I fell in love with a lot of culinary-related things while living in Brazil. Black beans, pressure cooking, limonada, mangoes, and churrasco to name a few. While I already loved both sweetened condensed milk and dulce de leche, I discovered new ways of using both of them in Brazil. If you’re not familiar with dulce de leche, it’s a thick, caramel-y sauce used heavily in many South and Central American kitchens. Traditional caramel is made by cooking sugar (and usually butter) over high heat and adding cream at the end. Dulce de Leche is made by slow cooking the dairy and sugar together until it’s caramelized and brown. While many people traditionally make it by simmering a sealed can of sweetened condensed milk in water on the stove top, or placing the whole can in a pressure cooker, another easy method for making dulce de leche at home is to simply cook sweetened condensed milk in the oven until dark and caramelized. This oven method is very easy and extremely hands-off. The resulting dulce de leche can be used in a variety of recipes, such as on cakes and cupcakes, drizzled over cheesecake or waffles, or used as a dip for fruit. It’s SO good!
Ingredients and Equipment
- Sweetened condensed milk – you’ll use just a regular can from the baking aisle.
- Shallow Baking Dish – I usually use a pie place, but you may want to use another similar-sized dish, keeping in mind that it needs to fit inside a larger dish to use as a water bath. A loaf pan would also work.
- Larger Dish – the pan that contains your sweetened condensed milk needs to be placed into a larger dish.
- Foil – you’ll use foil to cover your dish before baking.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Pour your can of sweetened condensed milk into your shallow baking dish.
- Cover dish tightly with Foil.
- Place the covered dish inside a larger dish and set in oven rack.
- Carefully pour hot water into the larger dish so it reaches at least half way up the outside edges of your covered dish.
- Bake for one hour and then peek at at it. It will be a light brown at this point. It’s delicious from here on out. The longer you cook, the darker, and thicker it will be. I like to bake at least 1 1/2 hours. This is a great consistency for drizzling with a mild flavor. Continue cooking longer for a deeper flavor and thicker texture. I would cook longer (more like 2-2 1/2 hours) if I wanted to spread the dulce de leche in between cake layers or spread onto cookies.
- The longer you bake, the more water that evaporates. I like to keep a hot tea kettle ready so I can refill the water if necessary.
- When done, remove from oven and use a whisk to smooth out mixture. It will be lumpy at first, that’s normal! Whisk it till smooth, as it cools it will thicken more.
How to Store Dulce de Leche
When not using, store in an airtight container in the fridge. Caramel will thicken once chilled. You can leave at room temp to soften a bit or gently warm and stir until smooth.
Serving Suggestions
- Spread on cookies or crackers
- Use to fill cupcakes or spread in between cake layers
- Drizzle over cheesecake
- Serve with ice cream
- Pour over waffles, pancakes, baked French Toast
- Roll up in a crepe
Did You Make This?
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Homemade Dulce de Leche
Ingredients
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Pour sweetened condensed milk into a shallow baking dish, such as a pie plate or loaf pan.
- Cover very tightly with foil making sure all sides are covered and sealed. Place baking dish in a larger pan, such as a roasting pan or cake pan and place in oven.
- Fill larger pan with hot water until water level reaches about half way up the outside of the covered baking dish.
- Cook for about 60-90 minutes and then carefully check. Color should be a light caramel brown.
- Continue cooking if necessary, checking every 15-30 minutes. The longer you cook, the darker and thicker it becomes.
- Remove from oven and whisk mixture until smooth.
- Store in fridge.
Questions & Reviews
You will get the same result if you boil the can. Super easy!!
This is wonderful! I live in Costa Rica and also enjoy dulce de leche very much (this kind more than the canned kind), but I don't have a pressure cooker… this is the perfect answer!
Oh my word ….
in the crockpot? really?
I can't wait to try this!!!!!
my mouth is truly drooling now…. yuuummmm
I've done it on the stovetop, too. The annoying part about that is that you have to keep checking to make sure the cans are still covered by an inch of water so they don't explode. I can't wait to try the crockpot method.
I did the cans in water last Christmas and made cute little scrapbook paper labels for them. I gave them to the neighbors as part of our goodie basket. I do have to admit that I wouldn't let ANYONE in the kitchen while they were simmering. Chicken, that's me.
Steph
I've done this before and it works PERFECTLY! The dulce de leche is absolutely divine!! Great tip to share.
I've heard of doing this before but only the simmering the closed can method…and frankly I'm a little to chicken to try that! I envision having to dodge cans of exploding condensed milk! Now that I know there's a safe method that won't give me nightmares I'll have to give it a try. I'm thinking brownies with ice cream smothered in dulce de leche sounds so good.
THAT'S IT??? Oh wow…….you can't get any easier than that!!! Thank you!
I really am almost in shock that it is only one ingredient and it's so easy to make… I <3 <3 <3 Dulce de leche but have a friend who always makes it for me when ever I want! Im trying it this weekend!
I love your Brazilian inspired recipes! Especially since you "americanize" them so that it's easier to do it here… I've always been scared to making doce de leite in the pressure cooker… but I'll have to try it like this! It's also perfect mixed with a can of creme de leite (media crema) and some walnuts… we call it Stogonofe de Nozes and it's a classic christmas dessert in Brazil – and it's sooooooo good!