Yesterday I reviewed a wonderful book: Dulce de Leche by Josephine Caminos Oria. Dulce recipes cover the gamut in this book, from simply adding a little to your morning beverage to topping off desserts. Even making a carrot soufflé or the “rub” for your Thanksgiving turkey. Yes, you read that right: the turkey.
You can buy dulce de leche and you can make it at home by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk for hours. Or, you can use the grandmother’s recipes presented in this book.
Suzi and I made this dark chocolate version using cocoa powder. It takes a couple of hours and you need to be careful: make sure your pot is big enough and that your monitor the boiling milk. It’s a gallon of milk and if it boils too strongly it will overflow the pot and make a mess of your stovetop. When Suzi and I made this, we did have that mini-disaster. One of us, and I won’t point fingers, screamed.
We tipped our cleaning lady and told her to bring oven cleaner.
Dark Chocolate Dulce de Leche
Yield: about 6 cups
Ingredients:
For the dish itself:
- 1 gallon pasteurized milk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, split with seeds scraped into a small bowl
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Special Equipment:
- 12-quart heavy pot, preferably copper or aluminum
- Candy thermometer
Preparation:
Combine the milk and baking soda in a heavy 12-quart pot with a candy thermometer inserted and cook over medium high heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon or a flat wooden spatula, until the milk is warm, about 150°F. Gradually add the sugar, stirring constantly to keep the milk from sticking to the bottom and sides of the pot, until fully dissolved, about 5 minutes.
Put a heaping tablespoon of the milk mixture into a small bowl and stir in the vanilla seeds until dissolved, then stir the vanilla mixture into the pot, and continue to stir to keep the milk from sticking to the bottom and sides of the pot. As the milk begins to boil, it will foam and rise in the pot. If it appears that it will overflow, lower the heat as you continue to stir. Once the milk settles down, maintain a steady boil over medium-high heat and pay close attention, stirring every few minutes to keep the milk from sticking to the pot, for 1 hour and 20 minutes more.
Put 2 cups of the dulce de leche mixture into a small bowl and whisk in the unsweetened cocoa powder until incorporated, then stir the chocolate mixture back into the pot. Stir the dulce de leche almost constantly for about 20 more minutes more.
When the dulce de leche mixture coats the wooden spoon, is a deep brown color and reaches an approximate temperature of 215°F, test for doneness. Place a spoonful of dulce de leche on a cold plate, let it cool for a minute and tilt the plate. If it doesn’t run, it is done. If it is still runny, continue to boil the mixture for five minutes more, then test again.
When the dulce de leche is done, immediately remove the pot from the heat and transfer the dulce de leche to a metal bowl to keep it from sticking to the pot. Prepare an ice bath in an extra-large metal bowl. Place the bowl of dulce de leche into the ice bath, stirring the dulce de leche occasionally, for about 15 minutes to prevent overcooking or crystallizing. When the ice is melted, transfer the bowl of dulce de leche to a cooling rack and let cool for about 1 hour, or until it reaches room temperature.
if the cooled dulce de leche is lumpy or not as smooth as you would like, press the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into another bowl. Spoon into mason jars with a good seal or into any container with a tight-fitting lid and store in the refrigerator for up to a month.
Source: Dulce de Leche by Josephine Caminos Oria [Burgess Lea Press, 2017]
Photo Information: Canon T2i, EFS 60mm Macro Lens, F/3.5 for 1/40th second at ISO‑1000