Dulce de leche
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Dulce de leche (/'dulse ðe 'letʃe/) in Spanish, or doce de leite in Portuguese, is a traditional caramel-like candy popular in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and other parts of the Americas. It is also popular in Mexico, where it is known as cajeta, and in Colombia and Venezuela, where it is known as arequipe. The name literally means “sweet of milk” or “milk candy” in Spanish. There is a partially similar confection known as Manjar blanco (“white delicacy”) in Peru and simply manjar in Chile, but the preparation of this delicacy normally avoids fully caramelizing the sugars and so has a different flavor and appearance. The French preparation confiture de lait is very similar to the spreadable forms of dulce de leche.
Its most basic recipe mixes boiled milk and sugar, although other ingredients may be included to achieve special properties. Dulce de leche may also be prepared with sweetened condensed milk cooked for several hours. Although the transformation that occurs in preparation is often called caramelization, it is actually a form of the Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction that is responsible for many of the flavors of cooked food.
Dulce de leche is used to flavour candies or other sweet foods, such as cakes, cookies (see alfajor) or ice cream, as well as flan. It is also popular spread on toast. Confiture de lait is commonly served with fromage blanc.
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[edit] Origins
The origins of dulce de leche are unclear, as there are several legends about its creation. The most popular of these involves the 19th century Argentine politician Juan Manuel de Rosas. The story goes that in a winter afternoon at the Rosas house, the maid was making some lechada—a drink made with milk and sugar boiled until it starts to caramelize—and she heard someone knocking at the door. She left the lechada on the stove and went to answer the door; and when she came back, the lechada was burnt and had turned into a brown jam: dulce de leche.. Another less common version of this story says that a servant was heating milk for some soldiers. Since she was angry with her "master" because of ordering her to heat so much milk she added lots of sugar into it so the soldiers wouldn't be able to drink. She then left the milk heating and when she came back she found that the milk had turned into a brown jam. Her master was about to punish her but a soldier who didn't want this to happen said it wasn't a problem and tasted the jam. He discovered it tasted very good and after that dulce de leche started spreading throughout Argentina. Other version set its origins in Europe, possibly as the French confiture de lait: a popular similar legend dating back from the 14th century exists in the region of Normandy, involving a cook from the military troops who had the same culinary accident when making sweetened milk for breakfast. Variations of this legend refer to a cook in Napoleon's army.
The most popular dulce de leche brands in Argentina are La Serenísima and Sancor. Among the more prestigious are San Ignacio, Chimbote, Poncho Negro, La Salamandra, and Lapataia, which is made in Uruguay. Another outstanding brand in Uruguay is Conaprole.
There are also other Brazilian, Chilean, Dominican, Paraguayan, Venezuelan and Colombian varieties of it, which are solid and can be cut into bars. The Venezuelan variety is made in the city of Coro, in the Northwest of the country, and is sold as either pure dulce de leche or made with chocolate swirled in (dulce de leche con chocolate).
The Mexican cajeta is named after the small wooden boxes it was traditionally packed in. Developed out of a speciality of the town Celaya in the state of Guanajuato, the Mexican version of dulce de leche is made of half goat's milk and half cow's milk.
Dulce de leche has become widely known in the United States at large as the result of the 1998 introduction by Häagen-Dazs of a dulce de leche ice cream flavor (though many Hispanic restaurants have served dulce de leche since many years before that.) Its popularity is now only surpassed by Vanilla and Fudge Ripple.[citation needed]
[edit] Dulce de Leche Recipe
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Remove the label from the can of condensed milk. Do not under any circumstances open the can yet. Take the can and stick it in a pot. Cover it with water. Put the pot on a stove and turn up the heat. Let the pot and can simmer gently for about one and a half to two hours for runny dulce de leche, or up to four hours for solid dulce de leche. Add more water, as necessary, when the level boils down too much.
When it's done, let it cool for a while, and then carefully open up the can and eat directly (for the solid variety) or use as a dessert spread (for the liquid variety).
The resulting product should be colored tan or brown.
NOTE: You need to keep a close eye on the can. If it shows any signs of expansion, immediately remove it from the heat and let it cool. If you are concerned at all at the high-pressure nature of the recipe, you may poke a small hole in the top of the can, and lower the water level so that the can is not completely covered. This will allow the internal pressure of the can to be released, but it will also make the recipe take longer (since high pressure reduces cooking time).
