Gwen

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Dolce de Leche

1. take a can of sweetened condensed milk.
2. place a folded kitchen towel in the bottom of a large stock pot.
3. place your unopened can(s)of milk on the towel.
4. Fill the pot with water.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Turn heat down slightly and boil gently for no less than 5 hours.
7. Take GREAT care that the pot does not boil dry!! as long as the can is totally submerged in water, it will not get above boiling temp and so will not explode. (little bit of physics there). If the pot boils dry, it WILL explode and it will be sticky gooey black burnt sugar everywhere.
8. Let the pot boil as long as you care to...the longer it boils the darker the carmel will be. I have found that if you let it boil more than about 8 hrs it gets too dark for me. Boiling about 6 hrs and turning the heat off but leaving it covered overnight works well for me.

thats it! the condensed milk has now magically turned to a wonderful rich dark carmel. If you chose to cook it a long time it will be positively smokey.

Best on fresh chewy bread (thats what they do in Argentina), fresh strawberries and/or crisp green apples.