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Close your eyes and think of the thickest, richest, sweetest and yet most complex caramel you can imagine.
There. You've just conjured dulce de leche.
Translating roughly as "candy made of milk," dulce de leche is sweetened condensed milk that has been cooked down to a thick, caramel-like consistency. When I lived in Argentina (where dulce de leche is a national specialty), I encountered it at almost every corner store. (My favorite was the repostero version, an even thicker, more reduced style.)
Back in the States, I discovered that dulce de leche was a little harder to find. It wasn't in the corner stores, but rather in the specialty shops. It was sold in fancy glass jars, and it was pricey.
Thus I felt I only had one choice: I'd have to learn to make dulce de leche myself.
It's more than possible to make dulce de leche all on your own, with just one ingredient: a can of sweetened condensed milk. But here's the thing: it isn't quite easy. Most accounts I read involved simmering cans (with all of the labels and wrappers peeled off) submerged in water for three to four hours. Do it right, and the milk reduces down into the caramel-like sauce. Do it wrong (by leaving less than an inch of water above the cans, say) and the can poses a threat of exploding.
And even if you do it right, you’ve made a caramel sauce that, at the end of the day, has a slightly tinny flavor from being cooked in the can.
Who's got time for any of that?
Call me lazy, but I made it a lot easier on myself by using the kitchen’s greatest timesaver: the slow cooker. In the place of a can, I filled a glass jar with sweetened condensed milk and simmered that jar in a water bath. After a few hours, the sweetened condensed milk had turned golden brown and tasted pretty darn close to the stuff I had in Buenos Aires.
Here's how to do it:
Transfer the contents of 1 (14-ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk to a 12-ounce glass mason jar with a screw top lid. (Alternatively, you can split the condensed milk between two smaller jars). Tightly seal the jar, place it in a slow cooker, and add enough water to cover the milk in the jar completely (turn the jar on its side if necessary). Cover and cook on low until the milk thickens and turns golden brown, 7–8 hours. Using tongs, carefully remove the jar from the slow-cooker and cool completely to room temperature before refrigerating.
The dulce de leche will last for 10 days. Here's how to use it up: Stir it into a homemade chocolate-caramel frosting, swirl it into a batch of chocolate brownies, use it as an ice cream topping (heck, just put it directly in the ice cream itself), or stir it into your latte.
Or, if you're like me, eat a spoonful right from the jar the next time you miss your home away from home.
