Dulce de Leche

   I feel so happy about being able to write this.


   I made homemade Dulce de Leche!

   I began to read about this caramel sauce as I read and browsed through blogs. It seems that it's popular in South America (correct me if I'm wrong) and there are several ways of doing it. Most methods seem to require the use of condensed milk. The thing is, in Malaysia we usually have sweetened creamer (which is made from palm oil) rather than the dairy type, and people say the latter is better for making Dulce de Leche.


   However, I came across a recipe in Joy of Baking (one of my favourite baking sites) that provides a recipe using regular milk, with several other ingredients. It seemed simple enough, so I bookmarked the recipe waited for a time when we'd have enough extra milk to make it.


   This morning, I made some Dulce de Leche as we all rushed to prepare for leaving home. I had just over an hour and the sauce required around 40 to 60 minutes of cooking time. I was a little apprehensive at first, and was afraid that I'd burn the whole thing, but I had to use the milk or it's go bad while we weren't at home.


   And lo and behold I did it! It wasn't so hard. Thankfully, I'd seen the video provided by Stephanie in the Joy of Baking, which is really helpful. I watched it many times before, which helped. It wasn't as fussy a process as I though it would be- even though it required me to stay by the pot, watching and stirring the sauce constantly, I was still able to clear up the mess in the kitchen, wash the dishes etc. I just made sure to check the sauce every 30 seconds to 1 minutes. I managed to burn the bottom a little bit by the end of the cooking time because I forgot to turn down the heat, but it didn't do too much damage and I just strained the sauce before pouring it into a container. I can't wait to find some use for it when we get home!


   You can read the original recipe here. Watch the video- it's really interesting!


   These are the ingredients I used:


   1 litre/4 cups fresh milk
   3/4 cup (150g) caster sugar
   2 tablespoons golden syrup (in place of corn syrup)
   1/2 teaspoon baking soda
   1/8 teaspoon fine salt


   This is what I did:


   Stirred together all the ingredients on low heat, increasing the heat to medium and lowering it again when I found it necessary. It took around 1 hour to achieve the nice, caramel colour. Probably would have taken less time if I'd bring the mixture to boil more quickly. But it worked anyway.

10 minutes into cooking

30 minutes (I think) into cooking

Hah! You can see bits of the burnt caramel.
Hakuna matata. Just strain the sauce and you'll be fine.

   I didn't quite believe it when Stephanie said she could simply lick the dulce de leche of a spoon. Well... I ended up cleaning up the leftovers in the pot. Delicious!


   Another goal in baking/cooking achieved. What's next?


   I'm beginning to develop a philosophy in baking- you needn't be afraid of making something that you want to make! Don't be afraid. Go ahead and try that recipe that you've eyed for a long, long time. If it doesn't work out, well then try again. I should tell myself this many, many times. For this particular recipe, it worked.


   The dulce de leche can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a month.

I love the beautiful brownish-golden colour.
What should I do with this?
Any suggestions?

   I enjoyed entering the three blogging events for August, so I think I'll be brave and enter more events when I get the chance. I'm entering this for Jac's September Bookmarked Recipes, but I'll provide the links later. For now I need to sleep!


   p.s. We reached Kedah safely at around 7pm. Today was the last day of Ramadhan. Tomorrow is the day of Eidul Fitr. Selamat Hari Raya/Happy Eidul Fitr to all Muslims!


   p.s.2 Ooppss! I forgot to include the Bookmarked Recipes event logo. Here it is:

   The event is hosted monthly by Jac of Tinned Tomatoes, and was originally created by Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. Do take a look at the September round-up, and don't forget to join the next round-up for October!