasting pan. Place the roasting pan in the oven and add enough hot tap water to reach halfway up the sides of the pie plate. Bake for 1 hour.
- Remove the roasting pan from the oven and remove the pie plate. Carefully uncover the plate and whisk the mixture until smooth, about 1 minute. Replace the foil and return the pie plate to the water in the roasting pan. Place back in the oven, adding more hot water so that it remains halfway up the sides of the pie plate. Continue to bake until the dulce de leche is dark golden brown (about the color of peanut butter), about 1 1/2 hours more.
- Remove from the oven and transfer the pie plate to a wire rack. Remove the foil and whisk the dulce de leche until smooth, about 3 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate in an airtight container with a tightfitting lid for up to 1 week.
@geekluve, I made it in a glass pie plate on a cookie sheet filled with water; you could try that if you want something easy.
Has anyone tried pouring condensed milk into a pan and cooking it that way? It's been an idea i've had brewing for some time ever since i made caramel with milk because i didn't have cream and then made my own condensed milk because i couldn't find our only can.
Elinore please don't use this method. Cooking with closed anything is never good! Look at pressure cookers they have a lock and seal with a release for steam for a reason...
Elinor don't you believe it! The method you are using is quite dangerous. If you open the can too early it can explode on you causing VERY NASTY sugar burns. My advice to you is take the longer safer way. This is one of those times when the old way is NOT the best way.
My suggestion to you is to use the double boiler method. It is much safer and only takes a few hours. The smart person will take option B - but as always your call.
I've made this a few times by baking sealed cans of condensed milk in a water bath. My understanding is that as long as there is water, they won't explode. So far, so good...
Mels:
I used it to make a very easy dulce de leche cheesecake recipe from my Bon Appetit magazine. I'm sure you can look up the recipe on their website. It came out perfectly and was absolutely delicious.
Did this, but it was the the first time I used a water bath and over filled it and the water got in the Condensed milk. It tasted good though.
When I was in the Peace Corps we made it by making two holes with a key can opener to prevent exploding and then submerge the can in a pot of water 1/2 to 2/3 up the side and simmer. Added water at it evaporated. Came out the same as baking simmering unopened without the risk.
@mels:
Do you leave the cans sealed until you want to use them? If not, how do you store that much dulce de leche?
I agree with Mels about submerging the cans in water being easy. We made dulce de leche like that in my family for decades, until a friend had the cans explode in her face!! Horrible and scary - too dangerous. We no longer use this method. The baking method gives the dulce a nicer taste and there's no worrying about accidents.
I make it the lazy way - submerge can of condensed milk in simmering water for 3 hours. That's it. I use an 8 qt pot full of water so the cans are well submerged and have zero chance of exploding. I simmer 4 cans at a time so I always have some on hand. I have used it as a cake filling and cookie filling as well as a fruit dip...any other ideas?
I have to make this! I loved eating dulce de leche on bread for breakfast every morning when visiting Buenos Aires.
The condensed milk version given here has a pleasant and consistent unctuousness, but it is quite sweet. Because of that, I've been experimenting with other dulce de leche "recipes" for the past year or so. I put recipe in quotes because dulce de leche has just two ingredients -- sugar and milk, with a wide variability as to the ratio -- and only one instruction: simmer until done. (Some versions add baking soda, but that only helps the browning process.) A good place to start is roughly a 4:1 ratio, milk to sugar by weight. You'll need to watch the pot once the mixture starts going brown, at around the third hour, and in my experience, once I can see the bottom of the pot while stirring, it's done, thick enough. One trick I've used: an immersion blender to get rid of any lumpy areas.
Incidentally, I've done a bit of reading on the browning process involved. From what I've found, it's not well understood. Sugars caramelize while proteins go through the Maillard process. Dulce de leche has sugar and protein, so the browning may rely on both processes. Harold McGee seems to say as much in his book, "On Food and Cooking."
When I lived in Argentina as a girl people who made dulce de leche at home just boiled the unopened can of milk in a pan of water.
I grew up with my mom making "caramel pudding". She took the can of condensed milk... unopened... put in a pot of water (enough to cover the can)... and boiled it for about 2 hours. NEVER did the can burst when my mom made it. Note * it did burst once when I made it and let the pan go dry! Oops.....
To sum up cooking techniques from this and related CH postings, people successfully make D de L by heating condensed milk in a double boiler or _bain-marie_ (stovetop versions of what laboratories call water baths); in a slow cooker or "crock pot" (which is slower); inside the unopened can in boiling water or a pressure cooker (common but risky, even if the water DOESN'T boil away, because though the cans seldom burst, they may, since they're not designed to withstand the _internal_ pressure this creates with either method); or in a container kept in boiling water in an oven. (One method that won't work reliably is cooking directly over a flame, because the milk burns easily above boiling-water temperature.)
Oven baking is needlessly energy-wasteful for this or any other cooking at boiling-water temperature. You could also cook rice or potatoes in a covered pot of water in an oven at 425 F, but why??
why, yes you can, according to this link posted on another board:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Dulce-De-...
takes a lotta milk, though, 2 liters whole milk, 1 1/2 c. sugar, and a teaspoon of salt, sea salt if poss.
heat on medium-low stirring constantly, until it thickens.
must try.
do you have to make it with condensed milk? i have an aversion to that stuff.
I made some over the weekend by placing a can of sweetened, condensed milk in a pot of water and boiling uncovered for about 2 hours on the stove. I added additional water intermittently in order to keep the water level above the top of the can. It worked perfectly. The dulce was smooth, creamy and not too hard.
Dulce de Leche can also be made in a pressure cooker:
1. Remove the label from the can of condensed milk.
2. Place a trivet in the bottom of the pressure cooker. (Or use several tightly-crumpled balls of tin foil if you don't have a trivet.)
3. Place can on trivet. Pour a quart of water into the cooker.
4. Put lid on cooker and bring to high pressure over high heat, then reduce heat to a low flame — just enough to maintain pressure.
5. Cook for 40-60 minutes. Shorter cooking time makes for a lighter, creamier dulce. Longer cooking time makes the duce darker and firmer. (Consider your first attempt an experiment in timing.)
6. Remove cooker from heat, and let pressure come down naturally.
7. Remove can from cooker, and place on rack to cool. DO NOT open can until it has cooled completely!
8. Empty can, add a pinch of salt to the dulce, and whisk to emulsify.
I make the dulce leche like my grannie did in Cuba.
We boil the can of condensed milk.
For loose dulce leche boil about 2 hours.
For caramel boil 3 hours. This we spread over saltine crackers and the sweet salty flavor is awesome.
NOTE: As the water dissipates keep adding water.
Sorry I mistakenly referred earlier to cooking in the can (as some people do -- despite manufacturers' warnings that heating a can to boiling is unsafe) but the same point applies without the can. An oven is unnecessary and very inefficient for maintaining boiling-water temperature in cooking. Why not use a "double boiler" or improvised equivalent, to keep the milk at the same temperature??
Because the recipe uses a water bath to cook a can no hotter than water's boiling point (you can't go higher, or the can may burst), this practical scientist wonders why on earth use an oven. Many people (including in parts of US where the same sweet is also traditional) cook it in a covered pot of water on a stove. The can's contents can't distinguish whether the heat comes from an oven or stove top, so I wonder why recommend the house-heating and very energy-wasteful choice of an oven. Presumably that's just how some people learn it.
Love Dulce de Leche. Reminds me of eating too much dulce de leche ice cream at Freddo in BA
Not to mention Chile, ET! :)
My batch is in the oven right now; it's taking much longer than the listed time but I think that may be due to the humidity. Excited to make alfajores with my friend tomorrow!
Why Argentina... Dulce de Leche and Alfajores are specialities in Ecuador too.... ;-)
My mom used to put a can of condensed milk in a pressure cooker with water for about 45 minutes making sure that water always covered the can and it worked VERY well.
Just put the unopened can (pull tab or regular) in a large pot of covered simmering water, check that the water is way above the can. 2 1/2 hrs. Cool. I hear that if all the water evaporates you will have an explosion. I've been making this for years and never had a problem, but I guess it's possible to forget it for the 5 to 10 hours that would take.
Dulce de leche and alfajores in a single week? Is there an Argentina recipe week going on or something?
Heating your oven at 425 for 2 1/2 hours for 14 ounces of dulce de leche is not very energy efficient. How about suggesting that this could be done with other items baking at the same time. And does it have to be 425, what about a lower temp for longer?
hulk smash -
It does not ruin the pie plate. We tested this in a glass pie dish, but I don't believe there should be an issue using a disposable foil one. Try it out and let us know if it works!
Christine Gallary, CHOW Test Kitchen
Does this ruin the pie plate? Should I use a disposable one or what?