Homemade Dulce De Leche

Dulce De Leche means milk caramel in Spanish. Sounds better in Spanish, doesn't it? I came up with the idea of making Dulce De Leche from scratch, when I saw a cupcake recipe with Dulce De Leche buttercream (hopefully I'll make it sometime next week). I thought to myself why not make my own? So first I searched for recipes to see if it can be done without too much heartache! I found a recipe on the Food Network, and noticed that it says the cook time takes 3 hours! But after reading through I understood that you really don't need to do much in those three hours. The milk and sugar are just left alone to cook, all you need to do is check up on it and stir occasionally. 

I was never the biggest fan of Dulce De Leche, but maybe the reason for that was I had never tasted it fresh. Believe me, it is delicious fresh and warm!  So don't be intimidated by making your own, because it really isn't as hard as it seems.

Dulce De Leche Recipe:

Ingredients

1 quart whole milk (4 cups)

12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month. 

Makes about 1 cup.


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