Dulce De Leche (DDL) is nothing but sweet caramelized milk. Silky, smooth, decadent, DDL tastes like toffee and this confection can be topped with ice creams, cakes, cup cakes, as a filling for puff pastry, macaroons etc. When translated it literally means "jam (made) of milk". The first time I had DDL was in London in the form of a filling in a small puff pastry. I loved it instantly. And ever since i always wanted to make it at home. Nowadays its easily available in grocery stores. One can even buy a can of condensed milk and make DDL out of it. I somehow always wanted to make it from scratch. The recipe is adapted from Joyofbaking.com. However i didn't follow the exact recipe. I skipped the vanilla extract and corn syrup. You can add these if you want to. Here's what i did.
4 cups of whole milk
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of baking soda
Pinch of salt
You may also add vanilla extract as per you liking.
Method:
1) In 6-8 quart stock pot add milk, sugar, baking soda and salt. Place it on the stove with medium flame to medium high flame and keep stirring.
2) After about 10 - 12 mins the milk will start boiling and will rise all the way up. At this point keep stirring and move the pan away from the stove if required. Reduce the flame and continue stirring so that the milk solids doesn't stick at the bottom and burn. Also do scrape down the sides of the pot as required.
Please excuse me for the poor quality of the photos below. These were clicked from my phone.
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| The two pictures shows how the milk will look after 10 and 20mins respectively |
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| After 30 and 45 mins respectively |
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| After 50mins and 1hr |
3) The whole procedure will take around 1 hr. Please ensure that you keep an eye on it all the time and keep stirring it frequently. Also you might have to play with the heat so as to keep the milk always on a rolling boil.
4) At about 50-55 mins when it acquires nice caramel color it will quickly start thickening. At this point you can check the consistency it will be quite thick. Do note that the DDL will gradually thicken as it cools down.
5) Remove the prepared DDL from the stove. Before transferring it onto a clean bowl do pass it through a sieve if required to remove any unwanted lumps of milk solids that may have fallen from the sides of the pan.
4 cups or 1 litre of milk will yield approximately 1- 1 1/4 cup of Dulce De Leche.
Let it cool and serve as desired. Transfer it into an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator. It can last for a month if stored properly.
