Dulce de Leche
Milk and sugar cooked down slowly with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda until it caramelises to a thick, amber spread.
Photograph credit: DulceDeLeche by audinou from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Build the Meal Around Dulce de Leche
- Alfajores
- Spread on toast
- Stirred into coffee
Photograph credit: Restaurant Côté Gare (Beynost) - vacherin minute glace marron, chantilly à la confiture… by Benoît Prieur · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
How to Make Dulce de Leche
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Put the milk, sugar, vanilla and salt in a wide, heavy pan — wide matters, because evaporation is the whole process.
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Warm gently, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved completely.
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Take the pan off the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. It will foam up substantially, which is why the pan needs headroom.
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Return to a very low heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring every 10 minutes for the first hour.
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After an hour it will have reduced by about half and turned pale gold. Stir every 5 minutes now.
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After 90 minutes it will be noticeably thicker and amber. Stir constantly from here, scraping the base and corners.
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It is done at about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, when it coats the back of a spoon thickly and a line drawn through it on the spoon holds. It thickens a great deal more as it cools, so stop earlier than feels right.
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Strain into a clean jar to catch any bits that have caught, and remove the vanilla pod.
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Cool completely before using.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Notes From the Method
A wide pan. A narrow one takes twice as long.
Stop while it still looks slightly loose. It sets firm when cold.
Constant stirring in the last half hour, or it will catch and taste burnt.
Storing and Reheating
Refrigerate in a sealed jar for 4 weeks. It does not need to be frozen.
Questions and Answers
How long does Dulce de Leche take to make?
5 minutes of preparation and 3 hours of cooking, so at least 3 hours 5 minutes. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 12.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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