Dulce de Leche

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Dulce de Leche

The easiest way I know to make this to-die-for concoction!

Who doesn’t love dulce de leche?

I always wanted to make this but I didn’t want to boil cans for hours on the stovetop due to the cost of LP gas (bottled, which I must have here in the boonies). Didn’t want to use my electric pressure cooker either even though I heard the cans won’t explode–I’ve heard that before and don’t trust it. Likewise for the overnight method in the slow cooker. Just SOMETHING about exposing an un-opened can, which is under pressure to heat. Heck, I’m an engineer so I think of these things.

Easy and SAFE

Well, I got a great idea–and cannot remember the source I got it from unfortunately, about using the slow cooker YET opening the cans. I liked this. No danger of steel grenades exploding, etc.

This doesn’t cook overnight–it cooks on HIGH for about 4 hours. A 4-hour cook time on high will produce a lighter caramel flavor. If it’s deep and rich you want to go for, let ‘er rip for about 5-6 hrs.

The procedure is that you line your slow cooker with aluminum foil or use one of those bags, open the can, place some foil over the top (I also secure that with a rubber band), put about 2 cups of water in the slow cooker, cover and let it go on HIGH for at least 4 hours. Then simply shut off the slow cooker and leave the can(s) in there until they cool to room temp. I usually do this in the evening so that it’s done cooking by the time I go to bed, so I shut it off and it cools overnight.

This time I remembered to take step-by-step pics, although I think the procedure is pretty self-explanatory.

Slow Cooker Lined With Foil

You should remove the label. I forgot.

In it’s waterbath

Set to HIGH

Finished product. This cooked for 4 hrs–it’s “light”. Go longer for darker.

Dulce de Leche

1-2 cans sweetened condensed milk
2 cups water

Line slow cooker with aluminum foil or use a slow-cooker bag (sold by Reynolds).

Open can(s) and cover with aluminum foil. Place 2 cups of water in slow cooker. Set to HIGH and cook for at least 4 hrs (produces lighter product) or up to 6 hrs (produces darker richer product).

Shut off slow cooker and allow contents to come to room temperature. DO NOT UNCOVER SLOW COOKER! This will take at least 6-8 hours.

Remove dulce de leche from cans and store in either plastic or glass containers. Refrigerate product until use.

NOTE: You can make as many cans as you wish, procedure is the same, only the number of cans of milk will vary.

Oh man, is this good stuff! Dulce de Leche

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Banoffee Pie Dessert

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Banoffee Pie Dessert

Do you love bananas? Do you love caramel or dulce de leche? What about whipped cream? Yes to all three? Then this is your dessert.

This is a popular dessert in Britain. I used to think the name was hilarious…it’s a contraction of the ingredients–BANanas and tOFFEE, hence “banoffee.”

Brits are fond of their toffee. While they don’t sell soft toffee here, a great equivalent would be caramel sauce or dulce de leche. Either will work well here. I used dulce de leche because frankly, I way dying to make it in the slow cooker. Since the operation was a total success, I opted for the dulce de leche instead of the caramel sauce.

I also cheated here and used whipped topping–but the extra-creamy variety. But if you are going to make this up and serve immediately, then an aerosol whipped cream such as Redi Whip will work perfectly.

These are easy to put together. The original recipe for the actual pie calls for a crust made out of digestive biscuits.

Digestives are whole grain cookies popular in UK–they’ve been around forever and a major manufacturer is McVittie’s. They can be bought in the USA, and they’ll be in the “imported” cookie section. They come either plain or coated with chocolate on bottom. Either variety will do. And if you can’t find digestives, good ole American graham crackers will do just nicely. In fact, they are related to one another in many ways.

All you do is break the cookie up into small bits for this…no fine crumbs. It’s easy to assemble with just layers of cookie, banana, toffee and cream.

Banoffee Pie Dessert

2 ripe bananas, sliced
1/4 cup (more or less) of dulce de leche or caramel sauce
1 cup (or abouts) extra-creamy whipped topping or whipped cream
4 digestive biscuits or
2 whole plain honey graham crackers

Break up the cookies into small bits.

Place 1/2 of the cookie bits in the bottom of 2 dessert dishes. Top with some banana slices, then top the banana slices with some dulce de leche or caramel sauce, add a scant 1/2 cup of whipped cream or topping on top of that, then top with the rest of the broken cookies and a dollop of the remaining topping/cream. Garnish with a banana slice.

Makes 2 desserts

Banoffee Pie Dessert

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dulce de leche Archives - The Midnight Baker

Dulce de Leche

Banoffee Pie Dessert