Imagine a creamy, rich, brown caramel made from the simplest of ingredients — milk and sugar — and involving little more than a pot of boiling water and a couple hours. Hard to believe, but the best way to make dulce de leche is also the easiest way. And tell me you’re not salivating as you eye the caramel I’ve got sitting in a jar in my fridge. This stuff is to die for, people.
Ingredients: 1 can sweetened condensed milk.
Special equipment: 1 big, tall pot and lots of water
Peel the label of the can of sweetened condensed milk. Do not open the can.
Fill the pot with water so that the water level covers the can by at least an inch. Plunk the can into the pot to check, then remove.
Set the pot over high heat and bring to a boil; once the water is boiling, add the can, and turn the heat down to medium high, bringing the water to a simmer. The can should be standing on one side, not rolling around.
Now, I noticed that the can tends to make a lot of noise as the bubbles from the boiling water try to escape from beneath it. One trick, if you happen to have two pairs of tongs lying around, is to prop the can on a tilt by sticking a small ball of tin foil underneath it. This stops the noise.
Leave the can in the simmering water for at least 2 hours (longer for a firmer caramel — I left it in for 3), and make sure to replenish the water as often as you need to in order to keep the water level above the can. I had to add about a cup every half hour to 45 minutes.
When 2 hours (or your desired cooking time) have elapsed, turn off the heat and leave the can in the water for at least half an hour, to cool slightly. If you were to remove it immediately, the heat inside the can would overpower the air pressure surrounding it, and it would explode.
After 30-45 minutes, remove the can with tongs; if it’s not too hot to touch, you can open it with a can opener. Dulce de leche will start oozing out as you open the can, and you should feel free to — ahem — clean it up. With your fingers. And then try it. Gaahhh it’s so good 
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I have never heard of this before. I can’t wait to give it a try this weekend. Thank you for sharing.
This is about my favorite desert! My grandmother made it years ago (I’m 62). We would salivate in anticipation of the “done” product.
She would then prepare fresh whipped cream and add a tablespoon of that. Pure heaven.
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This sounds fun , but a bit of a random, question, but how should the can sound when shaken, as I had a can going for about 2 and a half hours and it still sounds far to liquidy inside.
Not sure — I’ve never shaken the can. was your water at a rolling boil the whole time? and was the can totally submerged? If so, you should be fine…
enjoy!
Oh My Heavens – I made this last night and it was wonderful. Put a spot in my coffee this morning and what a treat! I just left it in the pan of water over night to cool down and it was sooo thick! YUMMY!!!!
This is a great way to do it on the stove. I have only made it in a crock pot. It takes about 8 hours that way but its perfect to leave in overnight = )
Thanks for all the dessert suggestions… I love to make it but then never have any use for it all!
This looks delicious!
Hi, just wondering if Viking milk(the only condesed milk i can find in Norway) can be used? per100g it has 6,5g og protein
9,5g carbohydrates and 8,1g fat
This just looks delicious btw.
@ Benedicte – I’m pretty sure you can use any brand of sweetened condensed milk, as long as it is sweetened, and is condensed, not evaporated milk.
@Jamieson – When you make it in the crockpot, do you cover the tin with water, or do you have it 2/3 up the sides and put the holes in the top? I’ve seen this done many ways, once even in the oven, but all require supervision to keep the water level constant.
Thanks so much for this. I heard about how you could make this when I was in college, but never knew the specific instructions. Cool web page.
Great tutorial. I’m from Cuba and 60 years old. I can remember from when I was 3 or 4 years old that my Grandmother made it for us.
Dulce de leche tranlates to Milk Candy, not sweet milk. Whaever name you call it in your country is fine. It’s just not recognized in all countries. Dulce de leche is a discriptive name that means Milk Candy and is recongnized in all Spanish speaking countries.
In all the years of making Dulce de leche, not a single one has ever exloded.
When I’ve introduced this to people in work they are skepticle that it is home made and that the can would explode if it were to be boild.
I get them to bring in a can and we would make it in work. They are always amazed that it didn’t explode and that it is home made.
TIPS
It takes the same amount of energy to boil 7 cans as it does to do 1 can. I can fit 7 cans in the pot that I use. Friends always know whats in the little can with no lable.
Buy a little wire cooling rack that will fit in your pot to keep the cans off the bottom of the pot.
Before I put the cans into the pot, I take a teaspoon and scratch an X on the top of each can and then I put them in with the X up. At the half way point I flip the cans over with a pair of tongs to make sure that they cook evenly from both ends. This is probably not needed but thats the way that I do it.
Make lots of Dulce de leche and pass them out.
Sounds just like the Sweet Potato Queens’ Danger Pudding to me…YUM!
OMG, I tried this and it turned out perfect. The taste was caramel to perfection. No explosion or mishaps.
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Heating the can will dissolve toxic heavy metals from the can to contents.
Who cares what Health Hazard says, that looks delicious and far too easy!
OMG! this recipe seems sooooo easy and i bet it tastes DIVINE! I can’t wait to try this!
Health Hazard, *what* toxic heavy metals??? It’s tin, and approved by the FDA (not that they are perfect angels). And heating does not dissolve any metals at that temperature anyway. Did you mean, toxic compounds form the tin alloy might leech intio the food? Umm…foodsafe tin. Thanks for the caution, though.
I boiled a tin of the famous sweetened condensed milk for 90 minutes………let it cool………whipped 1 cup of whipping cream and then whipped the condensed milk..folded the cream into the milk and topped it onto my cheesecake…………a hit……..I’ve told all of you, but family will have to keep guessing…..Enjoy all.
i made this with the pop-tab cans. it worked perfectly. Thank you for posting this! As for the metals in the can contaminating the contents, cans are sprayed with plastic so this doesn’t happen during the manufacturing process, as well so that the contents do not erode the can itself. There should be no concerns about any chemicals or toxic metals seeping into the Dulce de Leche.
I do this using a pressure cooker, works faster and produces the same results
You are soooooo right with this method. I don’t purchase dulce de leche — it goes in the pan. Love it!
This looks fabulous! How long is it safe to store in the can? Or should it be removed to another container right away?
I can’t believe I’ve never made this myself. I’m off to the cabinet tomorrow! Yummy!
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