Yerba Mate Article
Dulce de Leche
What is Dulce de Leche?
In a word.. its delicious! Dulce de Leche is a creamy caramel sauce, with a toffee like quality of taste. It is extremely popular in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, and indeed most of Latin America and Spain. Dulce de Leche is an important ingredient for desserts: cake topping or filling, banoffee pie, in pancakes, on waffles, but is also great with ice cream, on toast, or simply on its own on a spoon!
You can buy dulce de leche in jars or tins, or if you are feeling adventurous you could try and make it..
Ingredients for Dulce de Leche
- 3 Litres Milk
- 1 Vanilla pod
- 800g sugar
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Procedure to Make Dulce de Leche
Bring to the boil the milk, vanilla & sugar together on a strong flame until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce to a low heat and add the bicarbonate of soda. It is so important to continuosly stir while it boils, and then whilst simmering on a low heat to avoid the mixture burning on the bottom of the pan, but also to ensure a smooth, even texture of your final mixture. Continue to simmer and stir until the milk has a thick consistency with the signature dulce de leche golden brown colour – this may take 2-4 hours!
It is difficult to judge when the consistency will be thick enough, so a good test is to put a couple of drops on the back of a spoon, and blow to cool quickly. If the drop doesn’t run off, the dulce de leche is ready, and when cooled will be the perfect consistency.
Now you have the perfect homemade dulce de leche, its time to eat it! Perfect to decorate cakes and tartlets, and makes a great combination with ice cream and bananas.
Read our full, in-depth dulce de leche article here, for more information and recipe ideas
