I was working on a recipe for a contest (details coming later this week) and needed dulce de leche. Dulce de leche means “sweet of milk” in Spanish. It is made by caramelizing sweetened milk. You can start with regular milk and sugar, but it’s much easier to start with canned sweetened condensed milk.
I had seen a tutorial on Pinterest for making dulce de leche in the slow cooker that looked like a yummy treat. The initial recipe called for putting the can of sweetened condensed milk directly into the slow cooker. But I read a bit more and found some concerns about BPA leaking into the food if you use this method. So I found this tutorial for transferring the sweetened condensed milk to canning jars first.
You will need:
2 14oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
3 half-pint canning jars
Slow cooker
Pour the contents of the cans into the canning jars. Top with lids and rings that are just tightened.
Add jars to slow cooker and fill with hot (from the tap, not boiling) water. I used the taller half-pint jars and they were covered by about a half-inch of water. They remained covered during the whole process, but you may need to add more water if the jars don’t stay full submerged.
Cook on Low for 9-11 hours. I cooked mine for 11 hours and it made a very firm dulce de leche. I think it I had removed it earlier, it would have been a bit creamier. Remove from the slow cooker and cool.
Yum! This would make great topping for ice cream or a dip for apples or animal crackers (my favorite way!).
Yum. Looks really easy. I had this one pinned too.
Definitely easy. And delicious!
no way, so easy! i would love for you to add this to my new link party… spreading the love. please go check it out if you are interested!
http://lovenotesbylauryn.blogspot.com/search/label/spread%20the%20love%20link%20party
{love} lauryn @ love notes by lauryn
So going to give this a try! I love DDL in my coffee, so this will be awesome!
yay! So glad there is a post with canning jars instead of the cans. I always wanted to try, but was scared to do so because there is the fear of the cans exploding.
So, how long does this version last? I’m just wondering if it’s longer than the cook in the can version since it’s being cooked for 9-11hrs and the jars are sealed i’m sure. And it would probably freeze well too….
Thanks for stopping by, Heather. I’m not really sure how long these will last. The jars are definitely sealed so I think it should last a while. I made this about 6 weeks ago and it is still good. I kept the jars in the fridge (even the unopened ones) but that was probably overly cautious. I think they are self-stable once they cool. Hmmm….I don’t really have a good answer. I’m not sure about freezing it, I would worry that the consistency would change when defrosted. Let me know if you try it though!