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Dulce de Leche as a cake filling


pandorphus

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...but the answer to my question is evading the search feature!!

I want to use dulce de leche as a cake filling. My only experience with dulce de leche is the Smuckers brand ice cream topping, which is YUMMY and in my opinion, thick enough to not soak into the cake layers like a glaze. I think.

Well, the store was out of the ice cream topping so I bought a couple cans of sweetened condensed milk, and will be making my own dulce de leche. Here are my questions...

-- Will the dulce de leche be thick enough to stay between the cake layers without soaking in?

-- If not, should I do something like fold it into whipped cream (not my first choice, as I don't want to have to worry about refrigeration, but will if I have to...) or maybe buttercream? Has anyone here tried this? Does it work?

Thanks in advance, sorry if this question is a repeat!

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I haven't tried using this as a cake filling, but here's what I know:

I usually open the can, set it in a pan of water, and bake at about 400. After about an hour, the stuff is pale in the center, but more thickened and darker in color near the outside edges. If you bake a little longer, it will become more uniformly dark and thicker. I'm thinking this would probably be the stage at which you'd want to use it. I've never taken it beyond this stage, so I don't know what's next. It's thick enough at this stage that I wouldn't think it would soak into the cake.

Let us know how it turns out. Sounds wonderful!

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I tried this and it was not thick enough to form a layer. I boiled two cans of sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours, scooped into a bowl and smoothed it out with an immersion blender. The result was homogeous and silky smooth, but too thin to use as a cake layer. It soaked into the cake, and some oozed out under the weight of the top cake layer. Maybe mixing in some powdered sugar would help.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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Whipping dulce de leche with mascarpone makes a dynamite little mousse. Chilled, it would be great between layers. That said, I boil the unopened can, totally submerged in water, for about 4 hours. The result is very thick and spreadable. Just be sure to keep the can covered with water at all times.

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If you want want to use Dulce de leche as a cake filling, you need to do a couple of things to keep it set.

If you want the creamy type effect, you need to set it with some gelatin, which would be best introduced into something like soft peaks heavy cream.

I would do this by heating some rehydrated sheets or powder( following their method for powdered) and melting it and slowly drizzling it into some H.Cream being whipped in the mixer or beating the dulce with a paddle on the mixer and adding it in using the same method.

Even if you use mascarpone you need to do this (imo), if you want some stability.

If the mix goes whack on you (gelatin specks or clumps), just process it in a cuisineart or other food processor, it will smooth right out.

Fill it using a ring mold or even a springform pan, and refrigerate it to set up.

But you would need to keep this kind of cake refrigerated, and even then I don't know if that filling would support a thick layer of cake.

The alternative would be to cook the dulce past the point you usually do, where it almost gets candy like.

We do that here in the restaurant in Miami for a 'Brazo', a roulade cake of genoise, that is soaked with simple syrup spiked with rum, and spread with dulce de leche that is REALLY cooked up, maybe a 1/4 of an inch thick, then rolled up tight and covered with creme chantilly.

I was really impressed with the taste, the DLD really came thru, even though the amount spread was relatively small.

Good luck with it!

2317/5000

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Both times I've made DLD, I boiled it for about three hours, and it was lumpy and wouldn't smooth out for me, even with a whisk...is it because I was using a small can and not a large one? should I keep that going for a shorter time? I left the lid on and kept the can submerged.

Newbie at DLD. :blush:

Agenda-free since 1966.

Foodblog: Power, Convection and Lies

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Both times I've made DLD, I boiled it for about three hours, and it was lumpy and wouldn't smooth out for me, even with a whisk...is it because I was using a small can and not a large one? should I keep that going for a shorter time? I left the lid on and kept the can submerged.

Newbie at DLD. :blush:

For me it always comes out lumpy till I assault it mercilessly with an immersion blender.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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how can it evaporate if the can is closed? what is the purpose? is it just a simple chemical change due to the heating of the product?

tia

Yeah, it doesn't evaporate. The volume of stuff in the can is the same before and after. You're just browning the milk solids.

EDIT to clarify that the volume actually increase while the stuff if hot due to thermal expansion (which is why you can paint your kitchen a lovely dulce de leche if you open the can while its hot). But once its cool, the before and after volumes are the same.

Edited by Patrick S (log)

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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Both times I've made DLD, I boiled it for about three hours, and it was lumpy and wouldn't smooth out for me, even with a whisk...is it because I was using a small can and not a large one? should I keep that going for a shorter time? I left the lid on and kept the can submerged.

Newbie at DLD. :blush:

For me it always comes out lumpy till I assault it mercilessly with an immersion blender.

OK, I actually have one of those! Glad I'm not the only lumpy one. :smile:

Agenda-free since 1966.

Foodblog: Power, Convection and Lies

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Thanks for the input, everyone!

I am either going to use the mascarpone (wow does that sound good!), or I am going to use stabilized whipped cream, and that dulce de leche filling is going to be a mousse! The Birthday Girl loves cheesecake, and I'm not sure if she's ever experienced the joy of mascarpone... but I'm leaning toward that one. So for mascarpone, if I add gelatin, I just add it the same way I would to cream to stabilize? Sounds easy enough...

I'll let you know how it turns out...

Thanks again!

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Just made some dulce de leche yesterday, I was impatient and only boiled it for about 3 hours, so it wasn't quite as dark as I like it, but still really good.

I usually swirl the can before I boil it to mix up anything that settled. It always comes out smooth for me- I've never had any chunkiness.

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If you want to shorten cooking times when making DdL with tins of sweetened condensed milk, use a pressure cooker. A typical can takes 35-50 mins (YMMV) once pressure is reached. However, you MUST release pressure immediately and fish the can out of the hot water otherwise it will overcook and become grainy (sugar crystallizatio) and/or lumpy. Let the can cool naturally, don't shock it in an ice bath or you're pretty much guaranteed to muck up the texture.

One other vehicle for the DdL for a cake layer that hasn't been mentioned would be {long beat} milk chocolate ganache. Make the ganache slightly thicker than normal because it will thin out when adding the DdL. Although it's not kosher for truffles, slightly warming the ganache and using a ballon whisk to incorporate a lot of air will give you a great texture ... at the expense of shelf life. I've found, however, that whipped ganache/DdL like this keep well when refrigerated and sets up nicely with a firm but light and airy texture.

For the ganache, use a milk chocolate with flavor notes to accent the DdL -- Valrhona Jivara which has malt flavoring in it would be an interesting choice in this regard.

:Clay

Clay Gordon

president, pureorigin

editor/publisher www.chocophile.com

founder, New World Chocolate Society

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Just made some dulce de leche yesterday, I was impatient and only boiled it for about 3 hours, so it wasn't quite as dark as I like it, but still really good.

I usually swirl the can before I boil it to mix up anything that settled. It always comes out smooth for me- I've never had any chunkiness.

Maybe mine would be more homogenous if I shook the cans before I boiled them. Mine doesn't turn out chunky really, its just a little thicker around the sides of the can than in the middle of the can. And I know I'm not overcooking it, because I cook it for exactly 3 hours, and its light-colored like caramel.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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I've never made dulce de leche the way described above - boiling or cooking an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk. It scares me a bit - the whole "exploding can" thing and all.

Actually, when I don't want to make it myself, I just buy a can of Nestle/La Lechera dulce de leche. I just ate an entire can in the last 3 days, spoonful by spoonful, in fact :)

The recipe I've used is from "Sundays at Moosewood" and basically calls for milk (8 cups) and sugar (2 cups) to be brought to a boil in a heavy saucepan, then simmered for a few hours, stirring occasionally. I always add a pinch of salt and some vanilla to boost it's flavor.

Which brings me to a question about the recipe shared above from Saveur. It calls for baking soda instead of salt. Does anyone here know what difference this would make to the recipe?

Bryan Ochalla, a.k.a. "Techno Foodie"

http://technofoodie.blogspot.com/

"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people."

Orson Welles (1915 - 1985)

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The best dulce de leche I have seen, which is very thick but spreadable, and won't soak into cake, is CONAPROLE brand, out of Uruguay. I can pick it up here in Montreal at Latin American markets, so you could probably get it at any other relatively cosmopolitain city. I think the very very best dulce de leche I have ever eaten, though, was made with raw milk (2L), and white sugar (500g), and a teaspoon of baking soda, by a Uruguayan dude, when I was living with a Swiss dairy farming family in Alberta. The raw milk made all the difference, because I tried to make it at home with Quebon Homo milk, and it sucked bummy. Conaprole, I find is the next best thing to fresh raw milk dulce de leche.

joe

"Bells will ring, ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting.... the bell... bing... 'moray" -John Daker

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...but the answer to my question is evading the search feature!!

I want to use dulce de leche as a cake filling. My only experience with dulce de leche is the Smuckers brand ice cream topping, which is YUMMY and in my opinion, thick enough to not soak into the cake layers like a glaze. I think.

Well, the store was out of the ice cream topping so I bought a couple cans of sweetened condensed milk, and will be making my own dulce de leche. Here are my questions...

-- Will the dulce de leche be thick enough to stay between the cake layers without soaking in?

-- If not, should I do something like fold it into whipped cream (not my first choice, as I don't want to have to worry about refrigeration, but will if I have to...) or maybe buttercream? Has anyone here tried this? Does it work?

Thanks in advance, sorry if this question is a repeat!

If you want to use dulce de leche for a cake filling, why don't you buy Dulce de Leche? :wink:

A cooked can of condensed milk is NOT dulce de leche, it is cooked condensed milk...

At the easiest you can buy it at Williams Sonoma here but it should be available in many other stores now...

Also, the real stuff is perfect for cake filling and cake covering, for that matter...

www.nutropical.com

~Borojo~

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...but the answer to my question is evading the search feature!!

I want to use dulce de leche as a cake filling. My only experience with dulce de leche is the Smuckers brand ice cream topping, which is YUMMY and in my opinion, thick enough to not soak into the cake layers like a glaze. I think.

Well, the store was out of the ice cream topping so I bought a couple cans of sweetened condensed milk, and will be making my own dulce de leche. Here are my questions...

-- Will the dulce de leche be thick enough to stay between the cake layers without soaking in?

-- If not, should I do something like fold it into whipped cream (not my first choice, as I don't want to have to worry about refrigeration, but will if I have to...) or maybe buttercream? Has anyone here tried this? Does it work?

Thanks in advance, sorry if this question is a repeat!

If you want to use dulce de leche for a cake filling, why don't you buy Dulce de Leche? :wink:

A cooked can of condensed milk is NOT dulce de leche, it is cooked condensed milk...

I never made DDL by the 'traditional' method, so excuse me if this question is silly.

I thought the traditional recipes for DDL involve condensing milk and sugar in a pot (by boiling off the water), so what exactly is the distinction between cooked sweetened condensed milk and DDL?

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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I thought the traditional recipes for DDL involve condensing milk and sugar in a pot (by boiling off the water), so what exactly is the distinction between cooked sweetened condensed milk and DDL?

www.nutropical.com

~Borojo~

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Which brings me to a question about the recipe shared above from Saveur.  It calls for baking soda instead of salt.  Does anyone here know what difference this would make to the recipe?

Baking soda is a browning agent in addition to a leavener. I'm guessing it helps with the color of the finished product.

B. Keith Ryder

BCakes by BKeith

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I posted this recipe last October.

I also took a quart of this dulce de leche to the eG potluck at Tejon's.

Once you try this you won't want to fiddle around with the cans of condensed milk. This is the real cajeta and is delicious.

Here is an authentic Mexican recipe as made by Mrs. Obregon, my neighbor, who loves her slow-cooker which she says is muy sympatico.

DULCE DE LECHE - SLOW COOKER

1 Mexican (or other) vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cups regular goat milk, do not use low fat

2 cups regular milk

1 2/3 cups cane sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in ¼ cup water

Mix the milks together in a quart measure.

Pour 3 cups of the milk (refrigerate the remaining cup) into the slow cooker and add the vanilla bean and sugar and turn heat control to high and mix with a whisk to make sure the sugar has dissolved.

As soon as the mixtue has warmed to about 140 degrees, add the water with the baking soda and whisk again.

Do not cover the cooker.

Continue cooking for about 8 hours, gently stirring about every 2 hours.

Remove the vanilla bean, wash it and set it aside to dry and stick it into your sugar canister to flavor the sugar.

Meanwhile, with a silicone high temp spatula, scrape down the crust that has formed on the sides and stir it into the mixture.

If foam forms do not remove it, simply stir down into the mixture.

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.

Allow it to cool to room temperature then tighten cap and refrigerate.

It will keep for three months in the refrigerator.

To make a cake filling, cook 1 cup gently over very low heat or in a double boiler for about 45 minutes. It should be thick, even while hot and the consistency of soft caramel.

It should not soak into the cake.

First chill your cake, or at least the bottom layer.

Pour the cajeta into the center of the cake layer and gently spread it out to the edge then add the top layer.

Finish as you wish.

"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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Fabulous, Andie. I love it with goat milk, and have never seen a mixed-milk recipe. I'll be making this for sure. I'll have to double or triple it for my large slow cooker - drat, I'll have too much DDL. Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of somehting to do with it besides eat it with a spoon.

That's a weird step, adding in the milk at the last. Do you know what that does?

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