Thyme Enough at Last

Raspberry Dulce de Leche

Raspberry Dulce de Leche

Raspberry Dulce de Leche
Total Time
5 hours
Active Time
5 hours
Makes
about a pint
Tags

First off, you probably don’t need to make your own dulce de leche from scratch. But if you want to, here’s how.

I listed the active time as 5 hours because you’re going to be boiling dairy, and I don’t want anyone thinking they can just walk away from that and go run errands or something. In reality, you’re not going to be messing with it constantly over that time, but you want to be close enought to keep an eye on it throughout the process. In reality, there’s probably less than 1 hour of active work.

Also, the times for this are very approximate and depend heavily on your environment. Rather than setting a timer for when it’s done, I’d recommend setting multiple timers for when you should check on it.

Finally, you’ll want to use a much larger pot than the ingredients look like they need. There’s a few steps where the milk will foam up, and even outside of that it could easily get angry with you and boil over (hence the previous note about watching it).

Okay, if I still haven’t scared you away, I wish you the best of luck in making this. There’s really nothing else like it.

Ingredients

  • 2 qt whole milk
  • 24 oz sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 pint fresh raspberries

Notes

First off, you probably don’t need to make your own dulce de leche from scratch. But if you want to, here’s how.

I listed the active time as 5 hours because you’re going to be boiling dairy, and I don’t want anyone thinking they can just walk away from that and go run errands or something. In reality, you’re not going to be messing with it constantly over that time, but you want to be close enought to keep an eye on it throughout the process. In reality, there’s probably less than 1 hour of active work.

Also, the times for this are very approximate and depend heavily on your environment. Rather than setting a timer for when it’s done, I’d recommend setting multiple timers for when you should check on it.

Finally, you’ll want to use a much larger pot than the ingredients look like they need. There’s a few steps where the milk will foam up, and even outside of that it could easily get angry with you and boil over (hence the previous note about watching it).

Okay, if I still haven’t scared you away, I wish you the best of luck in making this. There’s really nothing else like it.

Directions

  1. Combine the milk, sugar, and vanilla bean (both the seeds and the pod) in a very large stock pot. Set over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes to a simmer and the sugar has dissolved.
  2. Add the baking soda and stir down the resulting foam. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about an hour.
  3. Remove the vanially bean and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the caramel is done. Don’t worry about trying to reintegrate any foam on top—that’ll get strained out, and trying to stir it in could affect the final texure. To know when it’s done, you’ll be looking for:
    • the color: it should take on a deep, dark golden color
    • the volume: it should reduce to around a quarter of its original volume
  4. Remove from heat and strain through cheesecloth into a work bowl.
  5. Puree raspberries and add them to the caramel to taste. You can strain out the seeds if you want. I like leaving them in, but I’m not going to tell you how to live your life.
  6. Store in a mason jar in the fridge for up to a month. Eat it on ice cream, doughnuts, baked good, or a spoon.

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