Dulce de Leche Pudding

A couple of months ago...

Dad: I want bannoffee pie. Can you make me some?
Me: Sure, but i need to make Dulce de Leche and I'm scared to do that.
Dad: How do you make that?
Me: [Explains]
Dad: Aaah. Ok.
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The following weekend, right after waking up...

Dad: Are you going to do anything today?
Me: No, not really. Why?
Dad: Good, I have a couple of Dulce de Leches cooking in the backyard.

Ah yes. Dulce de Leche, literally "milk marmalade". Tasty enough to make a 50-year-old man go back to his boyscout roots and start a bonfire in the backyard.



The first time I saw "authentic" Dulce de Leche was when some of my sister's officemates gave her some from Argentina. Sweet, thick, indulging caramel spread that can beat McDonald's caramel sundae sauce any day. (I like that sauce very much so just imagine!) I've never seen anything come close locally. Most Dulce de Leches in baking stores are also often of the homemade quality.

So how does one make Dulce de Leche at home? Wikipedia explains clearly:

"A home-made form of dulce de leche is sometimes made by boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for 2 to 3 hours (or 30 to 45 minutes in a pressure cooker), particularly by those living in countries where it cannot be bought ready-made. It is dangerous to do this on a stove: if the pot is allowed to boil dry, the can will overheat and explode."

This explains why we've never attempted to make Dulce de Leche inside the house, more so in a pressure cooker - we're scared of mom. And the possible explosions.

Dad made Dulce de Leche by making a bonfire in the backyard. He then hung a pot over the fire, put 2 cans of condensed milk, label taken off, and added enough water to cover them. He then checked it from time to time to make sure there's still water in the pot. After 4 hours, voila! Dulce de Leche!

Last piece of advice: Since you're already investing time, effort, money, and risking your life making them, make lots of them at the same time. Since it's mostly sugar, I reckon its shelf life is really long, probably at least a year.

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I adapted the basic bread pudding recipe from here and just added the dulce de leche and banana bit.

DULCE DE LECHE BREAD PUDDING
Yield: 3 single-serve ramekins

Ingredients
5 slices of bread
16g butter, melted
258g [1 1/8 C] milk
100g [2pcs] eggs
1-2g [1/4-1/2 t] cinnamon powder [depends on your taste, 2g will give you a strong cinnamon flavor]
2g [1/2 t] vanilla extract
1 can dulce de leche
3 bananas, sliced into "coins", optional

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Slice the bread into cubes and place them inside the ramekins. I used the normal pullman loaf, toasted for a few minutes in the toaster. You can use other types of bread especially enriched ones like croissant or brioche but normal bread will do.
3. Drizzle some melted butter over the cubes of bread.
4. In a bowl, mix together the milk, eggs, cinnamon powder, and vanilla extract. Mix well, then strain.
5. Pour the milk mixture over the bread. You can push the bread with a fork to make sure they are covered and soaking in the milk mixture.
6. Place the ramekins in a larger oven-safe pan and pour hot water halfway up the ramekins. [Bake in waterbath/bain-marie].
7. Bake for about 25 mins or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.
8. Take out of the oven and cool for about 10 mins. Meanwhile, throw out the hot water, preheat the oven's broiler, and mix in each sliced banana in 1 tablespoon of dulce de leche.
9. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of dulce de leche on top of each single-serve bread pudding. Put it back in the oven (broiler) and wait until the dulce de leche starts to bubble. About 2 mins, remove at once.
10. Cool about 10 mins, then top with the banana-dulce de leche mixture. Best served warm.