I read a post somewhere about boiling sweetened condensed milk to make caramel, anyone know how to do this-cant find it anywhere! if not, how can I make a simple caramel to smear on a cheesecake?Thanks!

Here you go...pretty simple and totally delicious!

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/6851/Thick-Caramel-Sauce-or-Filling

Jodie

I really believe you should try making it this way ( I tried everything, and this is the only one that worked, and it's soOo easy and yummy)
1 cup of sugar
6 tbsp of softened butter
1/2 cup heavy cream.
in a heavy bottom pot, medium, put in sugar over medium heat. stif sugar every minute or too. watch it carefully. as you are mixing you are going to notice that the sugar is beginning to make lumps. keeps stirring. about 5 minutes into your stirring, you are going to notice that the sugar is melting really nicely. it will end up melting completely, just make sure you don't have ANY lumps or else you're going to end up with the lumps in there. keep it over medium flame until you reach a nice amber color. once you're there, remove from heat. with a whisk ready add in a tbsp of butter at a time. BE CAREFUL you will end up with steam . just mix vigorously or else you will end up with a seperated mixture. when everything is mixed nicely, SLOWLY add in your heavy cream. keep whisking. you will have a nice smooth caramel sauce.
this is really yummy. it will stiffen up, creamy caramel like in the fridge. keep it warm and it will pour.
OR instead of cream use milk. this is nice and liquidy and you can pour it over a cake and it ends up like a Tres Leches cake. MmMmm

Hi
I know exactly what you are talking about I stumbled upon it in one of my mom's old cookbooks How to make homemade chocolates. I have made it hundreds of times. It is so simple just takes a little time..

Here it goes ready
take label off of sweetend condensed milk
place in pan (do not open) lol
cover with water
bring to boil
continue to simmer for 2 hours after the initial boil keeping it covered in water
turn off
let set until cool I leave it in the water
after cool open can and enjoy It is sooooooo good.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me.
I use this for everything to fill candies, put as filling with my dark chocolate cake this is very popular for me

Happpy to help
Kerri

Keri,
I made this years ago and it is delicious but I was wondering if it needs to be eaten right away or can it sit on the shelf like uncooked condensed milk? It would be nice to make several cans in adavance and have carmel ready to go as needed

I make several cans at a time and I take out of can put into rubbermaid bowl with cover and keep it in the refridgerator I have never left it there for more than 30 days. It is fine anytime before that I can't say after that because I always use before then. If anyone knows anymore please let us know. thanks
Kerri

Thank you luvbugcreations!! I tried this today after reading this post. It worked great! I always tried to make it over a double boiler, but it never came out like this. It is really good. Thanks for sharing!

I made some PB cuppies and I am letting my kids decorate some. I let them taste the caramel sauce and my son said "mom can I please use that as my crumb coat?"

Your welcome it is the best caramel I have tasted and it is so easy to make. I will post recipe in the recipe section later today. I am extremely busy today I have 75 Cupcakes, 200 cookies, and 50 rice krispie treat popcorn boxes due tomorrow. Happy to help. Have a great day.

Happy Baking a decorating day

I have never had the cans around that long, but the woman that taught me this technique said that as long as you keep the can unopened, it will keep on a shelf for a very long time. However, it's so good it normally gets used up pretty quickly! You can also boil a couple of cans at a time and keep them in your pantry until you need to use them. I have also used this technique with the large cans of sweetened condensed milk that you get in a restaurant. Worked great and had TONS of caramel. I just kept it refrigerated and it stayed very well.

Nestle's also sales this precooked for you. I find it in the spanish aisle at Walmart. It is in a can the same some as condensed milk and is called Deluc De Leche.

That sounds cool and EASY (YAH)! I will have to try that one, I love caramel.

Thanks, Keri! I tried it, and YUM!!! omg, it was easy and perfect! I want to use it for other things, I'm just not creative enough to figure out what else; any good ideas??

so the canned dulce de leche is the same as the canned condensed milk, only already boiled? i wanted to try to make it, but was sooo worried that the can would explode all over the kitchen. lol. that over cheesecake would be great! also, i made a cake the other day using the dulce de leche liquid creamer and that would be awesome as a type of ganache over the cake.

Please buy the canned Dulce de Leche. People have made the boiled can pudding for years; however, it didn't get the name Suicide Pudding by accident. Why take the risk, much less the time and effort when the you can buy it already prepared? In my grocery store it shelved with hispanic foods.

ive boiled these tins time and time again and never had a problem, Suicide pudding my backside, Sorry narie, but i dont go in for that at all, my mum did it, my gran did, her mum did it , and weve never ever had a single problem and we always get lovley caramel

There are much quicker ways of making caramel than boiling the tin, I have personally used the oven and microwave method with great success. The only reason I can see for boiling the can is to do more than one at at time so that you have some on hand in your cupboard.

Here are the recommendations from the Eagle brand website (when I used the microwave method I put the milk in a 8" square pyrex dish, cooks quicker than if you put it in a measuring cup):

OVEN METHOD: Pour 1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk into a 9-inch pie plate. Cover with aluminum foil; place in larger shallow pan. Fill larger pan with hot water. Bake at 425° for 1 1/2 hours or until thick and caramel-colored.

STOVETOP METHOD: Pour 1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk into top of double boiler; place over boiling water. Over low heat, simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until thick and caramel-colored. Beat until smooth.

MICROWAVE METHOD: Pour 1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk into 2-quart glass measuring cup. Cook on 50% power (medium) 4 minutes, stirring briskly every 2 minutes until smooth. Cook on 30% power (medium-low) 20 to 26 minutes or until very thick and caramel-colored, stirring briskly every 4 minutes during the first 16 minutes and every 2 minutes for the last 4 to 10 minutes. Make sure to use potholders when removing the glass measuring cup from the microwave, as it will be hot.

CAUTION: DO NOT HEAT IN CAN.

what is the consistency of this caramel?? would this be something that I can dip pretzels in? i am concerned that it would not harden up enough to handle pretzels.

When I boiled it in the can for 2 hours the consistency was much like the consistency you would use for caramel apples. So, I believe it would work fine for pretzels, you may even want to thin it a little while it is still warm with a little milk. I personally would think it would be fine as is especially when warm.

WOW, after reading the various posts I decided to try boiling a can of condensed milk and it worked perfectly!!!!!Hats off to you my fellow members.

Now, to dip apples, would I just warm the caramel to get the right consistently for the dipping and how do I get them hard enough for wrapping?

Desperate in the Bahamas!
sweettooth59

Has anyone ever had a can explode? I am too big of a chicken to try it!

When I did it I was afraid of it exploding too! It didn't and the caramel was really good.

I did try it in the microwave as someone else suggested and it worked great. I used a big pyrex dish and microwaved it in ten min. increments until it was the consistancy I wanted. Just make sure to use a deep enough dish for a whole can because it bubbled over when I tried using a measuring cup. I liked this way alot better!

It's this supposed to be sauce or caramel for candies?

mrsc808, I wanted the caramel to cover apples.

The key is to not open the can until it is 100% cool. I let one sit for just a short period of time once and was too impatient to wait. It exploded. It shot up and hit my ceiling as well as splattered my face, neck and arms. It gave me a slight burn. I felt so stupid. I still make it this way though, but make sure it's totally cool. I like to use it as a filling with heath bits mixed in.

OMG.. this sounds so good!! I might have to try this. I always make my caramel from scratch (I'm just that way.. not a snob.. just prefer it!!) but with all the rave reviews, I think I will give it a shot this week end... thanks for everyone's tips!!

Suicide Pudding?

Made it once by boiling the can..it worked but man did i stress over that thing..I kept fearing it would explode at any moment like i was cautioned about. Thankfully it didnt' but now i just buy the ready made dulce de leche at the grocery store..tastes just as good and I don't have to worry about explosions.

Thanks can't wait to try it.

Does this get thick enough to use as a filling for a cake? Sounds delicious!!!