Slow Cooker Dulce De Leche

Note: This post is a contribution to the first ever Naptime Chef & Small Kitchen College Slow Cooker Challenge! You can enter to win a really awesome slow cooker on either site, so go check out all the recipes, get inspired and enter! There’s also a Twitter chat Wednesday, January 18th from 12pm – 1pm ET, #slowcooker, to help you get in the mood! 

I’m gluttonous. I love dulce de leche. So much so that sometimes when I buy alfajores from my local coffee shop, I twist them open like one would normally do with an Oreo and lick it right off the cookie.

But I’m also lazy, and kind of scared of making the stuff. Traditionalists make dulce de leche from scratch by simmering milk, sugar, baking soda and vanilla. Braver folk than I simmer cans of sweetened condensed milk in water on the stove-top. And then there’s what I do.

It’s not a secret method – it’s all over the internet – but I’m willing to bet you either haven’t heard of it, or kinda discounted it. Plopping cans of sweetened condensed milk in a water filled slow cooker for 8 hours achieves the same results as stove-top boiling, without that pesky fear of exploding cans!

So there you have it. You’re gonna put two cans of sweetened condensed milk in your slow cooker – one if you’re making some lame attempt at moderation – fully submerge them in cold water, covering them by at least an inch, cover and set your slow cooker to low. I like to set this up for over night cooking because a) it’s nice to wake up to dulce and b) it’s a great excuse to force myself out of a cozy bed.

You’ll want to let the cans cool a bit before opening them. I give them about an hour – you know, while I make coffee, shower and get ready for the day. Then I open those cans up and unabashedly dip my spoon in and have a scoop.

It’s this Latina’s version of peanut butter/nutella jar bliss.

Now that you have two cans of the stuff, whatever will you do with it? 

Why, you’ll make brownies and swirl healthy dollops of the stuff all throughout it! Use this brownie recipe, but omit the cranberries (obviously)!

You’ll drizzle it all over ice cream. Dip apple slices in it! Bake it into the ultimate traditional cheesecake. Make cake! Or if you’re like me you’ll sit around like Pooh Bear with his paw in a honey jar.

No matter how you use your copious amounts of dulce, I know you’ll enjoy them.

PS – My dulce kept for a week when I stored it in an air tight container in the fridge. I’m surprised it lasted that long, what with my daily scooping and all.