The Sweetest Thing – Salty dulce de leche

Dulce de leche probably is the sweetest and most sticky thing I have tried in my life… and from the first time I tasted it, I couldn’t stop eating! My preferred way still is on bread or on top of a fresh croissant, but its full caramel flavour is also great in desserts, cakes and the like. You can find a lot of variations in texture and colour, depending on the cooking time. For me it is best when it has an intense brown colour and a chewy, pasty texture.

I have already tried a few variations on the plain caramel cream, for example a christmas version, spiced with cinammon and roasted chopped almonds. This time I added teaspoon of fleur de sel to my dulce de leche – inspired by all the salted caramel ice cream recipes I read during the summer all around the world of food blogs. The slightly salty note makes a nice contrast to the sweet caramel flavour.

You think that sounds and looks yummy? – It is! Don’t be afraid of the way of preparation. It is not a bit as dangerous as you may think and super easy.

Basically you are cooking a can of sweetened condensed milk in hot water until it has turned into this sweet caramel cream.

Therefore you can either place the can in a pot and cover it with water. Bring water to a simmer and cook for about 3 hours. Make sure, that the can is always covered with water. If it is not, you could indeed cause an explosion.

A similar but quicker way to your dulce de leche is to use a pressure cooking pot. Just follow the instructions for the pot you are using. The cooking time can be reduced to 45 minutes, and there is no need to check the water level.

In any case you should let the can cool down after cooking, until you feel comfortable holding it in your hands. Now open the can, season the caramel cream with salt, fill into a jar and: ENJOY! Keep refrigerated. You can also reprocess it into brigadeiros, a brasilian candy (recipes f. ex. here or here).