DULCHE DE LECHE

     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)

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)

1 can

sweetened condensed milk

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.

CARAMEL SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Since I discovered my love for cooking and baking, a few chefs have been inspirational. Some are simply too inventive, I can only admire their work, attempting to copy them is kind of intimidating. Some like Donna Hay and Rachel Allen just make baking and cooking seem too easy for words. Last but not least, Nigella Lawson, I got interested after watching her cook. And after Masterchef Australia, my list has grown. Can't say I like the other versions of the show around. Anyways, I found this recipe ont he net, and since I had some leftover caramel (or Dulche De Leche) I decided to make this and they turned out wonderful. So here's the recipe,

[ From Donna Hay Magazine ]
Ingredients
150g butter
1/3 cup (55g) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup (225g) plain flour
2 tbsp cornflour

2/3 cup (200g) dulce de leche ( you can used readymade dulche de leche or make your own caramel from condensed milk, see my recipe for Dulche De Leche)
Method
1. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixer and beat for 8-10 mins or until pale and creamy
2. add the flour and cornflour and mix until a smooth dough forms
3. Roll the dough out (5mm thick) between two sheets of baking paper and place in the fridge for around 30 mins
4. using a 4.5 cm round cookie cutter, cut our your cookies and transfer the dough to a a baking tray
5. bake at 180 degrees celsius for 6-7 mins and check to see if they are done. If not, continue cooking for another few minutes keeping a close eye on these babies!
6. cool cookies on a wire rack
7. Pipe caramel onto half the cookies and sandwich with the remaining ones

NESTLE'S EGGLESS DATE CAKE

This was Nestle's latest recipe for Sweet Saturday. I so love these recipes. They are super easy to make and are eggless so perfect for vegetarians like me.  And this one especially is enriched with dates and curds, so perfect for tea with the family and surprise gifts for friends. PERFECT!!!

Preparation time: 20min
Cooking time: 40min.

Serves: 12

Ingredients:
NESTLÉ MILKMAID Sweetened Condensed Milk - ½ tin(200g)
NESTLÉ Milk - ½ cup (75 ml)
NESTLÉ Fresh ‘n’ Natural Dahi - ½ pack (100g)
Dates, chopped - 10-12 (100g)
Oil - ½ cup (75ml)
Maida - 1 cup (80g)
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Walnuts, chopped - 2 tbsp,(25g)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, grease a 4x6 inch cake tin and dust with flour and keep aside. Boil the NESTLÉ Milk in a sauce pan, remove from heat and add the dates and cool.

2. Puree the dates in a blender, add the oil into the blender and process again until all the oil is incorporated and mixture becomes thick. Add the MILKMAID Sweetened Condensed Milk and NESTLÉ Dahi and blend well. Transfer the mixture into a bowl.

3. Sieve maida and baking soda well, fold the maida into the date mixture and sprinkle the chopped walnuts and mix well. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake in preheated oven for 25 –30 minutes or till toothpick inserted will come out clean. Cool for 5 minutes, remove the cake onto a serving dish. Slice and serve.

 

For those who would like to check out Nestle milkmaid sweet moments on Facebook here's the link

http://www.facebook.com/NestleMilkmaid

EGGLESS PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

I was browsing through my facebook page today. Among other pages that I look through on a regular basis is Nestle's Milkmaid Sweet Moments. They have such good recipes posted, especially eggless ones. Right now they are having "Cool Cake Saturdays" where they share cake recipes every saturday. The first recipe they posted today is this Pineapple upside down cake. My cake is in the oven as I write this post.  Hopefully it will turn out good, The usual eggless recipes that I make are not satisfactory, because the cake usually turn out dense. The texture of this cake as I was beating the mixture was quite light and frothy so hopefully, it will be alight cake.
             So, here's the recipe:

                     EGGLESS PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 45 mins
Serves: 10

Ingredients:

NESTLE MILKMAID Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 tin (400g)
Maida - 200 g
Butter - 100 g
Pineapple slices - 6
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Soda bicarbonate - 1 tsp
Aerated soda - 1 cup (150 ml)
Pineapple essence - ½ tsp
Sugar for caramelisation - 5-6 tbsp
Yellow colour (optional) - ½ tsp

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease an 8" diameter cake tin. Arrange the pineapple slices at the base. Heat sugar in a pan till it melts and becomes brown. Pour this hot caramel over the pineapple slices and keep aside.

2. Melt butter, cool slightly. Add the NESTLE MILKMAID and beat well, add the essence. Sieve together maida, baking powder and soda bicarbonate. Add some maida to MILKMAID mixture and then add some aerated soda and mix well. Repeat, alternatively maida and aerated soda till both are used up.

3. Pour batter over pineapple slices in the cake tin and bake at 180°C for 45 minutes or till cake is done. Remove from oven, loosen the sides of cake using a knife and immediately turn onto a plate.

     This cake doesn't need decorating at all. Although some dark red cherries contrasting with the uellow of the pineapple do look wonderful.  As for me I don't have any cherries now so I'll probably be decorating with some coloured gel or jam. I don't know I'll see when it comes to taking the cake out of the oven. 

 I'll be sharing more of milkmaid recipes as time passes, but for those who would like to check out Nestle's page, here's the link-    

http://www.facebook.com/NestleMilkmaid

ALMOND COOKIES

Ingredients•    2 cup almonds
•    2 cup oat flour
•    1 cup maple syrup or honey
•    1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla extract)
•    10 - 12 roasted almonds  (halved) to decorate

Directions
1.    Preheat oven to 135 degrees C. Spread the almonds onto a baking sheet, and toast until the nuts start to turn golden brown and become fragrant, about 45 minutes. Watch the nuts carefully as they bake, they burn quickly. Once toasted, set the nuts aside to cool to room temperature. Finely grind the almonds in a food processor.
2.   Alternatively you can roast the almonds in a pan or wok over low to medium heat on a stove top.
3.    Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
4.    Oil a baking tray with vegetable oil or line it with parchment paper.
3.    In a bowl, mix together the ground almonds, oat flour, maple syrup, and almond extract. Form the mixture into small balls, decorate with a halved almond and then flatten the balls into cookies about 1/4 inch thick. Place cookies onto the prepared baking sheet.
4.    Bake until crisp and brown around the edges, 10  to 15 minutes; watch them carefully because they burn easily. Remove the cookies carefully, and allow to cool.


                           This is a recipe for those who love almonds. This recipe also works well for vegans. 

SUGAR COOKIES

    This recipe was given to me by my friend, Tarang. It is easy to make, the ingredients almost always are easily available at home.  It is soooo easy I let my kids make some for themselves (under adult supervision, of course).The dough after mixing has a shelf life of more than a week ( my cookies always finish in a day or so, therefore I need to make more so the dough never lasts for more than 2-3 days )
A slight change in the flavours can also give entirely different versions from the same basic dough. For example, I have added a tsp of ground ginger and ground cinnamon and got gingerbread type of cookies. I have added cocoa powder and got chocolate cookies. I have added chocolate chips and got chocolate chip cookies. The way the cookies are rolled and decorated also changes the look and taste of these cookies. So this is a basic dough, very versatile, just waiting for you to try it out. let me know how your cookies turn out.

INGREDIENTS:

            1 1/2 cup. Icing sugar
               1 cup butter
               1/4 cup milk
               1 tsp vanilla essence
               2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
               1 tsp baking soda
               3/4 tsp bakin powder

            

METHOD:
 

                Mix all ingredients together . Make a dough. Wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate it for 3-4 hrs. Roll out, use cookie cutters. Bake at 180 degree for 8-10 mins.. Very simple to do.

For the cookies in the picture, I divided the dough into two equal parts, and added cocoa powder to the second half. I refrigerated the dough for 2 hours and then rolled each half into 5 mm thick discs, placed them one above the other, and rolled them into a log. Then I wrapped them in clingfilm, and refrigerated for another couple of hours. After 2 hours, I cut out 2 to 3 mm discs out of the log, and baked them in a 180 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

For serving, you can decorate these cookies with a simple sugar mix or use dulche de leche or chocolate sauce or buttercream or any jam to sandwich two cookies together.

        For the sugar decorations, just warm up 2 tbsp water and add about half to a cupful of icing sugar and mix. Depending on the consistency required  you can add more or less water to this. Add colour for more effect. And, before I forget, sprinkles and silver balls and glitters, make these cookies a great item for kids parties.