This is a 1 ingredient, 15 second recipe for a Caramel made from sweetened condensed milk in the slow cooker!
This is how to make sweetened condensed milk caramel: Place sealed cans of sweetened condensed milk in slow cooker, fill slow cooker with water, slow cook on low for 8 hours. Output: Perfectly smooth, no stir, thick, deep flavoured caramel sauce. It’s incredible!
Sweetened Condensed Milk Caramel
“This keeps for a month in the fridge. But it won’t last that long.”
Dulce De Leche. Smooth, rich and thick with a deep caramel flavor, this South American export is the king of all caramels. The literal translation of “dulce de leche” is “candy of milk”. And that’s exactly what this is – milk and sugar that’s been slow cooked.
Made from scratch using milk and sugar, it requires a lot of attention for the first hour to make sure the caramel at the bottom doesn’t burn, then a further 2 hours of cooking (and checking….and cooking….and checking…). So if you’re more like me, this effortless version made with condensed milk in a slow cooker will appeal to you. This is how this goes down:
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Place sealed cans of condensed milk in slow cooker. You don’t even need to take the labels off. (3 seconds)
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Fill slow cooker with hot tap water (10 seconds)
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Turn slow cooker on for 8 hours on low (2 seconds)
“Use no-brand condensed milk if you want to save on cost. I promise you no one will know the difference.”
When you open those cans up, you are going to be amazed at the deep golden colour and the smell of the rich caramel is going to make your mouth water. Dig deep and be strong – do not get stuck in with a spoon because you won’t be able to stop!!
This caramel is quite thick, a spreadable consistency (shown in the top picture) and perfectly smooth. If you want to make it a pourable consistency, you can whisk in a touch of milk or even water, or heat it up in the microwave.
I don’t get fancy serving it up, I usually just warm it up slightly and pour it (generously) over vanilla ice cream, or spread it onto a biscuit. Because it’s so rich, I don’t think it needs much else to make it shine. But here are other suggestions for things you can use it for:
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As a sweetener + milk in coffee
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Use as spread on muffins or toast
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Spread on sweet plain biscuits like graham crackers or shortbread
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Drizzled over cakes and cupcakes. Fancy!
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Caramel layer in slices
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Over crepes and pancakes
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Cheesecake
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As a dip for churros (it is, after all, South American!)
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As a gift (if you like anyone enough to give this away to)
It’s pictured here used in this Shortbread Dulce De Leche Cookie Sandwiches. It could also be used to stuff a brownie (see these Salted Caramel Stuffed Brownies).
I hope you give this a try! It really is handy to have in the fridge. I’m especially glad that I made this batch today because I’ve just organised to have a bunch of friends over this weekend! 🙂 – Nagi x
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Sweetened Condensed Milk Caramel (Dulce de Leche)
Ingredients
- 2 cans sweetened condensed milk (395g / 14 oz each) (see notes)
Instructions
- Place cans in slow cooker on their side. Don’t worry about removing the label.
- Cover cans with hot tap water until the water is about 5 cm / 2” above the cans.
- Set slow cooker for 8 hours on low.
- If you want your caramel to be a really dark golden colour, slow cook for a further 2 hours.
- Remove cans from slow cooker using tongs. DO NOT OPEN CANS WHILE HOT. The contents might burst out – dangerous!
- Submerge cans in cold water to cool before opening. It only takes 10 minutes or so.
- Open cans.
- If not using right away, transfer into jars or air tight containers, do not leave it in the can.
To make on stove top
- Place cans in a large pot and cover with water so that it is 5 cm / 2 inches above the cans.
- Place on a small burner and bring JUST to boil - don't walk away, you don't want to leave the cans boiling in water.
- Then turn down the heat to medium low (or low if you stove is powerful), put the lid on and let it simmer for 2 hours to get the consistency and colour as per the photos you see, otherwise for 3 hours if you want to darker and thicker.
- Remove from the pot. Allow to cool before opening (otherwise the Dulce De Leche might burst out when you open it). You can speed up the process by submerging the cans in cold water.
Recipe Notes:
• As a sweetener + milk in coffee
• Use as spread on muffins, toast or graham crackers
• Drizzled over cakes and cupcakes. Fancy!
• Caramel layer in slices
• Over crepes and pancakes
• Cheesecake
• As a dip for churros (it is, after all, South American!)
• As a gift – jar it and add labels and/or tags 7. Nutrition facts per serving assuming 3 cups (2 cans of sweetened condensed milk) serves 12 people.
Nutrition Information:
Would this work for caramel tart filling?
Turned out exactly like the picture, it was so easy thank you for posting this I was going to do the stove-top method but I found this and I’m so glad I did no fuss about water levels or watching it just pop it into the crackpot and wait…that was the hard part. It’s really rich and hard not to keep eating, I am planning on pouring it over a chocolate cheesecake with chocolate Gamache I’m hoping to add a flavor to complement all of the chocolate that is in my cheesecake.
What if I do 1 can only will the time to slow cook be different
No Shanno the cook time is the same. N x
Wow! I tried this and it really works! So good! Instead of jam in some thumbprint cookies I used this then topped it with a little melted chocolate. And what was left I made some turtle bark by melting chocolate then spreading the caramel and adding chopped pecans. Let it cool and broke it into bite sized pieces. Excellent. I think the next time I make a chocolate cake I’ll put this in between layers and maybe even on top too
Can you make this on high in the crockpot? What about in the instapot?
No Tee, it needs to be low and slow to caramelise properly and definitely DON’T cook it under pressure. On low on the slow cooker is the way to go. N x