Dulce de leche can easily be made at home. Spanish for “candied milk,” dulce de leche is made by heating sweetened milk slowly until it makes a brown sauce that tastes like caramel. In Mexico, it can be found as both a candy and a syrup.

This yummy dessert is popular all through Latin, Central, and South America. European countries also have their own versions of this amazing sauce. Be cautious when you make this dish, it requires your full attention. Bringing the milk and sugar mixture to a low simmer means you must stir it constantly unless you want to risk burning it.

As it cooks, the water will begin to evaporate from the milk. This thickens the mixture. You want to reduce it until it is about 1/6 of its original volume. The sugar is busy caramelizing while the milk reduces. You can use the final product many ways.

Spoon dulce de leche on ice cream, cake, or flan. You can make it into a creamy candy. Haagen Dazs, a well-known ice cream maker came out with a dulce de leche flavor in 1997. Starbucks followed suit with a flavored coffee. Even the Girl Scouts of the USA jumped on the bandwagon with dulce de leche cookies for their yearly cookie sale.

Dulce de leche may be flavored with lemon, vanilla or cinnamon. In Mexico and South America, you can actually buy cans of dulce de leche that are ready to use. Take a look at your local Latino market to see if they stock some. A stronger version is also made in Mexico. Called cajeta de leche, it is made with a combination of cow and goat milk.

This is a great recipe to make for Cinco de Mayo. It is an excellent way to honor traditional foods while you pay homage to Cinco de Mayo history. It is worth it to practice making this recipe a few times before your celebration.

The finished texture of dulce de leche should be creamy and sticky at the same time. It is very rich, so do not overdo it. This dish is sometimes called milk jam.

You can use dulce de leche to improve other recipes. Using this sauce in a mousse recipe will make a dessert your guests will never forget. With the richness of the sauce, egg white and extra cream, the mousse has an incredible rich feel when you eat it that you cannot get from anything else.

Dulce de leche can rival a nice rich chocolate. As Mexico is also home to that delectable food known as “food of the gods,” it is only fitting that it should also be home to the rich flavor of dulce de leche. Make a parfait, alternating layers of chocolate and dulce de leche. You can mix it into a standard cheesecake recipe if you want to really taste decadence.

Mexico has a lot of delicious dishes like this if you look. Explore the richness that is waiting to be discovered in Mexican cuisine and see what other great treasures you can find. Dulce de leche is but one of the wonderful culinary surprise waiting for you when you take a look at the Mexican recipes available to you.

Author Bio: Mexican desserts are aimed towards people with a sweet tooth. Ingredients like vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon are popular when it comes to Mexican recipes and desserts with fresh fruit are always well loved. If these ingredients sound good to you, you are going to love making Mexican dessert recipes. http://www.MexicanDessertRecipes.net The Sweet Side of Mexican Food

Category: Food and Drinks
Keywords: dulce de leche,mexican desserts,heating sweetened milk,dulce de leche recipe