Dulce de leche

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A Smucker's brand jar of Dulce de Leche

Dulce de leche (DDL) (/'dulse ðe 'letʃe/) in Spanish, confiture de lait in French, or doce de leite in Portuguese, is a traditional caramel-like candy, most commonly in the form of a spread, popular in Latin-America. Especially popular in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, it is also consumed in Chile, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Puerto Rico and Panama. In Mexico, it is known as cajeta, while in Colombia and Venezuela 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.

[edit] Origins

The origins of dulce de leche are unclear, as there are several legends about its creation. One version of this story says that an Uruguayan servant was heating milk for some soldiers. Since she was angry with her master for ordering her to heat so much milk, she added lots of sugar into it to make it impossible for the soldiers 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 Uruguay.

The other story 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..

It is, however, more likely to have 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.

Traditional spread and solid varieties of Dulce de Leche

The most popular dulce de leche brands in Argentina are La Serenísima and Sancor. The most popular dulce de leche brands in Uruguay are the world famous Conaprole and the outstanding Lapataia, wich is made in Punta del Este. 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).

A solid candy made out of Dulce de Leche was also very popular, named Vaquita ("little cow") was manufactured by the Mu-Mu factory in Argentina. Since the candy was no longer made when the factory went out of business in 1984 as a consequence of financial speculation by its owners, other brands began to manufacture similar candies giving them names such as Vauquita and Vaquerita in an effort to link their products to the original.

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.

Dulce de leche is a drink ordered by Sky Masterson in the musical Guys and Dolls when he takes Sarah to the Cafe Cubana, Havana. He describes it to her as sweetened milk with "a kind of preservative in it" which he later reveals is rum.^[1]