Did you know you can make Dulce De Leche (caramel sauce) in the slow cooker? I had never heard of this until last month having dinner with my friend Jordan and I was blown away (you rock JC!). I love my slow cooker; I use it all the time. And I love Dulce De Leche, so why haven’t I heard of this?
But that’s wasn’t all. Did you know you can put mason jars in the slow cooker too? Where have I been that this was all news to me?!? I have eight million and one mason jars and use them for everything. Well, now I have another use and it is a good one!
And Jordan hadn’t just made dulce de leche, she had made VEGAN dulce de leche using sweetened condensed coconut milk. Yes, yes, a million times yes, this was going to happen in my kitchen too!
So, I’d heard about the boil the can of sweetened condensed milk in the pan of water for hours unend and how it would eventually caramelize into that wondrous golden syrup. And it had crossed my mind to try it with a can of sweetened condensed coconut milk, but then also, hours in the kitchen is not my style. You have to keep an eye of that pot, making sure the water doesn’t get too low and you know, you can’t leave the house when you’ve got something on the stove. Ughhh!
With a slow cooker, though, you can leave, take a nap, whatever you want, just set the timer and go on with your life. Perfect.
When folks simmer the can of the sweetened condensed milk in a pot on the stove, they put the entire unopened can in there and let it go. You can probably do this with the cans of sweetened condensed coconut milk as well, but something about simmering the can freaks me out a bit. I don’t know if stuff leaches from the can into the syrup and don’t really want to find out and also, there’s a chance the can might explode. You heard that right. Explode. Nope, not taking chances with that!. Transferring the condensed coconut milk to mason jars sounds a lot safer to me and so that’s what I did.
The world of sweetened condensed coconut milk is a new one. Just a year ago, it basically didn’t exist commercially; you had to make your own. Now, where I am in the northeast US, I can find two different brands, Let’s Do…Organic and Nature’s Charm. If you can’t find them where you are, I think you can find them both at online retailers.
For this experiment, I decided to try both and see if there was a difference and in truth, to see if it even worked at all.
The Results!
As you can see from the pictures, it absolutely did work! Vegan Dulce de Leche, which then got drizzled all over some apple bars and nice cream. And straight into my mouth :-D.
- The Nature’s Charm came out much creamier and thicker than the Let’s Do Organic. In truth, right when you open the cans, before even cooking them, you can see a difference in consistency. The Let’s Do Organic needs to be stirred as it separates for some reason. The Nature’s Charm is thick and smooth from the get go. There is obviously something different in their formulations for making coconut sweetened condensed milk.
- Let’s Do Organic Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk Ingredients: Organic Coconut, Water, Organic Cane Sugar.
- Nature’s Charm Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk Ingredients: Coconut Milk (Coconut Cream, Filtered Water), Cane Sugar, Salt
- The differences in consistency continued even after they were cooked. The Nature’s Charm was thick and creamy and the Let’s Do Organic was thinner and still separated, even after 10 hours in the slow cooker. A good whisking helped emulsify the Let’s Do Organic, but it never entirely came together and nothing could make it as thick as the other one.
- The Let’s Do Organic, in my opinion, has a nicer taste, stronger and more coconut-ty without being cloying. The Nature’s Charm tastes great, but there is definitely a difference.
- For making Dulce de Leche, for that thick, dark, creamy consistency and flavor, I would definitely go with the Nature’s Charm. The Let’s Do Organic will work well too, just be prepared to give it a good whisking and to see some separation in the final caramel.
- I added a drop or so of vanilla to one jar and a pinch of cinnamon to another. The vanilla was awesome. Other extracts would be great as well I’m sure. Or liquor. The cinnamon, I didn’t add enough, so it’s hard to say. Play around with it, experiment with flavors and see what amazing dulce de leche you can create!
What do you think? Have you tried this? Which one was your favorite?
- 1 (or two) cans sweetened condensed coconut milk **
- vanilla or cinnamon or other flavoring choice, if desired
- Open your can of sweetened condensed coconut milk.
- Pour it into a glass mason jar (1 pint or ½ pint seem to be the best size for the slow cooker - there wasn't any difference in end result between the two different sizes), leaving about 1-2" at top. You can use more than one jar for this, just don't fill them too high, make sure there is at least a 1-2"gap.
- Put lids and bands on jars.
- Place in slow cooker and fill the slow cooker up with water, covering the jars completely. One inch of water above the tops of the jars should be enough to keep them covered the entire time.
- Set slow cooker to 10 hours (low) and go do some stuff - take the dog for a hike, take a nap, make some pie to go with the dulce de leche.
- Very carefully, preferably with tongs, remove the jars from the slow cooker. You can also turn it off and leave the jars in there until the water is cool enough to reach in and take them out.
- Open jars. Grab spoon. Dig in.
- Can be refrigerated in the jar for a least a week.
In the slow cooker? Count me in!
I know! Soooo easy!
I want to try some on ice cream:)
For your bday 😀
yahoo
Does the Nature’s Charm have a coconut taste (which I definitely do not want)?
Yes it does. They both do; it is sweetened condensed coconut milk, after all and the main ingredient is coconut. But in comparison, I think the Nature’s Charm is less coconut-ty and more mild than the Let’s Do Organic. I prefer the stronger flavor :-D.
Oh wow, that dulce de leche looks soooo amazing <3 I'm kicking myself that I gave away my slow cooker a few months ago…
By the way – I love the updated look to your blog, Jenny!
You gave away your slow cooker – noooo! I use mine all the time – veggies stews and now dulce de leche lol! You’ll have to borrow one once in awhile to make this :-D.
Thank you for checking out the new design. It’s not completely how I want it but a person could spend months obsessing about the small details. They’re still be little changes happening as I make it “just right”!
I have a question. Traditional (dairy) sweet condensed milk can by cooked directly in the can to make dulce de leche (by cooking it on a stove top for a few hours). Have you tried doing this with the sweet condensed coconut milk? I bought the “Let’s Do It Organic” brand and want to try cooking it directly in the can without opening it, as your recipe suggests. Love to hear if you ever tried it that way..
Thanks for the question! So, I haven’t tried it in a pan of boiling water, mostly because I don’t want to have to keep an eye on it. The slow cooker method you can walk away and leave it. Also, keeping it in the can, while I know many people do it, slightly terrified me as I’ve heard they can explode. Granted this happened with regular sweetened condensed milk, I’ve never tried it with the new cans of coconut condensed milk, but I wasn’t particularly keen on trying! This is why I transfered it to the mason jars. In theory, it should work, but I couldn’t say for certain. These probably aren’t the same cans (maybe a good thing) and with the possibility of explosion, I’d say if you choose to try it, just be careful. Maybe Lets do Organic will have a better idea to the safety of it, you might try contacting them. Good luck! And please let me know!
My glass jars leaked! I used mason jars, but they still leaked and probably got a little water in them. Still tasted great though. Just made a mess. Not sure how to avoid this in the future. :/ We made vegan banoffee pie with the dulce de leche.
Oh no! I wonder if they were too full. I am just re-reading the instructions I wrote and I said to leave 1/2″ gap but as you can see from the pics, I left a lot more space. At least an inch, if not two. Maybe that was the problem. I’m going to change that in my instructions. So glad you enjoyed it; banoffee pie sounds like the perfect use!!