Homemade Dulce de Leche

For the uninitiated, dulce de leche is the South American version of caramel—but about an order of magnitude better.  It is luxuriously thick and almost indescribably delicious.  Let’s just say that the word decadent comes to mind.

I vividly remember the first time I ever tasted dulce de leche when a co-worker who had visited Argentina brought a jar in for us all to sample.  I had a spoonful and grew weak in the knees.  When I searched around to buy some, I discovered that my local supermarket carried the Nestlé brand, but I found to be inferior to what I had tried.

I then turned to the internet and searched for dulce de leche from Argentina.  Amazon, of course, came through; and you can find good quality dulce de leche for anywhere from $10 to $15 for a 16-oz. jar.  It’s somewhat pricey as I could eat half a jar at one sitting.

The next logical step was to find a recipe on how to make dulce de leche at home.  I found several which called for boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk for two to three hours.  All of the instructions contained dire warnings not to let the water evaporate or the can could explode—yikes!  That scared me off trying to make myself it for a long time.

Last month, after being treated to some fabulous homemade dulce de leche ice cream, I decided to make a batch of the ice cream and bought another jar of dulce de leche in order to do so.  Once again, I started thinking about making homemade dulce de leche.  Back to the computer I went—and, lo and behold, what should I find but directions on how to make it without boiling the can and having to worry about it exploding.  Score!

It’s super easy and super good.  You just pour a can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass pie plate and bake it in a water bath for an hour or so until it’s brown and caramelized.  Easy peasy!

Since I made it after I had already made the ice cream (which was almost gone), what else could I do but make another batch of dulce de leche ice cream? 

One year ago:  S’Mores Cupcakes

Two years ago:  Dukan Diet Muffins

Three years ago:  Biscoff Cookie Butter Ice Cream

Four years ago:  Best Sour Cream Coffee Cake Ever

Five years ago:  Pumpkin Pancakes

Six years ago:   Chicken Chipotle Chowder

Seven years ago:   Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Eight years ago:  Pumpkin Bread

Homemade Dulce de Leche

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Ingredients

• One 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• Pinch of flaky salt

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Directions

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Pour one can (14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) into a glass pie plate or shallow baking dish.  Stir in a few flecks of sea salt.

Set the pie plate within a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.

Cover the pie plate snugly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours.  (Check a few times during baking and add more water to the roasting pan as necessary).  Once the dulce de leche is nicely browned and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool.  Once cool, whisk until smooth.

Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using.  Makes about 1 cup.

Source:  A recipe from David Lebovitz