Dulce de leche is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sweetened to create a substance that derives its flavor from the Maillard reaction, also changing color, with an appearance and flavor similar to caramel. Dulce de leche is Spanish for "Sweet [made] of milk" or "caramel". In Chile, dulce de leche is known as "manjar de leche" or just "manjar".
Preparation and uses
The most basic recipe calls for slowly simmering milk and sugar, stirring almost constantly. Other ingredients such as vanill may be added for flavor. Much of the water in the milk evaporates and the mix thickens; the resulting dulce de leche
is usually about a sixth of the volume of the milk used. The
transformation that occurs in preparation is caused by a combination of
two common browning reactions called caramelization and the Maillard reaction
A homemade form of dulce de leche sometimes is made by boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed mild for two to three hours (or 30 to 45 minutes in a pressure cooker),
particularly by those living in countries where it cannot be bought
ready-made. This results in a product that is much sweeter than the
slow-boiled kind. It is dangerous to do this on a stove: if the pot is
allowed to boil dry, the can will overheat and explode
Dulce de leche is used to flavor candies or other sweet foods, such as cakes, churros, cookies (see alfajor), waffles, creamed caramel (known as flan in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking regions), and ice creams; it is also a popular spread on crepes (panqueques) and toast.
We just came back from out trip to South America. Myself and my husband were enchanted by its beauty and every morning they served Dulce de leche either in a bowl or in prepacked small packs for spread for toast and other breakfast.
We took an excursion tour to St. Jose de Maipo (Cajon de Maipo) to it volcanic hot springs, and on the way there was this hostel, whose owner Nadia G. is a native Chilean and was so loving and hospitable, served us hearty home made breakfast. Everything was made from scratch: Crepes, (she called them los panqueques) bread, eggs, Apricot jam and orange/apple juice, coffee. The crepes she made were these sweet dulce de leche crepes. She was kind enough to give me recipe for the crepes and we had bought this container of dulce de leche. Could not wait to get back and make these crepes for breakfast, only modifications I made was that I added pinch of salt and that I added roasted pecan on the spread and these are out of these world.
This recipe yields 6 crepes on the size. Of course the crepes are very thin than that of pancakes here in USA, so the batter has to be little dilute.
These were very simple crepes without any fancy chocolate or strawberries or cream for plating but you can get creative and make the plating as pretty as you want.
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup of AP flour/you can use wheat flour
- 1 and 1/8 cup of water
- Butter for greasing the pan
- 1 cup pecans
- And of course Dulce de leche spread
- Beat the egg.
- Mix all dry ingredients add them to egg.
- Add water to more dilute consistency than pancakes.
- I use Circulon griddle which works real well for spreading the batter to thin layer and very easy to flip.
- I roasted the pecans on the griddle on medium low heat stirring in between with spatula.
- When roasted well but not burnt, let them cool and crush them into desired sized pieces and set aside.
- Place the griddle on medium low heat
- Grease with butter and then wipe the griddle.
- When griddle heated evenly pour the batter in center of griddle and spread in circular pattern.
- Pour slight butter on edges of crepe so the edges don't stick to pan
- When golden brown on one side, flip it over and cook the other side, I like min golden brown and slightly crispy.
- You can keep them soft.
- Flip it again and spread dulce de leche and sprinkle with chopped pecan.
- Fold the crepe and serve hot.
- I like mine plane, but you can serve them with syrup or chocolate sauce.
- Since these have dulce de leche, I prefer them without any syrup.
- You may garnish them with more nuts or fruits on top if desired.
- In between making the crepes, bring the griddle temp down by running under cold water, place it back on stove, grease with little butter and and wipe it clean.
- Then spread the batter for another crepe.
Dulce de leche source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_de_lechehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe adapted by Surekha from original recipe from my loving Chilean native friend Mrs. Nadia G.
Photographs by Surekha
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