Since getting a crock pot for Christmas I have been on a mission to find new recipes and techniques I can enjoy. Mainly I've been making soups. Soups are awesome. I saw a number of links of Pinterest (including this one) about making caramel (or dulce de leche) in your crock pot. What?! You know I had to try that.
The basic idea is you take a can of sweetened condensed milk, remove the label, submerge it in water in your crock pot (set on low) for eight hours. Sounds easy enough. I read a few sources that mentioned this method could result in a rust ring forming in the bottom of your crock pot. I don't know if that's true or not but I didn't want to take the risk (not my new and still sort of shiny crock pot!). Instead I tried a slightly modified method with a few added ingredients. Here's what I did:
In a mason jar pour in the contents from one can of sweetened condensed milk. Add any extra ingredients you like. I made two jars, and in one I added 1/2 teaspoon coarse grain sea salt (salted caramel anyone?). To the other I added 1 tablespoon bourbon. I love bourbon. 🙂 Place the lid on the jar and seal. Shake the jar to mix up the ingredients. Place in your crock pot and fill with water so that the water covers the jar just past the milk. Cover your crock pot. I found my lid no longer fit over the mason jars, so instead I covered my crock pot with aluminum foil to keep the water from evaporating. Set on low and let that cook for 8 hours (go to bed, wake up to caramel!).
This was a fun experiment! The results: thick, richly colored caramel. The caramel is not perfectly smooth in texture, it was somewhat grainy. I loved both flavors (salted and bourbon infused). This would be delicious as a dip for apples, smeared on toast with peanut butter, piped into a cupcake or a small spoonful stirred into coffee. I gotz ideas for my caramel, as you can see.
What about you? Have you ever tried making crockpot caramel? xo. Emma
Well, unfortunately it didn’t come out smooth enough to make caramel apples, but it did come out yummy!
My can started to rust after eight hours.is this normal? should i still eat the caramel?
You could spoon over waffles with chopped apples… kind of like a deconstructed apple pie. 🙂
So proud ♥ This is an Argentinian old recipe and we eat it all the time. I’ve never cooked dulce de leche but some people add baking soda for a better texture and cinnamon for better taste 😉
If only I liked caramel…
Anything of chocolate? Dark chocolate?
i love dulce de leche! We call it “yema” here. And the ones still in tin cans can be bought in the market. People here would rather buy in the market than make their own because it takes too long to cook so it’s not economical. We’re still using gas tanks here so one might eventually run out of gas while cooking this. hehe oh, and it’s also dangerous when left unattended for so long. 🙂
but the one with sea salt is really interesting. I love combining dulce de leche with salty bread/biscuits. So salted yema is probably heaven! i want to try this at home. 🙂 Thanks for sharing! <3
Oh my goodness, going to try this right now. I love my Crockpot!
How do you store the caramel after it’s made? Does it need to be refridgerated?
u can also do this on stove top put your can of sweet milk in a pan and cover with water. keep it boiling for 4 hours. adding boiling water as needed. we then mix with cool whip once its cooled and layer nilla waffers with caramel. so yummy, but very very rich
I’ve always used the simmering water method and never thought about putting it in a crockpot. Ingenious! Without adding any additional ingredients, it’s a wonderful smooth topping on a pumpkin cheesecake.
I made this last night and OH MY GLOB!!!! SO YUMMY!
Omg this is one of the best article i have even been tru I am bookmarking this right now! wating for more updats シャネ財布 http://www.chanelsjapan.com/
Luckily, since I live in Buenos Aires I just have to open my fridge to find dulce de leche… hahaha I can not live without!!!!!! (seriously!)
And, yes! one of my favorite combos is with green apple, though cream cheese and vanilla cake is fighting pretty hard!!
you know here in Argentina, we say we invented it!!! but people from Uruguay say the same thing! We use it for breakfast with bread and butter, and of course to fill birthday cakes. At the bakerý you can also get croissants with dulce de leche! Mmmmm super delicius! Pau
Hi! I’m from Argentina and here we call it “Dulce de Leche” and it’s really common… We use it for everything in bakery and it’s the most popular ice cream flavour.
The origin of the recipe is Argentina.
You should try filling a cake with it, the result is delicious!!
I love your blog and your photos in IG.
Have a nice day!!
Lais
I do it all the time and I love it !!!! This is a typical french recipe, totally Normandy…
xx
mongraindesucre.com
what a genius idea! I especially love that it is made inside the jar so there’s no messy scraping and caramel everywhere!
Hey! Dulce de leche argentino! Kensie, you can always use soy milk to make this, here in Argentina you can buy this vegan dulce from the stores…
Great recipie of the orignial argentinian DULCE DE LECHE!!!! try it inside cakes!!! and with bananas!!! its the best!
That sounds awesome!
Sarah=)
www.etsy.com/shop/owleyevintage