Dulce de leche

Dulce de leche or Confiture de lait if you want the French version. It's the same thing – essentially milk and sugar that has been caramelized.   It is heavenly.

I did the easy method which is to just boil the heck out of a can of condensed milk.  Alton Brown has a recipe for it or – if you want a really easy way – go to a hispanic market and I'm sure you can buy it ready made. 

I have always been afraid to make it because the explosion risk.   There is the danger of the can exploding and spraying molten caramel sauce all over your kitchen.  It's actually happened to my cousin.  Fortunately she wasn't in the room at the time – but the mess was horrendous. 

The dangerous way is to buy a can of sweetened condensed milk, remove the label and completely submerge it in a pan of water.  Bring to a low boil and cook for three hours.  The important part is that you have to make sure the can stays completely covered with water the entire time.  You have to be diligent about watching it and adding more water as needed.  If you are lax about it and the water level goes below the top of the can the pressure inside the can could possibly cause the lid to blow off.

I found a less risky method which is to just poke a couple of holes in the top of the can with an ice pick and don't completely submerge it in water.  Just get the water level as high as you can without it covering the top.  You still have to add water during the cooking process but at least it won't blow up on you if you forget.

I like to spread it on toast (or pound cake like the picture above) but you can also use it on ice cream.  Or as a filling between the layers of a cake.

The reason I bought condensed milk in the first place was because I found a recipe for a pound cake that called for it.  I figured I'd buy an extra can and try making dulce de leche.

The pound cake was a disaster.  I should have trusted my instincts when I read the recipe that it seemed to require a rather large ratio of butter to the other ingredients.  It was so greasy it was like eating a pat of butter.   Baked goods go pretty quickly at our house and that pound cake is still languishing under the cake dome.

I got right back on the baking horse and made another batch of biscotti. I made two smaller loaves rather than the big one I made last time and I'm packaging up half of it to take to my Mother in law tomorrow.  I have to remember this next Christmas.  I can see a cute gift basket of coffee beans, a couple of mugs and a batch of biscotti.