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Dulce de Leche
A few days ago I tweeted something about shooting the best dessert ever. And I wasn’t lying. Seriously, anything that contains this thick, luscious and creamy caramel sauce is automatically labeled ‘best‘ in my world. And I don’t even have a real sweet tooth!
Dulce de Leche, it sounds so decadent but it’s as easy as boiling a can! I needed this amazing caramel sauce for a recipe I’m making later this week, so I figured I’d show you how I make mine. It’s so simple it doesn’t even qualify as a recipe.
Keeping myself from eating it all with a spoon is where the real challenge lies.
Ingredients:
1 or 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
(yes, it’s that simple)
Directions:
Dulce de Leche, caramel sauce, toffee. Whatever you want to name it, mine starts with 2 cans (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk. Remove the label(s).
The thickness of the Dulce de Leche solely depends on the cooking time. For a more runny sauce, stick to one and a half or two hours of simmering. I usually simmer mine for 3 hours, that leaves me with a thick caramel sauce that’s still somewhat pourable at room temperature. Remember, you can always add water or milk afterwards to thin it out but you can’t make it thicker.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, drop the cans in there and make sure they’re fully submerged. Lower the heat and simmer the cans. Make sure to flip them over every now and then.
There’s a catch, though. Make sure to check the water level frequently, the cans should be covered with water at all times, or else they might explode. Believe me, as much as you think you like caramel sauce, I doubt you’ll like it much after having to scrape it off your walls and ceiling. So, I set my timer and check the water level at least every 30 minutes. Using a Dutch oven and keeping the lid on tightly also helps.
World, meet a small part of my fridge. This is where I keep my timers, one in every color. Probably no surprise to see my fridge completely covered in photos, is it? See, there’s mini Kay on the swing! Scraped knees and all. They had to bribe me into a dress because I was a tomboy. And there’s my grandmother on the left, God rest her soul. The bright orange & lime card is the front of J-man’s birth announcement card, it was also painted on a toy chest we kept in his nursery.
And of course there are lots and lots of his baby photos. The one on the left—the B&W with the huge toothless smile—is my all-time favorite. I had it printed on a huge canvas and it’s hanging on the living room wall now. Probably forever.
After 2, 3 or 4 hours it’s time to take the cans out of the water. Let them cool off completely before opening them. At least an hour.
It might take some time to prepare, but once you open the can and see this…. you know it’s worth it. Transfer it to a bowl and stir well. I pour it into a sterile jar and store it in the fridge. Because of the high sugar content, it keeps for quite some time.
What do you do with Dulce de Leche? Lots of things. You make cheese cakes, banoffee pies, cookies or even brownies with it. You drizzle it over ice cream, grilled fruit or even smear some on bread… you add a tsp to a cup of hot cocoa or warm milk, you can even slap it on top of a pancake and add some fresh fruit. So much you can do with it.
Or stay tuned later this week to find out what I used it for! (if there’s any left by then *hides spoon*)
Wow. just wow!
you have so many great ideas!! Where do you get them from? And thanx for sharing them with us :)
I am having my graduation party real soon and I wanted to make a cheese cake. So what do you do with this caramel sauce in a cheese cake exactly? And with ice cream, I can imagine that tastes good!!
@Mae:
This is an old one, even my mother did this :)
I usually drop little spoons of Dulce de Leche in the cream cheese, like yoiu’re marbling it, and drizzle a little extra on top.
That looks so good, Kay!
Its that simple ? WOW…looks amazing…I have a can lying in the fridge…going to try this NOW ! and will come back and check what you did with it ! Lovely Kay, thanks for sharing…
yomi yomi!!!
I’ve seen many bloggers talk about how to make the dulce de leche in a boiling pot of water but with no detailed photos. Thank you for the photos. You make it look easier that way. :) I look forward to what you’re going to do with it!
This one is my fav. Looks yummy and delicious!
That looks heavenly, i want to try this at home soon!
You know, I’ve had this idea floating around in my head as something to do for years now. Ever since a friend of my partner’s said this was how he made caramel. It’s intriguing.. I might have to just boil up a tin to see what happens. *grin* What, what to use it in, apart from eating it out of the jar. Can you pour it out and leave it to set and then cut it up into caramels?
(-Cait)
That is truly awesome, I have made some from scratch before with goats milks. Thats good stuff too, I’ll have to try it this way, thanks.
I’m going to have to make this. My favorite icecream from Schwan’s is dulce de leche, now I can make this and put it over my vanilla icecream. You’re going to save me a lot of money Kay, Schwan’s can be
a little pricey. Do you think you could post a recipe for banoffee pie? My husband loves bananas.
I have heard of this method, but never tried it. I definitely will now. I could see this swirled into some homemade vanilla ice cream. Yum.
Oh………………..my………………goodness…………………
Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this! I’ve always wondered how to do it, but everyone just says, “boil the can” and for some reason, I thought I had to remove the lids first and only partially submerge. I’m glad I didn’t try it that way!
I’m going to buy sweetened condensed milk when I go to the store today! I look forward to hearing more about the many uses!
I LOVE caramel sauce! Everytime I eat at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, I have to top it off with a slice of their Dulce de Leche cheesecake. It is truly amazing. Thanks for this trick. Now I will try to make my own at home!
That dulce de leche looks so good! I have been wanting to try making it as it is hard to find here.
At times like this I really wish I was into eating sugar! Definitely looks amazing.
I love seeing your fridge covered with photos. That’s one thing I haven’t gotten back together after my house got all torn apart in the house renovations. Love seeing you as a kid and of course the little guy is always adorable!
@Kalyn:
One of the side effects of having been a low carber for so long is that I still seldom to never eat sugar. I just don’t even like sweet dishes anymore, I really think you can unlearn eating and liking sugar. But this caramel sauce is just too good to pass up :)
My fridge is covered in hundreds of photos. On all three sides. It’s crazy, people are always standing in front of it looking at the pictures.
Growing up in upstate New York, we always called this “Danger Pudding,” the danger being that the can may explode, I suppose. So delicious, especially atop some homemade vanilla ice cream!
This is wonderful. It seems like it IS something a mother would have known to do/make – and now we do too, thanks to you! Can not wait to try!
P.S. – can you share sometime why you low-carbed, how and if it helped, health and or weight. I seriously know/think I need to do with less flour, bread – pasta…but am reluctant as those are my LOVES. Lol!
Thanks, Kay!
@elizabeth:
I have some hormone issues that caused me to be insulin resistant, so I ended up low carbing for about 5 years. Felt great low carbing, it really worked for me, but having a toddler around it’s just so hard to maintain a low carb lifestyle. I stil don’t eat a lot of pasta and seldom to never eat rice, since those are huge triggers for me. I only eat whole wheat bread and potatoes.
I guess I’ll always have to watch my carb and sugar intake, but because I manage to keep things balanced out now, I stil feel fine. I think that’s mainly because I never use packages for anything, and don’t really have a sweet tooth. Every now and then I splurge, but it’s paytime afterwards.
I very seldom use anything packaged anymore. I hadn’t realized it though. I just started loving cooking again about 3 years ago and always do everything homemade. (I went off cooking when my husband died about 15 years ago and oddly enough starting watching the cooking channel 3 years ago in the hospital when nothing else appealed to me) My mother gave me a kitchen plaque many years ago which she said was perfect for me. “Love is Homemade”
@Lindie:
Those packages contain so much starch, sugar and carbs in general, and they even taste highly chemical. Once you stop using them, you just can’t go back. I really wish we had a cooking channel here, any type of cooking channel will do. I’d be glued to the tv all day long!
I had never even heard of doing this until about 2 weeks ago when I saw a friend assembling a Banoffee pie (something else i knew nothing of until about a year ago)! Thanks for posting how you did it! I forgot to ask my friend how she did it!
That is how I made mine. Makes an awesome carmel pie.
My friend does this and uses it for her chocolate turtle candy with pecans.