Wanna know how to make caramel, aka Dulce de Leche from Sweetened Condensed Milk?  Read my tips below on how to make the easiest caramel you will ever make and it is beyond delicious!  

Ahhh…the endless possibilities that come with a can of that wonderful Sweetened Condensed Milk.  Just when we thought we had come up with each and every possible delicious recipe to use this delectable sweet milk in, we find another use for it….cooking it until it turns into the most delectable creamy caramel. If you’ve never cooked a can of Sweetened Condensed milk until it magically turns into caramel, you don’t know what you’ve been missing.  I’m here to show you just how easy it is…

First things first…you can use either type of can of milk for this recipe, (solid or with tabs).  I use the cans with tabs all the time and I have never had one explode.

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Here’s how I cooked this wonderful stuff…

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In these pictures, I cooked two cans of milk at one time.  I was making a double batch of my latest recipe.  I’ll share that with you in a minute.  Here’s what I did first.  I removed the paper labels from the cans and placed the cans in a large pot of water.  It does not matter if you use a can like the one on the left or one with a tab like on the right.  I set these cans upright in the water for illustration purposes only.  You should not leave the cans upright like these…

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I placed the cans on their sides and made sure I covered them with at least two inches of water.  I brought the water to a boil over high heat and then turned it down to medium.  I made sure the water kept boiling and the water level stayed above the cans throughout the entire cooking process…

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I cooked the milk for 2 hours and removed it from the hot water.  I set it on a towel for about an hour to slightly cool…then I placed it in my refrigerator to finish cooling.  Note:  It’s important to not open a can of cooked milk while it is hot, or it will explode and run down the sides of the can…

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And yes…this is the wonderful stuff that the cooked milk turned into.  Yummy!

Oh yes…let me tell ya about my latest recipe creation that I used this wonderful stuff in.  I created a Salted Caramel Brownie recipe, using an entire can of cooked Sweetened Condensed milk.  I have to say that this is one of my best recipe creations ever.  Chocolate and caramel should be married!!

If for any reason you’re not crazy about the thought of cooking sweetened condensed milk in the can, check out this recipe from Martha Stewart on cooking it out of the can.

Now go get cooking…milk that is!!!