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Dulce de Leche


FoodMan

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I make it often and I always use half goat milk and half cow milk, regular milk, not low fat.

I use a crock pot -uncovered- and cook until it is a bit darker than regular caramel, light chestnut is the color description I use.

It is stiff when taken from the fridge, I generally remove it from the fridge early in morning when I am going to be using it later in the day. If I forget, I place the jar in a bowl of warm water, not hot, to speed it up but never warm it in the microwave.

My recipe is in RecipeGullet, I got it from my neighbor Celia Obregon, who is originally from Durango, Mexico, so I am pretty sure her recipe is authentic. It is better than any of the commercial ones I have tasted and is worlds better than the cooked condensed milk.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I make it often and I always use half goat milk and half cow milk, regular milk, not low fat.

I use a crock pot -uncovered- and cook until it is a bit darker than regular caramel, light chestnut is the color description I use.

It is stiff when taken from the fridge, I generally remove it from the fridge early in morning when I am going to be using it later in the day.  If I forget, I place the jar in a bowl of warm water, not hot, to speed it up but never warm it in the microwave.

My recipe is in RecipeGullet, I got it from my neighbor Celia Obregon, who is originally from Durango, Mexico, so I am pretty sure her recipe is authentic.  It is better than any of the commercial ones I have tasted and is worlds better than the cooked condensed milk.

Voila:

Dulce de leche from scratch Submitted by: andiesenji

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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  • 1 year later...

I posted a recipe I got from my neighbor and it is delicious. It is far more complex in flavor than the sweetened condensed milk stuff.

I took some to an eGullet potluck a couple of years ago and everyone who tasted it thought it was great.

Dulce de Leche from scratch.

I'm moving my questions here rather than keep them in the crock pot thread. . . I hope you find me!

So I doubled the recipe and started with 670-ish grams sugar and 6 cups of goat's milk in my 5.5 qt crock pot. It took forever and a day (3 or 4 hours) to get it to 135F, and since I got tired of waiting for it to hit 140F, I added the water/baking soda mixture.

Now, roughly 10 hours after the addition of the water/baking soda, the mixture has reduced by about 1 inch, but I think it has plenty of hours to go until it gets thick as it's still pretty watery, though it has a slightly less white colour to it. My crock pot has high, low, and auto choices for temperature, and it's on high right now.

I'm thinking I can last maybe 2 more hours or so before I need to sleep. It will have to continue thickening overnight, but I'm concerned about it reducing too much while I'm sleeping. At high, the mixture has been pretty stable at 135F, give or take 1 or 2F, and I'm not sure how low it would go if I used low temperature.

Questions:

Would it be better to turn off the crock pot, and then continue cooking it tomorrow? Or is it OK to continue cooking it throughout the night?

If I leave the crock pot on throughout the night, should I leave it on high or reduce the temperature to low? I would not be stirring every two hours, and I'm a little concerned about that.

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I posted a recipe I got from my neighbor and it is delicious. It is far more complex in flavor than the sweetened condensed milk stuff.

I took some to an eGullet potluck a couple of years ago and everyone who tasted it thought it was great.

Dulce de Leche from scratch.

I'm moving my questions here rather than keep them in the crock pot thread. . . I hope you find me!

So I doubled the recipe and started with 670-ish grams sugar and 6 cups of goat's milk in my 5.5 qt crock pot. It took forever and a day (3 or 4 hours) to get it to 135F, and since I got tired of waiting for it to hit 140F, I added the water/baking soda mixture.

Now, roughly 10 hours after the addition of the water/baking soda, the mixture has reduced by about 1 inch, but I think it has plenty of hours to go until it gets thick as it's still pretty watery, though it has a slightly less white colour to it. My crock pot has high, low, and auto choices for temperature, and it's on high right now.

I'm thinking I can last maybe 2 more hours or so before I need to sleep. It will have to continue thickening overnight, but I'm concerned about it reducing too much while I'm sleeping. At high, the mixture has been pretty stable at 135F, give or take 1 or 2F, and I'm not sure how low it would go if I used low temperature.

Questions:

Would it be better to turn off the crock pot, and then continue cooking it tomorrow? Or is it OK to continue cooking it throughout the night?

If I leave the crock pot on throughout the night, should I leave it on high or reduce the temperature to low? I would not be stirring every two hours, and I'm a little concerned about that.

Don't turn it to low, I don't think it is going to cook at all if 135 is your high temp.

I'm surprised it is taking so long. I think my slow cookers all cook hotter than yours.

135 is just too low. Mine all cook on LOW at 165° F. On high they cook at 195 - except for the Cuisinart that boils on high.

You add the water and baking soda at 140° and the milk should increase in heat after that until it is at least 155 degrees and 165 is better.

No wonder it is taking so long.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Thanks!

I think it might have been a mistake for me to double the recipe given the low temperature of my crockpot. The last time I took the temperature of the milk was about 3 or 4 hours ago, and it was still about 135F (I think it was 137F), which was the same temperature as when I added the baking soda/water (so it had been cooking for 12-ish hours total and it had been 8-9 hours since the addition of the baking soda/water), and the same temperature two hours before that, and a couple of hours before that.

But in the last 3 or 4 hours, I've lost another half inch so it's reducing much more quickly now that there's less of it. And I just checked the temperature, and it's now at 150F, so it's getting hotter!

So my temperatures have looked something like this:

7:00am--start--about 55F--about 3" in depth

10:00am--135F

11:00am--still 135F, so I added the baking soda/water

1:00pm--about 135F

4:00pm--about 135F--reduced by maybe 1/4"-1/2"

6:00pm--about 135F

7:00pm--about 135F--reduced by about 1"

10:00pm--about 150F--reduced by about 1 1/2" total

I'm going to start checking on it more frequently, and hopefully in the next two hours it'll be ready for the last two cups of milk. If not, I'll turn it off and finish it off tomorrow. I think it's been reduced by about 50% at this point, so it's coming along, just very slowly!

I don't have enough goat's milk for the last two cups, so I'm adding my remaining goat's milk (maybe 1 cup or so) and using half-and-half for the rest. I hope it works!

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It's now after midnight and the temp is 160F, and it has reduced by maybe 1/4" or a little less. But I'm too sleepy to wait around, so I'll turn off the crock pot and start again tomorrow. I think, however, that I'll start it on the stove and then transfer it to the crock pot once it gets to 160F-ish. It has been 17 hours since I started, and although it has reduced and is a little browner in colour, it's still pretty watery.

I wonder if the quality of the goat's milk makes a difference. I'm using pasteurised goat's milk, but it's just regular goat's milk (not skim or anything). It's the only goat's milk available in this area, I think.

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BTW the creator of the Banoffee Pie, Ian Dowding, has directions for making Dulce de Leche from condensed milk on his website. He recommends submerging the cans and cooking them in the oven for 3 1/2 hours, by doing it in the oven there is no risk of a saucepan boiling dry and the cans exploding.

Apart from the simple fact that it tastes delicious, you can make a caramel cheesecake in 5 minutes by adding a can to 500g cream cheese. Nothing else needed (except the biscuit base).

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The "boil a can of condensed milk" method is quite common, but I'd rather do it from scratch if I can.

I tried the "boil a can of condensed milk" method a while back out of curiosity and to me it seemed like it had a metallic taste. Maybe it was just my imagination because I haven't tried it again to compare and it wasn't strong enough to make it inedible but I definitely remember thinking it had that old tin can taste to it.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Yet another update.

I was too lazy to stand by the stove at 7:30ish this morning, so I turned the crockpot back on high. It took about 2 hours for it to get up past 160F, and I've been playing with it ever since. I'm not stirring every 15 minutes because it's still too watery. It has definitely caramelised and is a tan colour, though not as dark as I associate with cajeta. It doesn't leave a trail when when I run the spatula through it, so it likely needs several more hours. It has started to get too hot (up to 190F), but the temperature drops below 150F on low, so I alternate an hour on high and an hour on low.

I am definitely hopeful that it will eventually turn out right, but I'm really really hoping that I won't have to take this till tomorrow morning. As it is, the crock pot was on about 17 hours yesterday and so far 8 hours today--that's 25 hours total, and it's not ready.

Another thing, I think maybe because the temperature gets too high, a lot of foam develops, except it's not really foam, and it won't stir back into the mixture. Fortunately, this stuff often sticks to the spatula when I stir, so I get to lick it off after (don't worry, I wash the spatula every time!). Even though my cajeta isn't the right texture yet, it sure does taste good!

My crock pot sucks. This explains why my caramelised onions were such a failure a year or so ago. What a waste of butter that was (and butter is about twice as expensive in Japan than in the US or Canada!).

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I had a chat with Carmela Obregon a little while ago and she suggested heating the milk in the microwave to begin with.

Add the sugar, continue heating and resting it for several more brief sessions. She suggested two minutes because otherwise it will foam up.

Add the water and baking soda and nuke it for a few more times, until it begins to have the "scalded milk" taste and the milk clings to the back of the spoon just a bit.

It should begin to change color, Carmela calls it "crudo" which I think means a beige color.

Then put it in the crock pot on high and let it cook down from that point.

Carmela's daughter says "crudo" means the color ecru. Boy, that's an old color term. I used to buy crochet thread that color - forty years ago!

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Thanks! And please thank Señora Obregon for me, too. Even though this is taking forever and a day (or at least a day), it's kind of fun watching the changes, and I will definitely be making it again!

I was thinking I shouldn't have started the process using milk straight from the fridge, especially since our fridge runs a little cold. So I'll definitely do as Señora Obregon advises and start things out in the microwave.

I was also reading what you wrote in the crockpot thread

It should turn a dark caramel color and be thick enough to leave a "trail" as the spoon is scraped over the bottom of the pot and should be very thick when it has cooled to room temp. It should, in fact, mound up on the spoon at room temp and slowly collapse

And I think my cajeta might be closer to being ready than I think. When I put a little in a less than room temperature dish (our house is pretty cool--around 16 or 17C), drops will keep their shape (although two drops close together will usually run together) and will slowly drip down if I tip the dish. So it's still thinner than honey, but not so much thinner. I don't think it will mound up on a spoon at room temp at this point, but it's getting there! I'll give it a couple of more hours and then add the additional milk.

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Gee, Carmela's daughter just brought me a container of cajeta that was made on Saturday and has not been refrigerated. They use it up so quickly it isn't necessary.

It's pretty thick, as you can easily see. The spoon is standing up by itself.

It is darker than "normal" caramel but looks lighter in the photos with flash so I took one without.

It's also yummy - I licked the spoon. It's 100% goat milk because they now have their own goats. This is from a 2-quart batch. (Big family!)

Cajeta:spoon.JPG

cajeta no flash.JPG

Cajeta closeup.JPG

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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The "boil a can of condensed milk" method is quite common, but I'd rather do it from scratch if I can.

But that cheesecake idea is fabulous! Really? Nothing else needed? The cheesecake doesn't get too hard when refrigerated?

It probably depends on the type of cheese you use. But you have reminded me that as the internet has a global reach I should elaborate on my train of thought a bit. Apologies for digressing from the original topic of Dulce de Leche...

In Australia the most common cheesecakes are the refrigerated variety - generally the filling is a mix of cream cheese, whipped cream, a flavouring and probably gelatine, poured onto a crushed biscuit base and chilled until set. Baked cheesecakes are certainly available from patisseries but they're simply not as common as the refrigerated variety.

When I was a teenager I saw a recipe on the packet of Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese for a very simple cheesecake that was just 2 packets of cheese (500g) and a can of condensed milk. It may have had gelatine in it. I tried the recipe and found it OK but bland, although I noted that it tasted more like white-chocolate than some of the white-chocolate cheesecakes I've had! I tried it again using a can of boiled condensed milk and I liked the result much more - I made it fairly often when I was younger. I haven't made it for many years but as far as I can remember I just beat it all together until it's light and fluffy and that's it. It's probably safer to add gelatine but I don't recall doing it, and I don't like cheesecakes that have a jelly texture.

Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese is a global, supermarket product that I actually prefer to more 'gourmet' equivalents! I've tried making cheesecakes with neufchatel and other - less processed - cream cheeses but I simply prefer the taste of Kraft! Oh well. If you beat it long enough it gets lighter and airier although you could add whipped cream to make it lighter still - then you'd probably need gelatine too. But if you're using a different type of cream cheese to Kraft, or prefer a very light texture, then you may need to adjust quantities and ingredients to suit.

Returning to the original topic, scientists define Dulce de Leche as a different product from caramel but the taste is essentially the same, and 'caramel' is obviously easier to say, write and explain than 'Dulche de Leche'. Just wondering how strict people are with definitions of flavours like 'caramel', 'butterscotch', 'toffee' and so on?

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OK. I added the remaining milk, and now it's all watery again!

The instructions say

Reduce the temperature to medium and continued cooking. Stir occasionally,

about every 15-20 minutes until the mixture has thickened, it should pour

like honey.

This should take about 2 hours.

Near the end of this time, warm the remaining cup of milk in a small

saucepan then stir into the mixture in the slow cooker. Mix well and

transfer to a sterilized quart jar and place the cap lightly on the jar, do

not seal.

My mixture was pretty thick, or at least the top half was. It was a little watery underneath the thick foamy stuff, but I was OK with that.

I warmed the remaining 2 cups of milk (I made a double recipe) for a few minutes in the microwave. It was sort of scalded (it had that milk film on top), so maybe it was too hot?

Because now my cajeta is really watery. And pale. Nothing like the pictures above.

I think I'm just going to give up and use it as a base for cajeta chocolate milk. Or just cajeta milk. It will be delicious, I'm sure!

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Final update--after I dumped in the last 2 cups of goat's milk/half-and-half, it was so watery that I decided to take drastic action. I ended up spending an hour or so taking a few ladles of the mixture at a time, and cooking it down on the stove. I didn't stir constantly, but checked on it every 5 minutes or so and stirred down the foam/bubbles. I'm sure the temperature was too high because it bubbled and foamed up a lot, but I didn't really care because I didn't want to spend all night working with it.

After maybe an hour or so of reducing the mixture (I would do a batch, and then when I thought it was thick enough, I poured it out into a container and started another batch), I was done! Since I was sure I had taken it to too high a temperature, I was a little worried that it would be too hard, but it's not. The final product is not as thick as it should be, but it's thick enough to thinly spread on bread. It's also quite grainy, but I'm OK with that because it tastes really good!

@ChrisZ--thanks for the info on the cheesecake! I'll experiment with small tart-sized quantities before going all out to make a big cheesecake, just in case.

Edited by prasantrin (log)
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  • 3 weeks later...

My lady friend, an Argentinian, has introduced me to Dulce de Leche. I would like to make it and would appreciate some good recipes. I don't want to just heat up some evaporated, or is it condensed, milk, nor am I looking for some fancy "Martha Stewart" type creation. Rather, something closer to the original recipes found in Spain and some Latin American countries would be ideal. Ultimately, I'd like to make some Alfajores, but first I'd like some good Dulce de Leche recipes to play around with.

Thanks!

 ... Shel


 

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  • 6 months later...

My GF is Argentinian, and we both like good Dulce de Leche. However, the good stuff in the local stores that carry it is very expensive.

I've looked up a few recipes, and it seems fairly easy to make, albeit somewhat time consuming. However, the recipes seem to suggest differing amounts of sugar, from 1 cup to as much as 2 cups per quart of whole milk. How critical is the sugar content for getting a nice, creamy, smooth result, apart from sweetness levels? For those who have made this dessert, what proportion of sugar do you use per quart of milk?

Some recipes call for adding the baking soda at the beginning of the process, others suggest adding the ingredient later on, sometimes as late as when the mixture turns brown. Any thoughts on the timing of adding the baking soda?

When I was in Peru, I had Dulce de Leche made with goat's milk, and it was quite tasty. I may want to try that as Toots prefers goat's milk to cow's milk. Any tips for making Dulce de Leche with goat's milk?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Edited by Shel_B (log)

 ... Shel


 

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I have two recipes for Dulce de Leche from scratch. One calls for 1 cup of sugar to 2 cups of goat's milk and 2 cups of cow's milk. The other calls for 1 2/3 cups of sugar to 2 cups of each goat and cow's milk. Hard to get much of a clear direction from that. The first recipe came from Jaymes and the second, I think, from Andie.

I made it once but probably won't do it again. Ten hours? Perhaps not.

Actually yesterday I made the poor and lazy man's Dulce de Leche using the recipe in DL's Perfect Scoop. Open can of condensed milk. Pour into glass pan. Foil lid. Put into a bain marie. Bake in oven. A no brainer. Swirled it into some Queso Fresco ice cream. Yumm.

Good luck.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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With full goat's milk, it's also advisable to put about a quarter cup of butter in with the milk, if you're not using cow's milk as well. This will kick the richness up a little and give you the rounder flavour you had in Peru. There, Arequipe is made with about 1 lb of sugar (panela raspadura) for every quart of milk.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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My GF is Argentinian, and we both like good Dulce de Leche. However, the good stuff in the local stores that carry it is very expensive.

I understand you probably prefer to make it yourself. After all, that's what most of us are doing here.

But if you'd prefer to buy it occasionally, I'd suggest you look for Mexican "cajeta." The most readily-available brand in the US is Coronado. I buy it in my local Mexican market for about $4 for a 13-oz jar or squeeze bottle. It's made from goat's milk.

Coronado Cajeta in a squeeze bottle.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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With full goat's milk, it's also advisable to put about a quarter cup of butter in with the milk, if you're not using cow's milk as well. This will kick the richness up a little and give you the rounder flavour you had in Peru. There, Arequipe is made with about 1 lb of sugar (panela raspadura) for every quart of milk.

Googled Arequipe. Learn something new every day. Found some recipes which don't take 10 hours. and I LOVE the idea of using Panela. I didn't even know about it when I made mine from scratch, but once I tasted it, I was hooked for life. :wub:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Heck, I use Manjar (a full-fat cow's milk version popular in Ecuador) to glaze and fill my apple-spice cakes, and the recipe I use takes about 2 hours even with the shock bath. I'd never use or eat the stuff if it took 10 hours to make!

I'd make Arequipe more often, but the goat man (and his string of 7 nannies) only visits my neighbourhood infrequently, and he's always out of milk on Mondays at the market because I refuse to wake up at 5 am to make it there before he's milked out. :blink:

I think it's awesome how Spanish has different words for each variety of this sweet..... :biggrin:

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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There have been several topics posted about this subject.

I posted this recipe a few years ago. It works.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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