The name of this dish translates to candy milk and it's fairly easy to make with only 3 ingredients, but it takes a lot of time and patience.
- 1 liter milk (I used lactose free but you can use other dairy milks. Goat milk has a different flavor and makes a similar dessert called cajeta)
- 200g brown or demera sugar (white sugar works too but the end product may be less brown)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1. Heat milk and sugar in medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add the baking powder and stir well. You can omit the baking powder but it helps keep the milk lump free and darkens its color.
2. Reduce heat to low and stir every 10 minutes until brown (this takes at least 1 hour).
3. When the milk turns brown, reduce heat to minimum and stir continuously. At this point I'm sitting on a chair with one hand on the spoon and another hand on my cellphone...
4. Turn off the heat when the dulce de leche coats the back of a spoon and you a draw a line in it with a finger and the line holds (takes approximately 1 additional hour to get to this point). You can let it cook further than this, but don't forget the dulce de leche thickens a bit more in the fridge.
Notice how much the milk has reduced. You start with 1 liter of milk and end up with approximately 400g of dulce de leche.
Let it cool and keep in the fridge 1 - 2 weeks (I will not blame if you start eating it straight out of the pan!).Although it's a dessert, I like to mix my dulce de leche with my yogurt.
Happy cooking!
