dulce de leche para perezosos

Everyone likes dulce de leche, but who has time to stand over a hot stove stirring milk and sugar for hours? The lazy man's way to make it is by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pot of water for a few hours. With a can, there is no need to stay in the kitchen, although you should check on the pot occasionally to make sure that the water level stays higher than the top of the can.

I read one account in which the can of condensed milk exploded, but that person forgot to refill the water and let their pot boil dry. Although your can should not explote if you keep the water level above the top of the can, you should still be aware of the risk of explosion and treat the boiling can with appropriate caution (whetever that may be). The longer you boil, the more solid the resulting product will be. We found that boiling for 2 hours resulted in a nice think, spreadable texture. It thickened further once it cooled. If you plan to use the dulce de leche as a dip or toppoing, you should boil for closer to 1 1/2 hours.

There are those who say that boiled condensed milk is not true dulce de leche. Ignore them. It tastes great and is much easier (not to mention cheaper) than the traditional way of making it. I recommend spreading your dulce de leche over shortbread cookies:




Even Mrs. Essenessen, who usually does not like shortbread, agreed that this was an excellent way to eat the contents of the can.

Through some mysterious chemical process, boiling the can coated the interior of my stainless steel pot with a dark metallic coating. The same thing happened when I steamed a can in the pot for Boston Brown Bread, so it is clearly caused by the metal in the can. If it happens to you, don't worry - the layer does come off with agressive scrubbing.

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