It's crossover time for dulce de leche, a luscious, sweetened, thickened milk sauce that, when drizzled over dessert or licked from sticky fingers, spells bliss and comfort to much of the Spanish-speaking world.
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Dulce de leche makes a sweet, caramel-flavored dipping sauce for any fruit or sweet. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette, food styling by Marlene Parrish) |
This is especially true on Sunday, May 5, when Americans will celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a low-key observance south of the border marking an important victory in the Mexican battle for independence, but which has expanded into an ethnic party in this country that includes people of all nationalities.
Haagen-Dazs was first to bring dulce, a blond powerhouse, to the mainstream. That was Dulce de Leche Ice Cream, a caramel-swirled vanilla, which in 1997 almost knocked plain vanilla out of the No. 1 spot.
You can mail order dulce de leche sauce from Williams-Sonoma. But it's so easily made and fun to use in so many ways, you might want to try it yourself.
The satiny caramel is as delicious spooned over an all-American chocolate banana split as it is combined with tastes from the tropics, such as pineapple, macadamia nuts, ginger and coconut. It partners perfectly with citrus or coffee flavors, too.
If you stir in almost any booze -- dark rum, Grand Marnier or tequila -- the butterscotch ingenue turns into a very grown-up vamp.
We call dulce de leche "caramel," but it never cooks at temperatures high enough to caramelize the sugar it contains. What turns golden are the milk solids, as when butter is browned.
There are two ways to make your own dulce de leche.
The from-scratch version, using fresh whole milk, which you must watch and stir.
And the can-opener method, using sweetened condensed milk and calling for practically no tending.
Both approaches involve about 1 1/2 hours start to finish.
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Serving ideas
Use as a spread, sauce, sundae topping or fondue. Fill layer cakes and cookie sandwiches. Warm dulce de leche slightly in a microwave to make it extra delicious.
 Roll crepes (from the freezer case) around sweetened cream cheese; bake under a blanket of dulce de leche. Top with toasted nuts or sweetened berries.
Thin warmed dulce de leche with whiskey; serve over bread pudding.
Sprinkle fresh sliced pineapple with brown sugar, bits of butter and coarsely chopped macadamia nuts and caramelize under the broiler. Top with ice cream and dulce de leche.
Spoon dulce de leche over dark chocolate sorbet or ice cream; top with roasted peanuts.
Thin with orange liqueur, warm, combine with mandarin orange sections; spoon over cheesecake.
Start a dipping frenzy. Serve a bowl of warmed dulce de leche on a tray of pineapple wedges, apple slices, whole strawberries and crisp cookies.
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The dulce de leches made from sweetened condensed milk tend to be thicker. After all, when you use canned milk, most of your work has been done, since sweetened condensed milk is simply milk combined with almost half sugar and cooked until 60 percent of the water evaporates. The milk caramelizes without any stirring and you whisk in flavorings when the mixture cools.
Both methods are authentic.
In fact, canned milk strikes a powerful chord in Spanish-speaking countries, from days when refrigerators were scarce and milk had to keep without refrigeration. As touchingly told in Isabel Allende's saga, "The Infinite Plan," sweetened condensed milk, licked straight from the fingers, was the ultimate luxury and comfort for a barrio child.
So it's not surprising that there are two ways to make dulce de leches from condensed milk.
One version does its thing in the oven and needs no watching. The other, cooked on the stovetop, will strike you as about as well advised as microwaving an egg in its shell, but will work for you, just as it has for ages in Hispanic kitchens.
From scratch
If you are a purist and want the silk and subtlety of from-scratch dulce de leche, your only challenge will be waiting -- and stirring -- as the milk takes its sweet time to thicken and darken to the color of a brown paper bag. The pouring texture will be something like thick maple syrup.
It is important to use a large, heavy saucepan, 6 to 8 quarts, because the milk mixture bubbles up high as it boils, before eventually cooking down to about a fraction of its original volume.
In Columbia, where dulce de leche is called arequipe, cooks often add a single long green onion while the milk is still cold.
We can see you cringing, but the onion helps to blend flavors and keeps the mixture from tasting too sweet. You'll smell and taste the pure sweet milk and cinnamon, but never guess at the visiting onion.
Cooled, the sauce keeps in the refrigerator for at least a month.
Creme de la creme
The creme de la creme of dulce de leches is called cajeta. Made traditionally with goat's milk, it is one of the glories of the Mexican kitchen.
Plain whole milk is a great substitute, except -- and this might be good news for some people -- cow's milk will not provide cajeta's characteristic complexity, a hint of the taste remembered from a genteel goat's milk fudge.
Goat's milk is available in health specialty stores and the East End Co-op, Point Breeze.
To give cajeta its full honors, it is worth seeking out canela, true Mexican cinnamon, which is lighter and more floral than the cassia cinnamon we are accustomed to.
Virginia Phillips is a free-lance writer and translator based in Mt. Lebanon.
Related Recipes:
Rum Dulce de Leche -- Oven Method
Gourmet Dulce de Leche With Tequila-Mixed Berry Compote
Dulce de Leche -- The Real McCoy
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