1 Video | Photo: Dulce de Leche Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 quart whole milk
- 12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
- 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Directions
Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.
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By Gretchin'
New Orleans
on March 22, 2012
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Hmmmm....well not sure about all the fuss here. Cannot understand why one would use baking soda, though Alton says here that it reduces the "nasty graininess." I've NEVER had a problem with either foam or graininess, until I tried this recipe. I was taught, in MX by a lovely & VERY patient little señora, can't recall her name, to use 2 quarts of whole milk with a total of 2.5 cups (500 gms( of sugar, vanilla extract (she, too, said the vanilla bean can cause "funny taste"(, and about a half tsp. of salt. I respect Alton, but I'm bewildered by the necessity of the baking soda. It foamed into a royal mess, and I still had some graininess. I did try to strain it, but the mixture was too thick. I also thought his was waaaaaay too dark. We used it anyway, though my daughter thought it tasted a lot like "overcooked milk or something."
By artscallion
on February 24, 2012
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This turned out a very tasty product. I bought a can of pre-made dulche de leche at the same time so I could compare side by side. Both were wonderful and amazing. Biggest difference is the can only took 20 seconds to open. While this recipe is great, the canned stuff was better in my opinion. Two hours of my life wasted. Next time it's the can.
By tlwilson59
Utah
on February 15, 2012
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Today I made this for a college class. (love that they teach classes called "People Everywhere Eat". The taste was amazing - I recommend fresh ground nutmeg and cinnamon. I left out the cloves - I'm not a fan. I started by caramelizing the sugar by heating it until it turned brown and then added the milk. (be careful if you do this That may not have been the best way, but it worked to give the dulce de leche a nice color and a great flavor. I added the soda, but expected that it would foam (and foam and foam. I didn't skim any of the foam - just stirred it down a little so I didn't make a mess all over the stove. I would recommend using a VERY BIG PAN. By the time the mixture was starting to thicken, the foam was gone, the mixture was silky smooth, and the flavor was amazing. I am going to serve this as the center for Alfajores. Easy A!
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