Dulce de Leche

A couple of things precipitated the decision to make dulce de leche on a Sunday night. One of them was the fact that we were out of coffee and I get our Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory from Viet Hoa, where one is required to spend at least $20 in order to pay with plastic. By the way, the $3.99 can of coffee and chicory makes the best cold brewed coffee- perfect for iced coffee all summer! So, when I ran to Viet Hoa to get the coffee, I grabbed four cans. Since that would still not be enough to make the $20 minimum, I looked at the shelf next to the coffee and saw sweetened condensed milk. Voila! Two cans and I totalled out at about $21. The other precipitating factor was, and is, the puppy. A co-worker whose sister found a stray puppy sent pictures of her to me, and I absolutely could not resist. I brought the puppy home after much discussion with Chad, and he named her Dulce. (or Dolce, depending on what reason for the name we are most fond of at the moment) Dulce (pronounced dull-chay) has fur the color of dulce de leche, the delicious South American caramel treat that makes the best dang ice cream ever. Well, I used up all of the dulce de leche that Chad brought back from Argentina, so what else is a girl to do but make more?

I looked up a couple of recipes for dulce de leche, and this one was the winner because it is so simple!! All you have to do is:

1. Take the paper off of a can of sweetened condensed milk.
2. Poke a couple of holes in the top of the can (with a church key).
3. Put in a pot of water filled to 1/4 inch below the top of the can.
4. Boil gently for 1 1/2 hours up to four hours, depending on how solid you want it to be. I let mine cook for about three and a half hours. You will have to add more water to the pot after about an hour and periodically after that in order to keep the milk cooking.

I will confess that I HAD to check to see if it was working, so I opened the can about two and a half hours into the cooking. What I saw on top was the color of the original sweetened condensed milk, so I began to scoop it into a bowl to cook over the boiling water in double-boiler fashion. When I poured the can into the bowl, I saw that just under the top layer of milk there was a gorgeous can of dulce de leche! So, be patient. I ended up having to finish it in the double boiler because of my impatience. You could, of course, start the recipe in a double boiler and cook for the same amount of time. The effect is the same, and you would be able to see progress with your own two impatient eyes!

FYI, the other spelling for the puppy's name, Dolce, is in honor of the Fellini movie, La Dolce Vita. We also have a dog named Fefe, for Federico Fellini himself!

Comments

[Papa Squirrel]

You are totally going to steal Sorta Sister Squirrel away from us with this one. She absolutely loves dulce de leche. She wouldn't like watching Fellini, but you could just shut her up with more dulce.

Actually, if you steal her, we might just come along too. Last time we were at Viet Hoa, we bought Cafe du Monde coffee for our summer drinking pleasure. Now to train Dolce to fetch ice cream...

[Benito]

Congrats on the new dog! And I've always been interested in trying out this recipe...