This has been a long promised post of my dulche de lechay recipe. Well, actually not my recipe. Its a commonly found recipe, although there are a lot of ways to make this. The simplest I found was the microwave recipe. Again, I had to try to make and correct my recipe a lot of times since I was making it for the first time. I will try to post all the methods of making this, but I can vouch for the microwave one, it worked for me. But, in favour of the other methods, I can only say that I have collected them from reputed sources. I am kind of just summarising them up.
Starting with what is Dulche De Lechay, well I too was ignorant until a friend of mine asked me to make her a banoffie pie ( more on that later). So I got browsing and this is what I found.
Dulce de leche is a confection prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that derives its taste from caramelised sugar.
FIRST METHOD: ( Foodnetwork.com)
Starting with what is Dulche De Lechay, well I too was ignorant until a friend of mine asked me to make her a banoffie pie ( more on that later). So I got browsing and this is what I found.
Dulce de leche is a confection prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that derives its taste from caramelised sugar.
FIRST METHOD: ( Foodnetwork.com)
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
Directions
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.
SECOND METHOD: (Stovetop method)
Remove the label from the can of condensed milk. Poke two vent holes
in the top, by using a can opener for example. Put the can into a pot (with
the holes up), and fill up the pot with water until it is a quarter inch
or so below the top of the can. Put the pot on a stove and turn up the heat.
Let the pot and can simmer gently for about one and a half to two
hours for runny dulce de leche, or up to four hours for solid dulce de leche.
Add more water, as necessary, when the level boils down too much.
When it's done, let it cool for a while, and then carefully open up the can completely. This is important because if the sontents are too hot you'll burn yourself.
The resulting product should be colored tan or brown.
THIRD METHOD: (Microwave method)
Again, this requires a can of condensed milk. So, just open a can of condensed milk, pour it in a microwaveable glass bowl. The bowl should be a lot bigger than the amount of condensed milk used. during microwaving the condensed milk will start foaming and rising, if the bowl is small there will be spillage and a huge mess, and believe me you wouldn't like cleaning up that sticky mess. So, back to the method, microwave the contents of the jar for about 6-7 minutes or until the milk starts foaming. Take out the bowl, whisk the foaming milk and microwave again. Do this a few times, till the caramel thus formed starts leaving the sides of the bowl. this may take anywhere between 10-15 minutes depending upon your microwave. DURING THIS ENTIRE PROCESS HANDLE THE BOWL AND ITS CONTENTS CAREFULLY AS THEY ARE VERY HOT AND YOU MAY BURN YOURSELF. Add a few drops of vanilla and you are ready to go. I'll be putting up more recipes using this caramel later, or you could just sandwich some between some cookies (try my easy vanilla cookies) and you'll never be out of desserts.
There are a lot of other methods, but, hey, this works for me and its easy plus I'm feeling lazy, so I guess this'll do for us all. do try this and let me know how you like this.
SECOND METHOD: (Stovetop method)
| 1 can | sweetened condensed milk |
When it's done, let it cool for a while, and then carefully open up the can completely. This is important because if the sontents are too hot you'll burn yourself.
The resulting product should be colored tan or brown.
THIRD METHOD: (Microwave method)
Again, this requires a can of condensed milk. So, just open a can of condensed milk, pour it in a microwaveable glass bowl. The bowl should be a lot bigger than the amount of condensed milk used. during microwaving the condensed milk will start foaming and rising, if the bowl is small there will be spillage and a huge mess, and believe me you wouldn't like cleaning up that sticky mess. So, back to the method, microwave the contents of the jar for about 6-7 minutes or until the milk starts foaming. Take out the bowl, whisk the foaming milk and microwave again. Do this a few times, till the caramel thus formed starts leaving the sides of the bowl. this may take anywhere between 10-15 minutes depending upon your microwave. DURING THIS ENTIRE PROCESS HANDLE THE BOWL AND ITS CONTENTS CAREFULLY AS THEY ARE VERY HOT AND YOU MAY BURN YOURSELF. Add a few drops of vanilla and you are ready to go. I'll be putting up more recipes using this caramel later, or you could just sandwich some between some cookies (try my easy vanilla cookies) and you'll never be out of desserts.
There are a lot of other methods, but, hey, this works for me and its easy plus I'm feeling lazy, so I guess this'll do for us all. do try this and let me know how you like this.
