Recipe for Leche Dolce? (spelling?) (Condensed Milk)

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I saw a recipe for the above. It was something like 1 cup of sugar, 1 quart of milk, heat on low (lower than simmer) until reduced by half. It sounded as though it would end up like sweetened, condensed milk. It's supposed to be good over ice cream, too. Has anyone had any experience with anything resembling this stuff? Do you have a more exact recipe?

I had some coffee down in Mexico and I swear it was the best I ever tasted. I wondered for a long time what they had put in it, and even tried the sweetened, condensed milk, but it had that canned taste. I think it might have been this stuff. I'll be grateful for any info! Thanks!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@seedlaw.com), February 09, 2001

Answers

Hi, Laura, It's leche dulce, and it means "sweet milk" in Spanish. I know I've seen a recipe somewhere; I looked in my Mexican cookbook, but it was leche quemada which I was thinking of. It's yummy, too, and it the caramel sauce you cook UNDER flan.

If I remember where I saw the recipe, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, you might do a search on the web. At least now you know how to spell it.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoff@echoweeb.net), February 09, 2001.


Laura, I have been wishing for some of the wonderful sweet coffee I had in the Dominican Republic. I wonder if it would be the same?? If you find a recipe please post it.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 09, 2001.

When my husband and I were in Brazil on a volunteer mission trip about 3 years ago, I spotted some stuff in the restaurant where we had our meals that looked like pudding. I asked about it, but my Portuguese was lacking and about all I understood was that it was a dessert. So I spooned about a cup into my bowl. And although it was light tan in color and I expected a peanut butter taste, it didn't have any. But, boy was it tasty, thick and creamy, kind of like fudge that hadn't hardened yet. So I had it for dessert every night for about 4 days. When I finally asked our interpreter about it, he said it was condensed milk. I had been eating about a billion calories per serving! After that, I limited myself to one big spoonful a day - still more calories than I needed, but worth it.

This was in an area of Brazil known for its dairy production. By the way, the rest of the food was great and the greens were fabulous - something about being drenched in fresh butter...! (And we did actually get the church built in spite of my lingering at the dinner table!:).

-- Lori in SE Ohio (klnprice@yahoo.com), February 09, 2001.


Funny you should post this. We were just talking about this at work last week. I work with at the language department at the local university. I asked one of the Spanish professors about it and she said you could make it by boiling (low boil) sweetened condensed milk at a low boil. Do a search on the internet and you'll find lots of recipes some fo the shortcut method with the sweetend condensed milk and some for the real thing. Hagen Daas (sp?) also makes wonderful ice cream called Leche Dulce.

Also, I think the Mexican coffee you are asking about may be something called Horchata. In Spain they make it from chufa but in Mexico they make it from rice.

Hope this helps some. Funny we are on the same thought patterns on this.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@linkup.net), February 09, 2001.


I read an article about this a few months ago. Can't remember where, but I'll see if I can find it when I get home in a couple of weeks. I think there was a recipe, too.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), February 09, 2001.


You can buy Horchetta in many grocery stores that cater to "ethnic" populations, usually near the milk. It is a rice drink and is very sweet. I love going to stores in various ethnic neighborhoods...you get some really good things if you are open minded about trying unusual foods! I used to go to this Philipino store that had awesome stuff...loved those little snow white rice muffins and the "glass" noodles. Yum! Used to date an asian guy and I was the only white girl willing to eat in these hole-in-the-wall restaurants we'd all go to. I have green eyes & long blonde hair and you should have seen the looks, like they were afraid to serve me & my boyfriend always had to order. One of my favs was this philipino "manudo". Very unlike the mexican kind, this was more of a thick stew served over sticky rice. I found later it was made with goat meat, but they were afraid to tell me (as if us homesteader types have a prob w/ that!). Sure wish I knew how to make that.

-- elle (eagle-quest@juno.com), February 10, 2001.

Hey Joe, thanks for the spell check. Using your information, I did a number of searches and came up with promising looking recipes at the following URLs:

http://home.sprintmail.com/~platense/recetas/rec0018.htm (this one's in Spanish!)

http://www.eden.com/~carlos/recmanjar.html (bilingual)

http://www.dulcevanilla.com/connec/engrecipe.html (has background history)

http://recipes.alastra.com/mexican/dulce-leche.txt

So, I think I'll try a couple.

Also, there was this Dulce de leche Flan that looked REALLY good:

http://www.thefoodweb.com/recipe_archive/category/dessert/dulce-de-lec he-flan.htm

Hope you all have as much fun with these as I plant to, and thanks for all your help!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), February 10, 2001.


If you simmer, milk (goat milk of course) sugar and vanilla down you come up with a carmel called Cajeta. It is a wonderful topping for flan, ice cream or on its own. This was one of the products the gal who bought our milk for years made, it is wonderful and very easy to make.

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 10, 2001.

Hi Vicki,

One of the recipes I came up with had this info:

Each Latin American community has its own names and variations on Dulce de Leche. In Mexico, it's made with rich goat's milk, called "cajeta." In Peru, it's called "manjar." In Colombia, arequipe. No matter, because anywhere you to, they'll call it "sabroso" (de-LI-cious)!

Another of the recipes is actually a guy's grandmother's recipe for manjar. This stuff sounds great! I can't wait until I have a chance to try some of the recipes. Thanks for all your help!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), February 11, 2001.


Here is a recipe for home made sweetened condensed milk. It is inexpensive and uses ingredients that are usually on hand. l c. powdered milk 2/3 c. sugar l/3 c. boiling water 3 T. margarine Melt margarine. Combine suger and milk and add to margarine. Add boiling water. Put in blender and blend until smooth and thick. Makes l 1/2 cups.

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), February 16, 2001.


We were in Scotland a number of years ago and had a dessert that was marvelous. It was called Banofly Pie. We asked about it's origin and was told the recipe came from South America. It is made by slowly simmering Sweetened Condensed Milk in the can in a pot of water for about 3-3 1/2 hrs. (Note: It takes 2 cans to make the pie.) The milk is then cooled. Fill a baked pie crust with sliced bananas, top with carmelized sweetened condensed milk and top with whipped cream. I have made it many times and it is always a very rich special dessert filled with all the calories you can imagine!

-- Peggy Brown (nchome@ispchannel.com), May 07, 2001.

There is a recipe for condensed milk in a old Countryside issue from 1991 or 1990. I have all my magazines packed or i'd post it.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.


Ok. This may sound crazy, but I've tried it, and it works. I lived in Guadalajara, Mexico with a family (taking courses over the summer a long time ago). They always had a jar of this wonderful, caramel-ly cajeta on the table. They would spread it (as did I) on those plain vanilla cookies ("Marias"). Yum. It was always on the table for a snack. I remember that the grocery stores were filled with jars of the stuff- some "flavored" one way or another. Now- here's the crazy part. The "mom" told me that I could duplicate this wonderful treat by slow-boiling an un-opened can of sweetened, condensed milk in a pot of water- for like- 4 hours or so. Then place it in the frig. When it cools down, open- and- instant cajeta! Well, I've tried it (but it was awhile ago), and it was delicious. But I've never heard of this except through my own experience, and all the "cajeta" recipes I find do not seem to reflect this treat I had in Guadalajara. Has anyone else ever heard of this? Has anyone seen the jars of cajeta in the grocery stores? Gracias!

-- Marilyn Kampmeier (kampers@cfl.rr.com), August 11, 2001.

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