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Homemade Arequipe or Dulce de Leche

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Dulce de Leche

I grew up eating Arequipe  and it’s one of my favorite desserts. This delicious and traditional Colombian dessert is called Arequipe in the region of Antioquia, Colombia, manjar blanco in other parts of the country and in the rest of South America it has different names such as dulce de leche, manjar Blanco and cajeta. In Colombia we serve Arequipe with obleas or saltine crackers or just as a base for some typical desserts.Arequipe

Ingredients

  • 96 oz whole milk
  • 1 1/2  of pounds sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cinnamon stick

arequipe

Directions

  1. In a medium pot, combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil.
  2. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stirring often with a wooden spoon for about 3 hours or until the color changes to caramel and the mixture is thick as a pudding. Let it cool.
  3. Pour into a glass container and cover. Refrigerate up to a week.

    4. arequipe
    arequipe

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This was printed from MyColombianRecipes.com

Comments

  6. My huz did a double take when he saw this and immediately copied the recipe,seriously, he’s puttering in the kitchen right now, so excited on making this one.Hope you wont mind but I’d love to guide Foodista readers to your site, just add this little widget here to this post and it’s all set to go, Thanks!

    Reply

  8. thank you for adding me as a foodbuzz friend b/c now i’ve discovered your blog! love the simplicity. we just got back from argentina and were obsessed w/ the dulce de leche. is it different from the colombian kind? yours looks much more creamy and less caramel-brown the the dulce de leche we ate in buenos aires. just curious. i’m goign to check out more of your posts.

    amy

    Reply

  9. Ammy,
    I don’t know if they use the same recipe in Argentina. The ingredients for dulce de leche usually are milk and sugar,but they are different versions in every country.
    Sometimes when you buy it in the store is darker than the one homemade. Glad you like my blog!

    Reply

  10. I love your site!!! I was born here in the States (NYC), but, my family was born and raised in Colombia. I grew up eating many of the dishes you have posted here. I have since moved to Tenn. and thanks to you I can now start to try and make them and hopefully pass it on to my kids.. This recipe for Arequipe sounds awesome, but, you mentioned “OBLEAS” in the summary… Do you have a reciepe for that?? I believe my mom even has a iron press for it..
    FYI- You will soon have 4 other new readers, I passed this on to my brothers and sisters too….

    Reply

  11. I love arequipe I grew up eating it as a dessert but I found it very difficult to get the exact taste that I always liked when I do it myself. I live in Miami and luckily found the Arequipe Alpina in my grocery store which is the one I use to eat back in Colombia, and it tastes just like home. I cannot believe they’re in the US and I found their website where you can find any information on their products and point of sales. Enjoy ! http://www.alpinaus.com

    Reply

  12. I’m so glad I found your site, Erica! Do you happen to know a recipe for obleas?
    When I was a young girl, my family spent two years in Bogota, and one of my favorite memories was ordering fresh, warm obleas from a lady in a 2nd story apartment. We would ring a bell, she lowered a basket from a window and we sent up a few pesos, and a few minutes later, she would lower the obleas, (with dulce de leche sauce sandwiched in between) which we enjoyed as we walked home.

    This looks like the recipe for the filling, but I would love to try to re-create the entire dessert using fresh obleas.

    Some of my other favorite foods were cheese arepas, sold by street vendors, fresh jugo de lulo, which friends would serve when we visited, fruit salpicon at the Monte Blanco restaurant (which is the recipe I searched for when I found your site) and soft guava candy.

    Thanks for the memories!

    Reply

  13. hey there,
    i wanted to ask if this recipe could also be called “merolique”?? ( i hope i spelled it correctly)
    I am American and my husband is from Medellin and my mother in law tries to teach me recipes when she visits but she is not a good teacher. I need details and measurements and I am so happy I found this website–but not as happy as my husband is. So could this also be called Merolique?? that is what my mother in law called the dish she made and it was very similar to this. thanks
    Daniela

    Reply

  14. thanks Erica,
    i think sometimes my mother in law makes up names for things anyway but just figured i would ask. thanks for getting back to me so fast. i really love you site. it is the best and it is so great to get these awesome recipes but in english and so thorough and easy to follow. i am going to have a fat husband very soon
    thanks again
    daniela

    Reply

  15. I just got back from my first visit to Colombia and had to search around for some Colombian recipes. So glad I found your site! I’m in the middle of making this right now to use in the recipe for the bars. Thanks so much! Colombia is so beautiful and all the food we had was excellent!!

    Reply

  16. Are Obleas those larger round cracker type? If so I know certain stores you can buy them, if it’s not then I don’t remember them, my brother used to eat them out of the bag, well both of us really LOL It wasn’t like a saltine or anything but had a hint of salt to it.

    As a sidenote, love all the food, but I’ll probably pass on this one, never been a big fan of Dulce du Leches, even my aunt would make it, just I don’t know, seems to be missing something, I’ll give this recipe a try though, maybe it not being homemade was a factor in me not liking it.

    You are a god send though Erica, thank you soooo much for allowing me to reconnect with my heritage and can now pass that along to my wife and baby girl. My little girl has my tastes I think, when my wife was pregnant she would crave foods she didn’t like but I loved, like oranges, she can’t stand oranges but I swear she must’ve eaten 10 bags worth of oranges throughout the pregnancy LOL, I was born in North Miami Beach, so being a native to Florida, it’s a given that you eat ALOT of oranges. My father’s side of the family moved to Miami from Colombia in the early 70s, and my mom came to Miami from Montreal in the mid-late 70’s she didn’t speak english, only french, still have no idea how my mom and dad would’ve communicated by they did, or else I wouldnt be here LOL, 1980 I came around. My grandmother on my dad’s side is full colombian and my grandfather is swiss/italian, along with my mom makes a very eclectic mix. =) But it is absolutely wonderful to be able to experience and share the true colombia with my own family. =)

    Thanks Erica!!!

    Reply

  17. In Baranquilla where I lived ’70-’73 I often went to an open cafe (for lack of a better term) they had huge caldrons of piping hot grease going all the time. There was an item I loved there. It was like a raw, very moist, thick (minimum 1/2″) corn tortilla that they dropped into the hot grease. Very quickly it would poof up and float to the top. Then they would scoop it out, cut a slit in the edge of it, crack a fresh egg. They would open the slit in the poof and drop in the raw egg and back into the grease it went for several minutes until it was golden brown. What are these called and do you have a recipe?

    Reply

    • Gina- I don’t know if you can use fat free milk or the crock pot, because you have to stir often!You can try it and let me know 🙂

      Reply

  20. Hi,

    I havejust put all the ingredients in a saucepan and cant wait to see the result.
    However, I did not have any white sugar left at home so put some dark brown.
    Do you think this will do any good???

    i am glad to find your website

    agnes

    Reply

  21. Erica!
    I found your recepie a while back and had not had a chance to try it until last night. Im not very good in the kitchen, i just make simple stuff that the kids will eat. My son had a project for a cultural food (dessert, or whatever) & I figured, why not try it. We did, but the only thing is that it did not thicken enough. I think maybe I needed more baking soda b/c it wasnt like pudding when we finally turned it off, approximately 5 hrs after cooking. Im not giving up though, it tastes delicious, like the arequipe that I love so much, but the consistency is not there. Like everyone else that’s found this site, Im thrilled to try the familiar dishes. Thanks!

    Reply

  22. Erica, I’ve seen this made with a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pan on a stove burner. Do you know how to make it using that technique?

    Reply

  23. hi erica, I love your recipes, I am colombian, from cartagena and i moved to the states about 4 years ago and all I use to cook was “patacones” jejejje, my favorite food, but since i am pregnant i got cravings for everything from colombia, so i have been cooking full time, lol. my husband is so excited that i have found this website, he is american and he is discovering the real deal now.
    yesterday i made the hallacas, they came out great i use the plantain leafs and the taste just took me back to cartagena. ohh God!!

    i have an easy recipe for dulce de leche, i just did it 2 days ago and is boiling a can of condensed milk “la lechera” for 2 hours in a pot, always adding more boiling water to cover the can. then let it rest till gets cool off and listoooo you can enjoy delicous arequipe…yummy!!!

    Reply

  25. Hi Erica, I’m from Medellin and mi mom also added 1 “cebolla junca” when se made arequipe, she never added cinnamon sticks and her arequipe always was delicious!! You should try it and let me know how was.

    Reply

  28. My husband and I lived in Colombia for two years, 1964 & part of 1965, as Peace Corps volunteers. I really really really loved Manjar Blanco, Dulce de Leche, Araquipe, etc. I first had it served as a dessert after dinner in a restaurant. It was served in a little wooden box that I think was nailed shut at the top, and you ate it with a tiny spoon. Later I found boxes like that in the tiendas or neighborhood groceries. When I asked a friend how it was made, he said it was mainly milk cooked slowly with sugar, and a little rice! Note: When I came home, I had gained a lot of weight! p.s. Are Obleas and Alfajores the same thing?

    Reply

  30. Hi, my mom’s family was from Colombia, and she used to make this the short-cut way using Eagle Brand. I’m excited about making it your way. Try it with berries, it’s delicious!

    Reply

  32. Hi!
    Love the recipe!
    Is it really 96 oz of milk? (roughly 12 cups?) seems like a lot, for just 1.5 lb of sugar and for the “medium pot” the recipe calls for… can you clarify this please?

    Reply

      • Use a LARGE pot, not medium! When bringing to a boil in a medium pot it quickly spilled over and made a huge mess. I’ve been scrubbing the burnt mixture off the stovetop for days. It tastes good, though.

        Reply

  33. Just to correct you…Arequipe is not from Antioquia, there’s Arequipe everywhere in Colombia and actually the origin is from Argentina and Uruguay. it’s called different but at the very end is quite the same recipe…

    Reply

  34. hi ERica, would love to try and do this because I want to make the Paletas de arequipe y coco and also the little cakes with cream cheese and coconut. One more question: is it 96 English oz ? How much would that be in litters (to avoid confusion between English Oz and the other oz ? thanks !!!! Illl let you know if I dare to prepare this! Gracias!

    Reply

  36. Hi! I am going on hour 5 of cooking down my milk and sugar and it is still not pudding consistency. Am I just not cooking it a high enough temp?

    Thanks,

    Jennifer

    Reply

  37. Hi, i just discovered your website …my columbian recipes…. by accident.This desert looks delicious quite easy and economical to make.This style of cooking suits my ingredients that i always keep in my press. i imagine it suits a sweet tooth. thanks for all the interesting recipes i am going to try.:)

    Reply

  38. Hi! I would love to make this! I have bought the canned version, but it isn’t available at the store I usually shop at. So I want to learn to make it with milk and sugar because I always have those on hand 🙂 I am also looking forward to trying some of your other recipes! Anyway, I am curious, how much dulce de leche does this recipe make?

    Thanks!!

    Reply

  39. The green onion stalk at the end is for the arequipe to thicken. You just pull it out once you’ve achieved your purpose. It won’t change taste, just consistency. This is taught at SENA, Colombian famous intermediate careers institution, to those who are undertaking Cuisine to become Chefs or bakers.

    Reply

  40. Looks great! Does the cinnamon stick dissolve into it? I notice it never says when to take it out, but I have not heard of one dissolving before.

    Reply

  41. This is great, thanks for sharing. My mom loves arequipe, so I was happy to bring her some on my last trip to Colombia, but unfortunately they confiscated it at the airport. So happy that I can try to make my own now.

    Reply

  42. Hi Erica,
    Every other recipe I’ve seen online uses vanilla extract instead of the cinnamon stick…what’s the reasoning/ difference?

    Reply

  43. Oh my gosh, this stuff is glorious! We traveled to Colombia for the first time this summer and fell in love with almost everything about it, including the food. I’ve already tried a few recipes from your site, successfully replicating the tastes of our trip, but making arequipe is the best yet! My kids are thrilled with it and can eat it in disgustingly large amounts. Thank you and I look forward to trying many more of your wonderful recipes.

    Reply

  44. My middle-school-age son did a report on Columbia, and we made this recipe together to share with his class. He brought Saltines to dip in it, as you suggested. We doubled the recipe for 24 students, and there was plenty left over to share with family. The arequipe was a huge hit with the students (and teachers and family)! The directions were perfect–no adjustments needed–and easy to follow. Thank you for sharing this recipe!

    Reply

  45. Hi
    I follow your site since long time a go. I’m Colombian, live in Central America. When I want to do a Colombian dish this is the first site I search.

    I love arequipe. Never make it. Arequipe alpina is so good that there is no need to make it at home.

    I want to make an observation: the Manjar Blanco from El valle is different in many ways. Flavor and texture are different. The manjar blanco have starch as a key ingredient, that arequipe do not have. The traditional recipe uses rice, but in the modern recipe they use “maizena” or “tapioca” starch. The starch makes the difference in flavor and the texture.

    Reply

  46. Hi Erica I love your recipe in my family we have a different way of making Arequipe my dad just takes a can of condensed milk takes the paper of can on a power cooker or pressure cooker with water filling ¾ of the can and cook 1 hour, if your preference is darker cook it more time or lighter cook it less (you can experiment with the time), take can out let it cool and open

    Reply

  47. Hello…I made this recipe to day. It took about five hours to get dark caramel color and thick like pudding. It tastes good but was kind of clumpy/grainy…I assume this was the milk solids. I blended it to make it smooth so I think it is going to work okay. Has this ever happened to you before? Did I do something wrong? Just wondering what your thoughts are. Thanks!

    Reply

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