Home made Dulce de leche / Manjar / Caramel

Source: http://laylita.com/recipes/2013/03/04/manjar-or-dulce-de-leche/

There is this sweet creamy thing I met already when I was a child and I loved it. We called it caramel. Then I moved to Spain and I met it again under the name of "Dulce de leche" (something sweet from milk). Mhhmmm. I was told it is a big deal in Argentina, but when I went to Chile and Argentina I realized it is not just a big deal. Almos every cake and cookie was made with this this. :) It taste like heaven, but is soo sweet I can eat only a little at a time. Still this technique deserves a blog entry. So in Spain you can buy it in a supermarket for sure. In Argentina it is called Dulce de Leche, in Chile they know it as Manjar (manhar) and it is known on many other names across South-America. If you did ever taste it and you love it, but you can't find anywhere near by I have some news for you. 

You can make it at home! :)

Here you can find the original home made recipe, but I want to share something else with you. When I was in Thailand I stayd in a hippie communitie as a colunteer for a week. It was great, we barely had any civilization around, we made our food every day on camp fire, we had a shover in the garden, and the water came from a river from the mountains, the buildings were built from mud....stuff like that. They say there was an argentinian guy before and he did teach them how to make dulce de leche, and since then they were crazy for it. :)

All you need is a can of condensed milk. Take a cooking pot or crockpot, place in the can and fill it with water. It has to comepletely cover the can. It is very important otherwise the can could explode....yeah we don't want that, it only happens if you do not fill the water above the can. Set the fire on low and cook it for 8 hours. When the time is up you have to let the water and the can cool down, and you may open the can only after this.  Set the fire on low and cook it for 8 hours. We'v made it originally on camp fire and it took only 3 hours.

This is the very easyest way to make it, but if you want to get more safe there is another way to make it in a canning jar.

Before

Source: http://growingnaturals.com/archive/recipes/recipe-milk-sweet-condensed-milk-alt.php

After

Source: http://www.mangiodasola.com/2010/01/crockpot-dulce-de-leche.html