Many recipes for this Latin American caramel sauce suggest using a can of sweetened condensed milk. But if you make dulce de leche from scratch, as this recipe specifies, you’ll get a delicate sweetness from cooked sugar and fresh milk no canned product can ever match. It is very easy but takes a long time—about 1 1/2 hours, even though all you have to do is give it an occasional stir. Here’s the trick: choose a time when you’ll be in the kitchen awhile—maybe a weekend afternoon or a night you are making another slow-cooked sauce. This version, untraditionally, is flavored with milk chocolate. Serve over ice cream or pound cake.

　　

Ingredients

makes 3 cups sauce

　　

Chocolate Choices:

Endangered Species milk chocolate, Scharffen Berger Milk Chocolate, or Valrhona Jivara Lactée

　　4 cups whole milk

　　1 1/2 cups sugar

　　1/2 teaspoon baking soda

　　1 vanilla bean, scraped and seeded

　　1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

　　3 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped

　　

Step 1

Stir together the milk, sugar, baking soda, vanilla bean pod and seeds, and salt in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat; the mixture will bubble up high. Stir and turn the heat to low. Then let the sauce simmer. Skim it occasionally with a strainer to remove the milk scum, and stir the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula to make sure the milk solids don’t scorch. After about an hour, remove the vanilla bean pod. The sauce will slowly turn light brown, reduce, and turn honey-colored. You want it to reach a dark amber color but still be pourable. The total cooking time is about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. For a thin, sweet sauce, 1 1/2 hours will do it. If you like a thicker texture, keep cooking all the way to 2 hours. Once you’re reached an amber color and a suitably thick texture, take the sauce off the heat and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

　　

Step 2

Put the milk chocolate in a small bowl. Pour the dulce de leche mixture over it and stir until the sauce is smooth. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for later use (such as making Fudgey Hearts of Darkness, page 36).

　　Chocolate Bliss