3 surprising tips for perfect Dulce de leche {Recipe}

Dulce de leche is the ‘new black’ for pastry chefs –filling gourmet macarons, biscuits and cakes.

The luscious milk caramel, much loved by Latin Americans, is taking the world by storm and I am unashamedly smitten.  Why?  Because I don’t have to make toffee first!

It’s simple to make from scratch.  All you need is a pair of comfortable shoes, a generous sized pan and patience.

Wear comfortable shoes

Take it from me, comfortable shoes are a must! I made my first batch of dulce de leche after traipsing around a shopping centre for a couple of hours in cowboy boots that offer no cushioning support.  Pink cowboy boots are lovely to look at but they’re not really designed for all day wearing and certainly not for kitchen duties.  Half way through the caramel and I was regretting my decision not to change footwear. (Since I was working with hot liquids I felt I couldn't just kick them off – safety always comes first in the kitchen!)

Use a large pan

I learned the hard way that you need a generous sized pan to make the caramel in.  My 2 litre saucepan quickly overflowed with foaming milk when I added the bicarb and kept foaming even off the heat.  I quickly transferred the milk mess to my big red Chasseur pot and kept going – crisis averted!  The less said about the state of my cooktop afterwards, the better (but I think you can imagine how it looked.)  Start big and you’ll have no problems.

Be patient (and give it your undivided attention)

As soon as your milk begins to boil and you toss in the bicarb, you’ve got to stir the caramel constantly for around 45 minutes (until it gets to a lovely caramel colour).  You don’t need so much forearm strength as you need to be free from distractions.  That means no

•  toilet stops
•  helping your daughter with a drawing
• answering the phone across the room, or 
• checking your emails.

The recipe also instructs to stir the caramel for an additional 15 minutes while it sits in the ice bath to cool it down completely – I missed this instruction (I was more concerned about my aching feet by that stage). The caramel ended up quite thick but otherwise tasted great – I don’t know if this is a crucial step or not so if you've still got the energy, keep stirring.

This caramel is so di-licious that you’ll be struggling to not eat it by the spoonful, straight out of the jar (try it sprinkled with sea salt). 

Recipe: Dulce de leche 
{print out recipe}

Recipe adapted from Gourmet Traveller  Makes approx 250ml.


Ingredients

750ml milk

225g caster sugar

Seeds from I vanilla bean

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Have ice ready to create a water bath to cool

Method

• Make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes.
• Place milk, sugar and vanilla bean seeds into a LARGE saucepan (an enamelled pot is perfect).
• Stir over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
• Increase heat and just as it comes to the boil, add the bicarbonate of soda (it will foam), then REDUCE heat to medium.
• Now the fun part – stand there and stir the mixture CONSTANTLY for 40-45minutes.  Don’t walk away. Don’t answer the phone.  The caramel needs your full attention (just like a good risotto).
• The caramel is cooked when it reaches a rich caramel colour and when you scrape your wooden spoon through the mixture and the bottom of the pan stays visible.
• Put your plug in the sink and add ice.  Plunge your pot into the ice to stop cooking and keep stirring caramel for another 10-15minutes until caramel is completely cool.
• Spoon into a sterile container and store in the fridge for up to a month (if it lasts that long).
• Bring to room temperature before using.
• If caramel is too thick, thin it down by heating cream and mixing it bit by bit into warmed caramel.

 Di-licious!