Slow Cooker Dulce De Leche

lilsweetie's Note:

No more worries about popping pressurized cans or watching the stove for hours on end. Let your slow cooker turn sweetened condensed milk into this decadent foolproof dulce de leche.

• Total Time: 8 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 8 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 14.0 ounces

• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, unopened (not evaporated!)
• 1 gallon water

Directions:

1. Wash and remove the labels from your cans of sweetened condensed milk. Make sure the cans are undented and unopened.
2. Stand your cans up in the slow cooker and pour water in to cover cans fully.
3. Cook on low for at least 8 hours (I've gone up to 12 hours once when I forgot about the cans, results were still good). You could probably do this on high for 4-5 hours but I haven't tried it.
4. Allow to cool fully before opening the can. Store in refrigerator.
5. If you open the can and find that it's not golden enough (highly unlikely), scoop out contents into a saucepan and simmer on low until desired color.

Reviews

[LadyKatarina]

I have made this recipe as written, until I found out it is unsafe. Making this recipe as written left me with rust rings on the bottom of my crock pot, and after doing more research, I would never feed the finished product to my family again. It is unsafe to make dulce de leche in the can. Heating the can for long periods of time releases chemicals. (it clearly is labeled on any sweetened condensed milk can "Do not heat in can" for this reason) This recipe should not be done as written. I made this a second time in the crock pot by using two stoneware oven safe mugs, poured a can of sweetened condensed milk into each mug, covered mugs with foil to make sure water did not drip back into the mug from condensation, placed mugs into crock pot, poured in enough water to get to about 1 inch from the top of the mugs, cooked on low for 8 hours. THAT turned out well. Do not do this recipe as written.

[Kerfuffle-Upon-Wincle]

I've never tasted dulce de leche because I haven't been able to find it in the stores here, so I really don't know how to compare this slow cooker version with the bought kind! I slow cooked four cans on LOW for 10 hours, let it cool, opened it and thought it wasn't thick enough! The taste was almost the same as sweetened condensed milk straight from the can, so I put the remaining three cans back into the slow cooker and cooked it for four additional hours on HIGH! (SEE PHOTOS for the difference in color) The taste changed and the end result is much thicker ~ it tastes good, but not really like caramel as I had hoped. In a few days I'll use the slow cooker dulce de leche to swirl into brownie batter, then bake! Made for Spring PAC 2011 ~

[elsokolj]

this is a great way to make it. Wish I knew this method before....
I put condensed milk in the pot, forgot about it and went to bed... I woke up with big bang... No kidding. Water boiled out and condensed milk can projected itself to the ceiling, leaving half moon mark in my ceiling... then it exploded all over the kitchen, ceiling, walls, cupboards... everything... Yap... sweet dreams... at least I was not there when it exploded. And I just started to date my husband who witness my great cooking abilities...It took few days to wash it all out........
When I write that I put can in the pot, I mean that I used stove top and not a slow cooker. Slow cooker is safe way to make this.