Technique Post: Dulce de leche #1 - In the microwave
I've always been curious to taste this sweet, milky confection but haven't found it locally, so I thought I'd try to make it myself.
The techniques described involved boiling the can in a water bath on top of the stove or in the oven, over the course of 2-3 hours. Monitoring the water level to prevent explosions or burning didn't exactly appeal to me. Nor did the long time investment.
But, emptying the contents of the can into a large microwave safe container, covering and microwaving at 50% power for 10-15 minutes, stopping and whisking thoroughly every 2 minutes, sounded doable.
The mixture only began gaining any colour after 10 minutes. Perhaps because the cans had been sitting in the trunk of my car outside for the last day and a half and by 10pm it was quite cold out there. In any case, it began to thicken/curdle at this point though whisking for 30sec-1min smoothed everything out. I was tempted to stop after 14 min but I decided that, at $1.99 per 300 ml can for the Mr. Gouda brand (the Eagle brand is $3.29), I could afford to experiment.
I can't say the results were what I was looking for which was a pourable, or at least spoonable, thick caramel coloured mixture as seen in the wikipedia article. Instead it more closely resembled soft caramel as it was scraped out into its glass jar.
I put a few samples on a plate at the beginning of the cooking process and the last 3 time points (12, 14 and 16 minutes of cooking).
Oh well, I have 2 more cans of sweetened condensed milk and tomorrow is another day. :)
The techniques described involved boiling the can in a water bath on top of the stove or in the oven, over the course of 2-3 hours. Monitoring the water level to prevent explosions or burning didn't exactly appeal to me. Nor did the long time investment.
But, emptying the contents of the can into a large microwave safe container, covering and microwaving at 50% power for 10-15 minutes, stopping and whisking thoroughly every 2 minutes, sounded doable.
The mixture only began gaining any colour after 10 minutes. Perhaps because the cans had been sitting in the trunk of my car outside for the last day and a half and by 10pm it was quite cold out there. In any case, it began to thicken/curdle at this point though whisking for 30sec-1min smoothed everything out. I was tempted to stop after 14 min but I decided that, at $1.99 per 300 ml can for the Mr. Gouda brand (the Eagle brand is $3.29), I could afford to experiment.
I can't say the results were what I was looking for which was a pourable, or at least spoonable, thick caramel coloured mixture as seen in the wikipedia article. Instead it more closely resembled soft caramel as it was scraped out into its glass jar.
I put a few samples on a plate at the beginning of the cooking process and the last 3 time points (12, 14 and 16 minutes of cooking).
Oh well, I have 2 more cans of sweetened condensed milk and tomorrow is another day. :)