Infusing sweetened condensed milk

[cc.canuck]

I am a big fan of Greweling's soft caramel recipe using condensed milk but don't get on with the evaporated milk recipe. I'd like to make coffee caramels using the condensed milk recipe but am wondering if infusing condensed milk with ground coffee and then staining the coffee out will work? I'm imagining it would be a very sticky and difficult process! Anyone done this before?

[pastrygirl]

A good instant coffee would be far easier to add. I like Medaglia d’ Oro. 

Edited October 19, 2021 by pastrygirl (log)

[minas6907]

I've done the condensed milk caramels plenty of times with coffee, I generally use the Starbucks instants and have had good results. 

 

The recipes does include water, and though I haven't tried it, I don't see why you couldn't also brew some concentrated coffee and measure that out for your water. 

[paulraphael]

I've infused ground coffee into milk and cream for making coffee ice cream. It's possible to get much better flavor than you'd ever get from instant coffee. But it's got to be coffee that has flavors that you like, and you need to get the infusion times and temperatures right. I outline some of my methods (product of a lot of trial and error)in a coffee ice cream post. Sweetened condensed milk is probably going to change things up quite a bit, due to the higher concentrations of everything. Also, sugar syrup is a powerful solvent for some compounds. This might affect the flavor balance you get from the coffee, and possibly even the amount of coffee you need to use. I think it's worth experimenting, at least if coffee is a dominant flavor in what you're doing, and you've got some time to kill. And some good coffee.