Dulce de Leche

This past weekend a friend of ours had a huge party.  They asked me to bake.  A few restrictions; no nuts, mini bite sized - everything, and keep it simple.  No problem.  I made lemon squares, gooey, fudgy brownies, whole wheat-oat chocolate chunk cookies, and a vanilla bean cupcake with dulce de leche butter cream.

About a week before the party I started collecting provisions.  My first stop was Surfas.  I have talked about Surfas in the past and I am always overjoyed to have an excuse to shop there. After collecting most of what I needed, I simply could not find the dulce de leche.  They were out of it.  I knew I could make my own, but sometimes, when baking for a crowd, I do look for shortcuts. No problem, I said to myself, I will just make it.  How hard could it be?  I soon found out, not hard at all.

I will never buy pre-made, store bought Dulce de Leche, every again.  This is one of the easiest things I have every made and I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner.  Dulce de leche will be lining my refrigerator shelves along side my homemade caramel and my homemade hot fudge sauce.  I just adore finding new discoveries!

Dulce de Leche

make a little or make a ton!

instructions:

• remove all the paper from several cans of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz. cans)

• put 2 - 4 cans in a dutch oven.  fill with water.  the water should cover the cans of milk.

• bring to a boil.  once boiled, turn down to simmer, cover slightly, with a lid and let simmer for 2-4 hours.  the longer it simmers, the thicker the caramel becomes.  I simmered mine for 3 hours.

• remove the cans from the water and let cool for one hour.  

• once cooled open the cans and transfer the thick caramel to a glass jar (I used ball jars).  let cool completely before attaching the lid.  

• this will store in the fridge for ever!

enjoy!