Dulce de Leche is somewhat a mystery to this part of the world. If you ask me, it sounds more like a dance invented by Don Johnson in the 80's as he swaggered through his sexy scenes in Miami Vice: "Hey foxy lady - wanna dulce de leche til dawn?"
In essence, dulce de leche is a thick caramel made of milk, sugar and additional flavorings and is mostly popular in Latin America. Other parts of the world have their own version. But Alton Brown, the king of all geek cooks, is the chef whose recipe I followed.
Granted I NEVER tried dulce...nor have I ever seen it in person. What really sparked my interest were the numerous dulce de leche cupcakes on Cupcake Wars. Damn those cupcakes! I turned to Alton's recipe online and I thought, "now this sounds like a difficult and laborious process - SOLD!" What better way to spend three hours of my life than watching over a pot of boiling brown milk?!?
Now it all sounds easy cheesy since there's only three main ingredients - milk, sugar, and vanilla. But what kills ya is the STIRRING and the praying to the caramel gods that your dulce doesn't end up burnt on the bottom of your pan with only 30 minutes of boiling left.
Before I begin my montage of amazingly interesting photos of cooking dulce, I just want to remind you that if you finish this process and see it to the bitter end, you absolutely WILL NOT get back those three hours you spent slaving over a pot of caramel. They'll be gone. Kaput. Matay Forever.
So here goes:
In essence, dulce de leche is a thick caramel made of milk, sugar and additional flavorings and is mostly popular in Latin America. Other parts of the world have their own version. But Alton Brown, the king of all geek cooks, is the chef whose recipe I followed.
Granted I NEVER tried dulce...nor have I ever seen it in person. What really sparked my interest were the numerous dulce de leche cupcakes on Cupcake Wars. Damn those cupcakes! I turned to Alton's recipe online and I thought, "now this sounds like a difficult and laborious process - SOLD!" What better way to spend three hours of my life than watching over a pot of boiling brown milk?!?
Now it all sounds easy cheesy since there's only three main ingredients - milk, sugar, and vanilla. But what kills ya is the STIRRING and the praying to the caramel gods that your dulce doesn't end up burnt on the bottom of your pan with only 30 minutes of boiling left.
Before I begin my montage of amazingly interesting photos of cooking dulce, I just want to remind you that if you finish this process and see it to the bitter end, you absolutely WILL NOT get back those three hours you spent slaving over a pot of caramel. They'll be gone. Kaput. Matay Forever.
So here goes:
That's four cups of regular whole milk, a couple of cups of sugar, and some vanilla. Whisk and simmer until the milk boils down to half the amount. I am now officially a whisking wizard thank you.
I'm watching this boil for one and a half hours and thinking about how stupid I was for not going to Don Quijote (cause you know this stuff isn't at Foodland!) and buying a jar of ready made dulce. There's no way around stirring and stirring and stirring and ... you get the picture! Oh - see the white stuff floating to the top? All that nasty gunk has to be scooped up and discarded.
I am incredibly impatient and want to see the final results already...but I still have one more hour to go. Now the milk and sugar have thickened into a nice, gooey caramel sauce. It tastes ok.
Three hours on the dot! Four cups of milk and two cups of sugar later and I'm pretty much left with a little more than a spoonful of dulce de leche. And the taste? Well, I wouldn't eat it with a spoon like they do in Brazil. My brother-in-law who grew up in Miami eating the stuff said it needed to be thicker and sweeter. However, it tasted amazing when combined with our flan so it wasn't a complete waste of time.
Then guess what? As if I couldn't have felt any worse about giving up three hours of my arm strength to a wooden spoon and a pot of milk - I later found a shortcut online!!!
Step 1 - Buy a can of condensed milk (which coincidentally is boiled down milk and sugar!)
Step 2 - Pour can of milk on cookie sheet or tray. Bake in oven for an hour.
Step 3 - Enjoy (wholeheartedly) the dulce de leche that you worked smarter not harder for.
It's a good thing you read this blog first isn't it?
Then guess what? As if I couldn't have felt any worse about giving up three hours of my arm strength to a wooden spoon and a pot of milk - I later found a shortcut online!!!
Step 1 - Buy a can of condensed milk (which coincidentally is boiled down milk and sugar!)
Step 2 - Pour can of milk on cookie sheet or tray. Bake in oven for an hour.
Step 3 - Enjoy (wholeheartedly) the dulce de leche that you worked smarter not harder for.
It's a good thing you read this blog first isn't it?