Dulce de Leche

In Peru we call it maja blanco, but with the onset of the Latin invasion you may know it as dulce de leche. It's amazingly simple to make, way easier than caramel. All you need is a can or two of sweetened condensed milk, a pot of boiling water, and plenty of time. That's it. There is one peril involved with making this delicious sweet treat: if the proper precautions are not taken, the can will explode. No joke. Kaboom! Dulce de leche everywhere. The trick is to keep the can completely submerged in water. Do not remove the can from the water until the entire contents of the pot have cooled down. This usually means leaving the pot out overnight.

We use dulce the leche to make alfajores, a traditional pastry popular throughout Latin America. Think of it as a Latin Oreo: a dollop of dulce de leche sandwiched between two small cookies. My family makes the cookies from an unsweetened pie crust, try my recipe for sweet pie crust but omit the sugar and reduce the butter to 1 cup. However, this is not the only use for dulce de leche. Any way you would use caramel you can use dulce de leche. Try it with cakes, ice cream, fruit, cocktails, or even straight from the can.