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Dulce de leche
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Dulce de leche in Spanish or doce de leite in Portuguese ("milk jam"), is a milk-based sauce. Found as both a syrup and a caramel candy, it is prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that is similar in taste to caramel. It is also the basis for the elaboration of many sweets and desserts which form part of the classics of the Argentine gastronomy.
It is especially popular in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, and various other countries.
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Encyclopedia
Dulce de leche in Spanish or doce de leite in Portuguese ("milk jam"), is a milk-based sauce. Found as both a syrup and a caramel candy, it is prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that is similar in taste to caramel. It is also the basis for the elaboration of many sweets and desserts which form part of the classics of the Argentine gastronomy.
It is especially popular in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, and various other countries. The French preparation confiture de lait is very similar to the spreadable forms of dulce de leche. There are also similar desserts around all Latin America (such as cajeta in Mexico or manjar blanco in Peru)
Origins
There are many stories about the origin. One story involves the 19th century Argentine caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas. The story goes that in a winter afternoon at the Rosas house, the maid was making some lechada—a drink made with milk and sugar boiled until it starts to caramelize—and she heard someone knocking at the door. She left the lechada on the stove and went to answer the door; and when she came back, the lechada was burnt and had turned into a brown jam: dulce de leche.
It may also have its origins in Europe, possibly as the French confiture de lait: a popular similar legend dating back from the 14th century exists in the region of Normandy, involving a cook from the military troops who had the same culinary accident when making sweetened milk for breakfast. Variations of this legend refer to a cook in Napoleon's army.
Preparation and uses
The most basic recipe calls for slowly simmering milk and sugar, stirring almost constantly, although other ingredients may be included to achieve special properties. Much of the water in the milk evaporates and the mix thickens; the resulting dulce de leche is usually about a sixth of the volume of the milk used. Although the transformation that occurs in preparation is often called caramelization, it is actually a form of the Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction that is responsible for many of the flavors of cooked food.
A home-made form of dulce de leche is sometimes made by heating sweetened condensed milk for several hours, particularly by those fond of the confection living in countries where it cannot be bought ready-made.
Dulce de leche is used to flavor candies or other sweet foods, such as cakes, cookies (see alfajor) or ice cream, as well as crčme caramel ("flan" in Spanish and Portuguese). It is also popular spread on toast. French confiture de lait is commonly served with fromage blanc; a Dutch variety (really, a caramel paste), marketed as Bebogeen, is a children's favorite on bread.
A solid candy made out of dulce de leche, similar to the Polish Krówki and named Vaquita ("little cow"), was manufactured by the Mu-Mu factory in Argentina until the company went out of business in 1984 (as a consequence of financial speculation by its owners). Subsequently, other brands began to manufacture similar candies giving them names such as Vauquita and Vaquerita in an effort to link their products to the original.
In 1997, the ice cream company Häagen-Dazs introduced a dulce de leche-flavored ice cream; in the same year, Starbucks began offering dulce de leche-flavored coffee products. In the early part of 2009, Girl Scouts of the USA introduced dulce de leche flavored cookies as part of their annual cookie sales program.
See also
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