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
Liz
Hi, can I use a pressure cooker for this recipe?
a Beyer
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!
Natalia
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
Rod Lince
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.
Catherine Markham
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!
Tekoni
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.
David
Hi Erica,
Every other recipe I've seen online uses vanilla extract instead of the cinnamon stick...what's the reasoning/ difference?
Carl
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.
Ashley
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.
Erica Dinho
Discard the cinnamon stick.
Viana
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.
Lizzie
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!!
roisin Kelly
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.:)
Jennifer
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
Erica Dinho
Hi Jennifer,
I don't know!....every stove is different.
ghada
I keep stirring it for 3 hourse seriousley??
Erica Dinho
You have to stir the mixture often using a wooden spoon, if not the dulce de leche can stick to the pot.
Marcela Ramirez
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!
Matilde
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...