Dulce de Leche

Nice one; I do similar things to reduce sauces but haven't tried it with caramel. Good call. One thing you might do is use a dough whisk instead of a balloon whisk so it isn't so much trouble to clean off. (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/07/danish_dough_whisk.php)

i agree with using a larger bowl...i once burned myself with hot caramel and the stuff actually made my skin blister up and form an indentation after the blister burst.
this sounds good. when i was a kid i used to like eating condensed milk by itself.

would you recommend anything special if you wanted to package this as a gift? Would a clean mason jar be alright as long as it made it to a refrigerator fairly quickly?

If you're cooking it until it's a solid candy, I'd spread it out on a sheet of parchment paper, wait until it's solid, cut it and wrap in plastic wrap or candy wrapper. If it's liquid, then you can put it in the mason jar, no problem. The issue though is if you over cooked it and it solidifies in the jar - it's going to take a long time getting the dulce de leche out of that.

Good call on the dough whisk. I should point out that cleaning the utensils and bowls afterward was really easy a five minute soak in hot water and it all dissolved. Didn't even have to scrub.

Nice post!.
At home we use a pressure cooker to boil the can and time reduces a lot, it takes 40/50 minutes.

funny that you should mention microwaving dulce de leche. i did the same when i undercooked mine in the pressure cooker. you are right on that boiling over part... gotta keep a close eye on it! same with clara, I completely submerged my unopened cans in the pressure cooker. 35 minutes for sauce and 45 minutes for something darker.

Try eating it on a french crepe, or on bread and butter. That's how we have it in Argentina!
You can also spread it on a chocolate cake!
Enjoy!

You're nuts, your method is FAR more trouble than boiling the can.

1. If you love this stuff, do several cans at once.

2. Don't pierce the cans - they will not explode.

3. Use a big pot with a close-fitting lid, and more than enough water to cover the cans (you can't do this if you pierce them).

4. Sit the cans on a little rack or a crumpled piece of foil so they are not resting on the bottom of the pot. Sitting the can directly on the bottom of the pot lets it get too hot on the bottom; that's probably why yours weren't evenly cooked. Mine are always very uniformly golden

5. Nothing terrible will happen if the water level falls below the tops of the cans. Keep the heat low and check once in a while.

6. 2-3 hours works well for me, depending on how caramel-y I want it.

7. Because the cans haven't been pierced, you can put the surplus cans of dulce de leche back in the cupboard, where they'll keep for months more.

Hello from Argentina!!! for homemade dulce de leche we use the sweetened condensed milk method if we don´t want to make a mess, if we are 100% homemade food fans (or have kids at home), we use this recipe: put on a iron or copper ( NEVER aluminum!!!) pot 8 cups of milk ( with over 3% fat) and 4 cups of white sugar ( you can also add more). You must revolve the mixture (with a wood spoon) to medium- high fire into boilling point; then strain the mixture, wash the pot and then carry again to low fire. Keep revolving constantly (or at least frequently) for two hours , if you nail the spoon in the center, it should remain vertical.
Then add, if you like, vanilla essence. The result is a soft sweet brown creme...and a sore arm!! :P
About the pronunciation, is: dool- ce (like decelerator) -de (like denim ) -le (like legitimise) -che (like cherokee)
Bye and Happy Holidays for all of you!!!

You make the traditional method sound a lot more complicated than it is! When I make dulce de leche I do 4 cans at once. I don't pierce the cans and have never had an explosion, and that way they will keep in your cupboard for months, the same way the can of condensed milk would have before you did anything to it. You only have to check it and add a little water about once an hour. I've never had the problem you talk about of having it be runny on the top and crusty on the bottom, mine always comes out nice and thick and creamy. I will try your way if I ever need some dulce de leche immediately, but I've never had that problem since I keep a few extra cans around.

I learned to make dulce de leche in a pressure cooker. Peal the label off the can of sweetened condenced milk. Put it in a pressure cooker with enough water to come 2/3 up the can ( or cans ) of condenced milk. DO NOT OPEN THE CAN(S) at all. Seal on the lid and pressure cook for 50-55 minutes. Longer for darker dulce. Remove the can with tongs and cool COMPLETELY. You now have a SEALED can of dunce that will keep as long as the original can of condenced milk, just no label. The can won't explode because the pressure cooker equalizes the pressure and it all liiks the same as when you put it in except when you open the can.

I make tapioca pudding following the tapioca box recipe but I use NO sugar and put the dulce in a measuring cup and then fill with mil up to the amount called for in the recipe. It turnes out GREAT.

When I worked in a restaurant, I would make several cans of dulce de leche at a time, in a huge pot. The cans were not opened. The trick to a good finished product is to keep the cans from touching the bottom of the pan--they need to be suspended in the boiling water, where the heat is even. Then they will cook evenly AND they will not explode from getting too hot! I used a wire rack in the pot then, and now at home we use one of those little steamer baskets in the pot.
Try dulce de leche between the layers of a cake and on top of cheesecake! If it is hard to spread, it can be extruded with a cookie/frosting press to get it where you want it without wrecking the cake.

If you add chocolate Nesquick or other brand of kids' cocoa to the sweet condensed milk (about 4 very full tablespoons) in the beginning and wisk it well to dissolve, then proceed just the same up to the first curling point, you can make a very popular brazilian fudge candy called "brigadeiro." You just have to let it cool well at room temperature and then eat it with a spoon, or for the traditional presentation, roll it in your buttered hands into 3/4 inch balls, and cover them with granulated chocolate or even sugar. Don't put them in the refrigerator, because they become too stiff and don't taste as well. They keep perfectly well for at least 5 days.

Well! I never knew this was a South American candy! When I lived in England 20 yrs ago, I was introduced to a pub desert called "Banoffi Pie" that used the same long-cooked tin of sweetened condensed milk. After boiling for 3 or so hours, then cooled, the tin was opened and the contents were spread into a prepared 9" crumb pie crust. Cover with 2-3 thinly sliced ripe bananas, followed with a topping of whipped double cream (48% BF). Sprinkle with chocolate curls. Yum!

I first tasted this dish in Peru almost 40 years ago. They called it manjar blanco and you could buy it in cans at the grocery store already cooked. I came home all excited about this great Peruvian dish. When I described it to my family my aunt said, "Oh, your grandmother used to make that but we called it 'dirty pudding.'"

I have to say that there is no need at all to pierce the cans.
Keep them intact and then, as said earlier, store them in the cupboard.
I put 8-10 cans into a jam pan of water, and brought it to the boil then moved it into an oven at about 100-110C, and left it for at least 4 hours. This way there's no risk of the cans burning on the bottom of the pan.
There IS a drawback. The steam generated soaks into any crud you have on the walls of the oven, and then seeps out as a sort of horrible caramel liquor. Be Prepared. But it is a way of making a large batch of Dulce de Leche.
Now, you dry the tins carefully and store them in the cupboard. Over the course of a few months, the now-cooked sugar will start to crystallise and when you open the cans you have a lovely crunchy base for something like a banoffee pie.

There's an even easier way of making this:
Put the can in a pan with enough boiling water to cover it, and just leave it boiling, that's it. :) I left mine for 2 hours and it was perfect, but if you use a less dense sweetened condensed milk, it might take longer.
The only thing you have to do is check up on it every once in a while to put more water in, if too much has evaporated so it's always covered.

The traditional way of making dulce de leche (here in Chile we call it 'Manjar') is how danhiskka says: cooking milk and sugar in a big pot, stirring constantly until it turns light brown. And, in my humble opinion, it is waay better than the stuff made from condensed milk (best made in a pressure cooker).

I must have gone a cycle or two beyond. I now have excellent, yummy, caramel candy.

I was trying to shoot for something of the consistency of cajeta, which is still kind of runny. My fault; I was judging by color and not consistency. Definitely will try this again!

Since there were several responders from So.America, can somebody post a recipe for this yummy cake we had in Bueno Aires that uses dulce de leche and meringue and looks like snow-capped mountains? When we asked the waiter what it was called, the name sounded like "RAQUEL" or RAKEL. I have googled it but can't seem to find anything on it. Or if no recipe is available, is there a bakery/restaurant/cafe in the U.S. that sells or serves it? I tell you, it is to die for!!! Thank you.

Found this link for "rogel"

http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2008/07/rogel-de-dulce-de-leche.html

sounds good

Despite all the naysaying about folks that have absolutely no trouble with the long method, etc. etc., I wanted to add my thanks for offering a much, much quicker method. It's really no trouble at all, and you get perfect results. I appreciate it!

To the person who referred me to the Big Red Kitchen website for a recipe for the Argentinian cake made with dulce de leche, called "ROGEL" a big thanks. Finally I can attempt to recreate that truly scrumptious dessert! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
"gagafordulcedeleche"
"tvlgtrfls"

this is my recipe for the rogel, it always works fantastic
9 yolks
9 table spoon of oil (canola or corn)
9 table spoon of flour
put in the working table the flour like a ring, then put in the middle the yolks and the oil and start to mix.
form 6 little balls and let them rest under a table cloth or similar for 30 minutes.
flat them with the roling pin in a circular form, very thin, mark it with a fork and cook on a medium oven 3 minutes each side (they shoul look cook but still white).
then for the italian merengue you can use any recipie... the most conventional is 3 egg whites, 1 cup of sugar litle water, just enough to wet the sugar. you have to ccok the sugar to "firm ball" consistence.
Start to beat the whites, and add this cook sugar very slowly... continue beating until the bowl is cold.
here is a picture: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jCNDh0FNybY/SLLuXWUhN_I/AAAAAAAAAFk/HZVDNDwihzk/s16...JPG
the condense milk can of dulce de leche is way to far with the traditional milk and sugar cook, but it takes to long to cook the milks... so if you cant buy a store dulce de leche, the condense milk its fine...
here is alink to real dulce de leche recipie: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Dulce-de-Leche/Detail.aspx
and its right, all the "y" at the end of the pronunciation are wrong! you can say dulce "the" leche

I don't think Michael means for you to pronounce the Y part of "say" "day" and "chay"... althought "chay" isn't a word, "say" and "day" are and it seems pretty clear how he's suggesting we pronounce it. In your part of the world, is "say" and "day" pronounced with a "y" sound? In American English (whether or not it's "correct") we pronounce it with a simple long a sound (no "y").

For those that don't mind the ole stirrin way, and love homemade candy, here's our Key West family recipe for homemade fudge with condensed milk. I used to work in my aunt's fudge factory as a kid and we used to make it in gigantic sheets. This is why I can't eat sugar now. :D

Use a very thick dutch oven type pot--we used the bottom of a pressure cooker that we had lost the top.

Turn the heat on med hi and put in 6 heaping tablespoons of white sugar and not quite 6 tablespoons of water--just enough to moisten the sugar and let it spread out so it will dissolve into the water base. Ok, if you want more, sure you can make it with 1/2 or 1 cup or even 2 cups of sugar if you want--it's just gonna make it harder and kill you faster. Experiment with what you like best, but we minimized the sugar and water because the condensed milk has both, and cooked it longer.

So stir until the sugar is bubbling all over and drops clear from a very long handled spoon. You don't want to get this on you, it's very painful! The trick is to not let the sugar stick on the bottom of the pot, not to get burned, and not to overcook it or have sugar crystals appear all over. You can use a candy thermometer, but that takes all the fun out of it. I don't know what the temp would be--somewhere just beyond softball stage but before hard.

Stir in a can of condensed milk (it's sweetened--not evaporated). Then squeeze in a packet of liquid bitter or semisweet chocolate, or a square of same. If you want it really dark put 1 more in. Stir really well until the whole thing is really starting to get dark and thick and the bubbles are large and popping. You may have to turn the heat down to med.

Drop small spoonfuls into a bowl filled with ice water every few minutes as it starts to get dark. Try to form small balls and pick them up with one hand in the ice water, while stirring the pot with the other that's getting overheated--it's fun! If soft balls form, it's getting done. When the sides of the pot scrape white, it is done.

While you're stirring, it's inevitable the phone will ring, someone will be at the door, your kid will fall down, your husband will have a crisis, someone will die on tv, whatever. You'll either have to keep stirring or take it off the burner. Do not leave it on the burner or unattended. It will cause a fire or burn someone very badly. And make sure your pot handle is not reaching over the edge of the stove or your kid will really get scarred.

Not that this happened to anyone I know of course, but you can see how it could. So anyway, after it's ready, then

Drop in a block of butter and stir in good, then stir in a teaspoon of vanilla extract (if you cheat on this or the butter it won't taste good--it'll have an aftertaste). Then pour into a 13x9 in rectangle baking pan that has been prebuttered and already sitting on a rack. Do not get this on you, it burns even worse than before you put the butter in.

If you want nuts, either stir them in after the vanilla, or spread them on the bottom of the buttered pan and pour the fudge over them--this is a good trick for making one half of the pan with nuts and one half not--for those that don't want nuts and you're forced to share. Pecans or walnuts, depending on what you like. I like pecans cuz I'm southern.

When it cools enough, cut it into l" squares with a buttered knife. If you make em bigger they'll just make you sick. You're gonna end up eating 2 or 3 every few hours anyway until they're gone or someone else snags em, so make them little so you won't feel so guilty. And they're great with that morning java. You can even cut down on the sugar in the coffee!

And if you mess it up, and it's too soft, then you have the perfect center for popcorn balls. Just leave it in the pot, you may have to add a little more butter to keep it soft, and then make the popcorn. Drop 2" balls into the popcorn bowl, and roll around, one at a time, until you can pick the ball up with your hands. Just put them on some wax paper or something til they harden up a little. Yummee.

Cleanup? The kids love scrapin the pot when it's cool. Then just put soapy water in it til the rest comes off. If you burn yourself while you're making it, just take an ice cube out of the bowl of water and put it on the spot while you keep stirrin. It'll keep the scarrin to a minimum. If you really can't handle it, then take it off the stove until you can get over the pain. But chances are the fudge won't make it and then you'll have that scar for nothing. So you might as well keep stirring and get some fudge outta the deal!

We didn't have tv when I was a kid and we made all of our baked goods and desserts, including fried donuts. No wonder we all have diabetes and heart disease lol. Enjoy! :P

Just wondering if you can you use dulce de leche as an add in when baking biscotti or will the baking of the biscotti just melt it and ruin the biscotti?

If you're really lazy, another failsafe way to make this is to strip the cans of condensed milk, place them in a crock pot/slow cooker on low, nearly covered in water, and leave it overnight.

Does it take a long time? Yup. But you don't have to tend to it, and you wake up the next morning with creamy, sweet goodness to drizzle or spoon over your waffles. =)

30 plus years ago, I was making this, whilst drinking and partying, fell asleep, and awoke to the BANG of the can exploding.

But, then again, alcohol was involved in this massive faux pas.

My mom always wondered what the odd little splatters on the kitchen ceiling were.

:D

Hello Sir, I'm from Chile, a country in south-america. The Dulce de Leche comes from us. Here is a tip. Just trow the sweetened condensed milk can into a pot full of warm water and boil it for 2hours with low-fire. Then open the can and et voilà. Dulce de leche!

Hi, im colombian, we have a traditional recipe of dulce de leche called "Arequipe" that has a different (delicious) taste.
Its basically the same thing, with a different kind of sugar, called "panela"
it is basically "raw" sugar but you need to use the traditional recipe (unless you find condensed milk made with panela) which is boiling 2 lt milk and then adding 2 lb panela, mixing it until it acquires the desired consistency. (takes 2-3 hours of mixing)
also
adding corn starch to the mix makes it a delicious dessert
add it just when milk boils (traditional recipe)
for the "easy" (cheap :) ) recipe add it when the condensed milk starts to boil and mix for 20 minutes (or less)

ehm sorry for the bad english :(