Dulce de Leche Recipe Thick Caramel
Dulce de leche is a thick, caramel milk-based sauce. I have seen many recipes for it that involve simmering an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in a big pot of water for several hours. I have tried this in the past, despite warnings that it might explode. It worked fine but still had that distinctive sweetened condensed milk taste. So try this recipe instead, its faster and is delectable.
Dulce de leche ingredients (makes 1 cup of thick dulce de leche)
4 cups or 1litre (0.26 gallons) milk (4% fat)
2 cups or 436g (15.38 ounces) sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bring the milk to the boil, add the sugar, vanilla and baking soda. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Reduce the heat and wash down the sides of the pan using a wet pastry brush. Simmer over medium heat for about 1 hour scooping off any froth every fifteen minutes.
As you get closer to an hour monitor the syrup regularly to check it is not burning on the bottom of the pan.
Pour through a fine metal sieve into a bowl and allow to cool. It will thicken more on cooling.
Use as a sauce or as a component for desserts like ‘gold bar’ or banoffee tart.
Excess can placed in a ziplock bag and stored in the freezer.
Troubleshooting: If on cooling it is not as thick as you need it has not been heated hot enough. Pour into a clean saucepan and stir as it boils until a small teaspoonful placed on the bench cools to be thick. WARNING: Caramel is extremely hot, any little splatters will burn, so wear protective gloves while stirring.
by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
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Hi made this and put it in the salted macarons, it was very very good, lots of complements however the left overs have now turned grainy when it cooled …..would the addition of glucose or corn syrup during the cooking process stop this from happening as I know that you use glucose in a lot of toffee recipes to maintain that nice smooth texture and to stop crystallization. and if so how much would you recommend adding
love your videos, you put in so much information 🙂
hi catherine yes definitely just a dessert spoonful should be enough.
Hi Ann,
I made a three tier chocolate cake today and use your dulce de leche in between the cakes to hold them together
I also used your piping techniques to piped the swirls on the top.
I have found your blog very helpful and have picked up a lot of tips from it so thank you 🙂
yummm looks great Alison thanks for posting a picture 😀
Hi Ann,
Thanks for this recipe!
How many hours do I leave it to cool? Is an hour enough?
Hi, can you cool the Caramel in the fridge/freezer and make caramel bars out of them??
Hi Ann. What can we do to salvage overcooked and thus grainy hard caramel? You mentioned we cannot reverse the overcook effect, but can we used it for any recipe and still works well?
Hi, I am trying this for the first time today, and I don’t have baking soda at home so I used baking powder. I might have put a little bit too much of it :/ I hope it’s not a stupid question, but what function does the baking soda have in this recipe?
Hi mikei, the baking soda helps with the browning reaction so you get a rich golden colour. I have had many people ask if it works with baking powder (which has additional ingredients like cream of tartar) did it work with that in it?
Sharing. I used baking powder instead too. End up I overcooked it as the colour remains creamy and consistency in pot seems not able to reach what you showed in video 🙁
Just finished this recipe and I can’t stop eating it! It’s better than caramel syrup! Mine isn’t brownish, it’s like in your second photo. Do you have any idea why? Anyway, it’s just yummy! Thank you so much!
Hi Ale, did you add the baking soda? It helps with the browning reaction. Yes it is very moreish, I put spare in the freezer in the hope of using it for a future recipe but amount decreases as I take out spoonfuls to eat every now and then
Hi Ann
Can you give the weight for half cup dulce de leche n half cup butter in grams? Or do we just scoop an estimate half cup of dulce n soften butter will do? Thanks! Trying the salted caramel macarons tomorrow!!! Nervous.
hi Chiu Ee 1/2 cup = 125ml
Hi! I’m from Argentina, so I know well about dulce de leche. There are many types of it and we have one special type that is for decorating cakes and filling, which is much thicker so it doesn’t drip off the sides when you put a layer of cake on top. The traditional way to do it is the one that you made, the one with the condensed milk is just a quick way to get dulce de leche anywhere in the world.
It goes very well with chocolate and with cream cheese, you could mix it with the cream cheese to get a nice rich flavor for a filling.
yumm sounds good daniela
hi ann
i had my first attempt at dulce de leche last night, and thought i did quite well. however the consistency wasn’t quite thick enough and i had to put it back on the heat to try and thicken it, but it’s now gone too far and is too hard 🙁 is there any way i can salvage this?
cheers, virginia
Hi virginia the thickness is dependent on the temp that the sugar is heated to, you can’t take this backwards but you could use it for something else like a thick filling for chocolate truffles
Hi Ann,
I made this today and had a cup of evaporated milk left over so used that and the rest was skim milk, it was fantastic. Thanks Gini
all your works are so well appreciated and really enjoyed in ever
piece of your work..^_^
may i ask.. im just concern for my caramel..
used to place my caramel inside the tupperware.. how long can i put in the fridge? i made it couple of weeks already..
looking forward to your reply.
God bless you and more awesome power^_^
hi clair, i store excess in a ziploc bag in the freezer and it lasts for months or until eaten.
Hi Ann, just one question- how much vanilla extract do you need? Thanks 🙂
hi charlotte I added about a teaspoon
Hi Ann, I was just wondering if I half this recipe (since I don’t need that much) will it work just as well?
Hi Christian, I would make the full amount and freeze it in a ziplock bag
I just made a half of this recipe. I’ve made it a couple of times before with the whole recipe, but it turn darker than on the video, but last night I made it in a dream, where er found it lighter, when I just made half of the recipe, because it didn’t have to boil than long, and today I made it right, with only half of the recipe. Thank you Ann, for your yummi recipes…I’ve learned so much from your instructions.
Hi Ann
This is the best dulce de leche recipe I have found 🙂 it was so easy to follow. I love all of your recipes and videos. I know this will be a hit at work.
Thanks,
Erin
hi Ann, first off your videos are amazing! Caught my attention with your instagram dessert last week and i’ve watched different videos daily since! I just want to let you know that i made this dulce de leche last night and it turned out exactly how it looks on your video so i am very happy. I made a batch and a half (6 c. milk, 3 c. sugar, 1.5 tsp baking soda) and it took just a little over an hour from start to finish. Amaaaazing! I’ll use this to fill my macarons 🙂 Thanks, you really make things look so easy and doable with your videos.
awesome thanks for the feedback geraldine 😀
Hi Anne…love your videos, thank you. One questions with this recipe. I made this the first time & apart from having to reheat the mixture to thicken up properly later (assume I obviously didn;t leave it to cook long enough)which I did with no problems. However, have gone to make this a 2nd time & I have no idea what I did wrong, but let it cook for longer this time so I wouldn;t have to reheat to thicken like the first time around but it went on cooking for ages & although appeared to darken it did not thicken? After about 1.5 hours I decided to take it off the stove & when I poured it onto a bowl there were lots of small clumps of grainy mixture, not hard like toffee or anything, but as if cooking on the bottom but not the top. This mix tasted ok, but was very grainy.. not nice & smooth like it should have been…..any ideas/suggestions for what I did wrong..so disappointed 🙁 Thanks again.
Hi Jenny sounds like it has caught on the bottom and started burning or crystalizing??
* How many teaspoon do you use for vanilla extract ?
hi vanessa, I used about 1/2 a teaspoon
Hello ! What type of milk do you use ? Because there is low fat milk . Ans how many tablespoons/teaspoons do you use for vanilla extract ? Thanks !
Hi vanessa, full cream milk, vanilla is to your taste but around 1/2 a teaspoon is good.
Hello Ann,
I was just wondering if I needed to use baking soda, or if I could substitute it for baking powder.
Thank you for your help,
Alice
hi alice it should be ok