By BOBBY HUEN
It Could Not Be Simpler To Boil Your Own Dulce De Leche
Dulce de leche, which translates to "sweet milk" and is dubbed "milk candy" or "caramel spread," is a luscious, sweet confectionery sauce used for baking and dessert applications.
You can make it by slowly boiling condensed milk until you get a thick, creamy, caramel-like sauce. All you’ll need are a large pot, water, and cans of sweetened condensed milk.
Peel the labels off the aluminum cans and keep them fully submerged in the pot of boiling water for a few hours, letting the caramelization process, or the Maillard reaction, work.
Maintaining the water level in the pot is crucial, so keep adding more water whenever the level drops. Firstly, it’ll ensure even heating, averting a burnt, lumpy, or grainy sauce.
Secondly, the water acts like a pressure cooker, so if the water level drops and the cans get exposed, they can explode due to uncontrolled expansion of the dulce de leche.
A properly maintained water level also ensures the sauce comes out correctly. It helps the sealed environment inside the cans caramelize the milk at a slow and controlled pace.
Over the hours, the sugars in the milk will begin to break down and turn it into a golden brown dulce de leche. Once removed from the water, let the cans cool before opening them.
You can slather your dulce de leche on toast, pancakes, waffles, or crepes. Feel free to use it in the batter for your cakes, brownies, blondies, and cheesecakes or in a mousse.