Homemade Dulce de Leche

I fell in love with a lot of culinary-related things while living in Brazil.  Black beans, pressure cooking, limonada, mangoes, and churrasco to name a few.  While I already loved both sweetened condensed milk and dulce de leche, I discovered new ways of using both of them in Brazil. If you’re not familiar with dulce de leche, it’s a thick, caramel-y sauce used heavily in many South and Central American kitchens. Traditional caramel is made by cooking sugar (and usually butter) over high heat and adding cream at the end. Dulce de Leche is made by slow cooking the dairy and sugar together until it’s caramelized and brown. While many people traditionally make it by simmering a sealed can of sweetened condensed milk in water on the stove top, or placing the whole can in a pressure cooker, another easy method for making dulce de leche at home is to simply cook sweetened condensed milk in the oven until dark and caramelized. This oven method is very easy and extremely hands-off. The resulting dulce de leche can be used in a variety of recipes, such as on cakes and cupcakes, drizzled over cheesecake or waffles, or used as a dip for fruit. It’s SO good!

Ingredients and Equipment

• Sweetened condensed milk – you’ll use just a regular can from the baking aisle.
  
• Shallow Baking Dish – I usually use a pie place, but you may want to use another similar-sized dish, keeping in mind that it needs to fit inside a larger dish to use as a water bath. A loaf pan would also work.
  
• Larger Dish – the pan that contains your sweetened condensed milk needs to be placed into a larger dish.
  
• Foil – you’ll use foil to cover your dish before baking.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Pour your can of sweetened condensed milk into your shallow baking dish.
   
3. Cover dish tightly with Foil.
   
4. Place the covered dish inside a larger dish and set in oven rack.
   
5. Carefully pour hot water into the larger dish so it reaches at least half way up the outside edges of your covered dish.
   
6. Bake for one hour and then peek at at it. It will be a light brown at this point. It’s delicious from here on out. The longer you cook, the darker, and thicker it will be. I like to bake at least 1 1/2 hours. This is a great consistency for drizzling with a mild flavor. Continue cooking longer for a deeper flavor and thicker texture. I would cook longer (more like 2-2 1/2 hours) if I wanted to spread the dulce de leche in between cake layers or spread onto cookies.
   
7. The longer you bake, the more water that evaporates. I like to keep a hot tea kettle ready so I can refill the water if necessary.
   
8. When done, remove from oven and use a whisk to smooth out mixture. It will be lumpy at first, that’s normal! Whisk it till smooth, as it cools it will thicken more.

How to Store Dulce de Leche

When not using, store in an airtight container in the fridge. Caramel will thicken once chilled. You can leave at room temp to soften a bit or gently warm and stir until smooth.

Serving Suggestions

• Spread on cookies or crackers
• Use to fill cupcakes or spread in between cake layers
• Drizzle over cheesecake
• Serve with ice cream
• Pour over waffles, pancakes, baked French Toast
• Roll up in a crepe

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Homemade Dulce de Leche

5 from 2 votes

This thick, spreadable caramel is a staple in Latin-American kitchens and incredibly simple to make at home.  It requires only one ingredient!  Perfect for drizzling over desserts like ice cream or cheesecake, or spreading onto cakes, cupcakes, or cookies.

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Ingredients

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Pour sweetened condensed milk into a shallow baking dish, such as a pie plate or loaf pan.
• Cover very tightly with foil making sure all sides are covered and sealed.  Place baking dish in a larger pan, such as a roasting pan or cake pan and place in oven.
• Fill larger pan with hot water until water level reaches about half way up the outside of the covered baking dish.
• Cook for about 60-90 minutes and then carefully check.  Color should be a light caramel brown.
• Continue cooking if necessary, checking every 15-30 minutes.  The longer you cook, the darker and thicker it becomes.
• Remove from oven and whisk mixture until smooth.
• Store in fridge.
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Author: Sara Wells

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