Homemade Dulce de Leche recipe with only 5 ingredients. This sauce is great for cakes, ice cream, cookies or just eat it with a spoon on its own.
What is Dulce de Leche:
It is a sweet sauce made with sugar and milk, very popular in Latin America. In Colombia is also known as Arequipe and Mexico as Cajeta. You will find this delicious dessert by different names, but the sauce is practically the same. You can also add cinnamon and vanilla extract for extra flavor.
Now days you can find it in canned at the Latin aisle in a lot of supermarkets in the United States, but I love making it from scratch it's always better than store-bought and very easy to make.
Homemade Dulce de Leche Recipe (Arequipe)
Ingredients
- 96 oz whole milk (12 cups)
- 1 ½ of pounds sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
- In a medium pot, combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil.
- 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.
- Pour into a glass container and cover. Refrigerate up to a week.
Notes
Nutrition
Dulce de Lehe is creamy, sweet and delicious on top of ice cream, to fill cakes, pastries, frosting or just eat it by the spoonful. My favorite way!
I grew up eating dulce de leche and it’s one of my favorite desserts. This delicious and traditional sauce 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 also serve Arequipe with obleas or saltine crackers or just as a base for some typical desserts.
Recipes with Dulce de Leche to try:
Chocolate Cake Filled with Dulce de Leche
Dulce de Leche and Coconut Cake Roll
Chris
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!!!
Nicole
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!!
Danielle
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
Danielle
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
Erica
Danielle-It is called Arequipe or manjar blanco.
Arlette
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!
Valeria
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 ! https://www.alpinaus.com
Erica
Valeria- Thank you so much! I love arequipe alpina, too 🙂
El Paramedico
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....
Erica
El Paramedico- I am looking for a good obleas recipe!
Erica
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!
we are never full
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
Nick wells
It's actually a copy from the argentinian. Argentine dulce de leche has been created long before, hence you'll find its flavour is much more developed.
Gera @ SweetsFoods
You know that dulce de leche, arequipe or no matter the name is my weakness, yours is perfectly delicious!
Cheers!
Gera
Alisa@Foodista
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!
Danny
Hey Erica- THe food looks awesome... I can't wait to take the time to try one of your recipes. Being Colombian, this really brings me back.. Hey your contact button does not work.. please email me beyondburritos@gmail.com
I would like to link our blogs since theya re botha bout Latin food.
http://www.beyondburritos.com
Kim - Easy French Food
My mom used to make this. I remember absolutely loving it. Seeing it cooking for hours on the stove heightened the anticipation. Gotta try this soon - so many recipes, so little time! Cheers.
Soma
Sheer heaven. I have seen it done differently, but this version seems the easiest!
5 Star Foodie
Oh, this sounds perfect for me right now! Yum!
Jen @ MyKitchenAddiction.com
Ooh - this looks delicious! I'm sure it's not a traditional preparation, but I think it would be delicious in a trifle!