Friday, February 19, 2010

Slow Cooker Dulce de Leche





I am now officially totally infatuated with my slow cooker. Not because it helps me get dinner on the table. No ma'am. The newest reason my crockpot rocks my world is because for virtually no effort it transforms sweetened condensed milk into a decadent foolproof dulce de leche. 8 hours of crock pot magic and voilĂ  - heaven in a can. This method makes it so there are no more worries about popping pressurized cans or watching the stove for hours and hours. The first time I made this I had no idea what to expect when I opened up the can. To put it mildly, I was nothing short of overjoyed. To little ole me, it was like magic!

Now my only problem is deciding what to use my dulce de leche for - so many options!!! If you make this and remember, please rate it here at Dulce de Leche on Recipezaar.

Slow Cooker Dulce de Leche

1 can sweetened condensed milk, unopened
Water

1. Wash and remove the labels from your cans of sweetened condensed milk. Make sure the cans are undented and unopened.
2. Stand your cans up in the slow cooker and pour water in to cover cans fully.
3. Cook on low for at least 8 hours (I've gone up to 12 hours once when I forgot about the cans, results were still good). You could probably do this on high for 4-5 hours but I haven't tried it.
4. Allow to cool fully before opening the can. Store in refrigerator.
5. If you open the can and find that it's not golden enough (highly unlikely), scoop out contents into a saucepan and simmer on low until desired color.

19 comments:

Shandy said...

Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant! I LOVE the idea and now I have to go try it.

Hungry Dog said...

Dulce de leche is on everyone's mind recently! I just posted about some dulce de leche brownies...but I cheated and bought some in a jar. I also saw a recipe for it using whole milk and vanilla paste...must try one of these methods soon!

Nickki said...

I'm going to try this for this week's TWD...thank you! :-)

Meg said...

What an awesome idea!! Thanks for sharing...I will definitely be trying this for our TWD cookies! :)

Rachelle S said...

Ditto to what Meg & Nickki said! =)

mike said...

By far the BEST method! Thanks so much for posting this... I've never gotten that nice, deep brown color with any other cooking technique. And... no maintenance! Thanks again!

Unknown said...

Wow - this is awesome. So simple - and it looks delicious!

Lynne Daley said...

Brilliant! I'll have to make my dulce de leche next time. I chickened out and bought it.

anita82 said...

I was just wondering....

When I cook it how long can you save the can (unopend) before you can use it?

I would like to us it for a bannoffipie but don't have the time to do this one evening ahead, so I was thinking about cooking it over the weekend and than use it about 6 days later.
But is this even possible?

thanks!

Anita

Rosea said...

I make this by boiling the can in a pan of water for 3 hours. Be careful (watchful) to keep the can covered with water! Cool for an hour, and spoon into a graham cracker pie crust and top with whipped topping. YUM!

Anonymous said...

Best recipe I've found for this dulce de lech- layer sliced bananas on a graham crackercrust, pour half the dulce de leche in, add another layer of bananas, the rest of the dulce de leche, then cover with cool whip and drizzle chocolate of your choice over it! Fridge for at least an hour before eating! :) if you don't have time to make your own, you can buy dulce de leche. I found it in the aisle with Mexican foods and spices...

Anonymous said...

Alternatively, you can also boil the cans in a pressure cooker for 20min. That's how we do it in Brasil... but you must be VERY careful when opening the cooker and make sure the can is cool before opening

Tia said...

Thanks for all the alternate ideas for making DDL. The pressure cooker sounds way faster and I wish I owned one!

Anonymous said...

I don't want to name the restaurant but they make their own carmel pie. It's made the same way you made your carmel. After it's done and cooled, put it in a bowl, whip it then pour it into a graham crack crust, place in freezer until really cold (maybe overnight). When ready to serve, top with whip cream, mini chocolate chips and chopped nuts. YUM!

Dragonflyte said...

HOLY MOTHER OF ......WHO KNEW? Now I gotta try this ASAP!!!

Anonymous said...

This sounds delicious, but I was wondering if I should use glass canning jars instead of heating directly in the can. Almost all cans contain a BPA lining in them that leeches the hormone disrupting chemical more when heated. Most of them have even more BPA than plastic water bottles. Would love to make this, but has anyone tried it using another method?

Anonymous said...

I woud like to make this using a large can (8lbs 10 oz) would there be a different cook time for this?1

Tia said...

I bet this would work with a mason jar as long as it was sealed really well and no water got in. As a bonus, you'd be able to see the color change and tell if it's done. If you try it, please let me know how it goes!

As for cooking a large batch, you would probably have to do trial and error. Or try the mason jar approach above and portion the sweetened condensed milk into smaller portions in mason jars. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to try, have just purchased some chocolate condensed milk from Aldi!