{Simple Sundays} Salted Milk Jam aka Dulce de Leche

The weather is finally turning warm! Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining and pollen is flying… I’m lucky enough to not have seasonal allergies, but I am sure many of you are suffering from it. It might be best to just stay in and make this milk jam. Making this milk jam (or dulce de leche) is so ridiculously easy, I don’t know if I should even write a recipe for it. It uses two ingredients: sweetened condensed milk and fleur de sel.  I’m almost embarrassed to admit that my devotion to sweetened condensed milk borders on idolatry. I believe that anything with sweetened condensed milk is delicious and so many tasty things are born from it. Banana pudding, Thai iced tea, flan, tres leches cake, even my favorite recipe for pumpkin pie has sweetened condensed milk in it. If you’ve never had it, you must try it. It is life changing.
I can’t say dulce de leche is very close to a caramel because it has a distinctively different taste from it. I would say that it is more complex instead of the bold one note sweetness you get from caramel. The traditional way would be to boil down a lot of milk and sugar for many hours and constantly stir it until you get your desired shade of brown. The method I used is a shortcut. You take a can of sweetened condensed milk, put it in a pot of water and keep it at a gentle simmer for 2-3 hours. Cool. Open. Enjoy. Top liberally with fleur de sel if desired. (You know, if you’re into that sweet-salty thing. Let’s face it though, who isn’t?)
The layer of the light colored dulce de leche is a mistake that I made. When I say gentle simmer, I mean simmer. I was scared about simmering too strongly so I kept it at a bare simmer for two hours. When I opened the jar, it was too pale to be called dulce de leche yet too dark to still be considered sweetened condensed milk. Don’t be like me. Put the pedal to the metal.You can use dulce de leche on so many things. You can top ice cream, or pound cake or toast or crackers. You can also use it to fill a cake, sandwich in between cookies (alfajores!!) or macarons, or my favorite, eat it straight out of the jar, with a spoon. Seriously, the possibilities are endless! Or if you are feeling especially kind, you can also put them in little mason jars and gift them.

Salted Milk Jam

Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
fleur de sel (optional, but recommended)
water (for submerging can in water)

Instructions:

1. Remove the label off of the can of sweetened condensed milk.
2. Place can in a large pot and fill pot with water, making sure the can is completely submerged. (At least 2 inches above the can.)
3. Heat pot until water is simmers. Simmer can for 1½ hours, making sure that the water level does not fall below 1 inch above the can.
4. Turn can upside down, simmer for another 1 – 1½ hours. Continue to monitor the water level, making sure the can is completely submereged.
5. Remove can from water and let cool.
6. Open can, top liberally with fleur de sel. Add salt to taste, pending on how much of a salty –sweet contrast you like.