Remember when I told you that it was my mom’s and MIL’s goal to just hook me up to a machine that feeds me nothing but milk? Turns out despite how much I try (I don’t really even care to try), I cannot finish a gallon of raw cow’s milk alone (Binks hates milk). And, I don’t care to. Not because it’s not delicious. Not because I have something against raw milk.
But rather, to me – milk is a food, not a beverage. (It is mom(s)!) I can only eat so much of it and so often. I can’t drink with reckless abandon like I do most beverages (namely, water, vodka and wine – not necessarily in that order).
With that said, I can’t bring myself to throw it away.
So what to do with a gallon of milk that requires little attention on my part? Dulce de leche.
Most dulce de leche recipes you may find simply require you to boil a can of sweetened condensed milk until it caramelizes. But, I had to take it back to the start.
As it turns out – all you need is milk, sugar, vanilla beans, baking soda and water (<– not quite sure why you need the last two). Using this recipe, I transformed half of my gallon of milk into a beautiful dessert/sauce/jam product that I will surely make again when I have milk to spare.
This transformed a quart of milk to a mere cup and a half of dulce de leche.
Check out the vanilla bean speck bounty.
The uses for dulce de leche are endless: topping on ice cream, oatmeal; jam on bread, shortbread, cookies; filling in cakes; dips for fruit; etc.
If you find yourself wanting a decadent caramel treat, I encourage you to try this recipe and tell me your uses for this most decadent of treats.
