Dulce de Leche or, Fear In A Can

Working in a kitchen requires a certain amount of fearlessness: of fire, of blood, of pain, of sweat. If a cook thinks too much about the potential for cuts and burns, she will become tentative in her movement and therefore much more likely to incur injury. I was happily surprised to find that this fearlessness came both quickly and easily for me, boosting my confidence and reassuring me that I’d made the right decision to trade in my office job for life in the kitchen.

The real surprise, though, came when I discovered I have a whole different set of fears that are completely irrational. For the past 14 years, I have envisioned myself falling head first into a fryer full of scorching oil. I worry about falling onto a counter and impaling my eyeball with the dupe spike. I imagine stumbling onto the fiery flat-top, branding the entire side of my face. And every time — every single time — I walk down a narrow set of stairs with an armful of pots or freshly baked cakes or poached fruit, I’m convinced I will meet my clumsy death. Recently, I had to come face to face with one more fear: exploding cans.

I was asked to come up with some Cuban desserts for part of a Cuban-inspired prix fixe menu that was accompanying a Cuban cabaret in the restaurant where I am the pastry chef. Now, having never worked anywhere remotely resembling a Latin American restaurant, I did what any resourceful pastry chef might do, I hopped on the internet where I found a number of blogs and sites happy to assist me in my search for inspiration, and inspiration is the key word. My desserts didn’t have to be tried and true staples of Cuban cuisine, but rather, desserts that reflected my own style, tinged with Cuban flavors and ideas.  Along with coconut, rum and pineapple, one ingredient kept coming up: dulce de leche.

My experience up to this point with dulce de leche, caramelized condensed milk, was limited to the Haagen Dazs ice cream flavor that came out years ago. I knew making it had something to do with boiling a can of condensed milk, which simply seemed wrong to me. Boil a can? I was sure it would explode out of the water and ricochet of the wall a few times before finally slapping me in the head causing a fatal head wound. When I mentioned ducle de leche to one of the restaurant managers, he confidently offered that he made it himself all the time in exactly the manner that scared me. “You just submerge the can in water and boil the hell out of it,” he explained. “Why doesn’t it explode?” I asked incredulously in a complete role reversal, as if he had all the pastry answers.  “I don’t know. It’s a little scary and wrong, but that’s the fun of it.”  I was not convinced of my safety. Back to the internet.

Sure enough I found plenty of recipes that involved boiling cans and some safer ones that involved cooking the condensed milk in a saucepan while constantly stirring, but these reportedly took too long and almost definitely ran the risk of burning. I kept searching, determined not to give up and simply buy the dulce de leche at the local grocery. Finally, I found a method that promised to both keep my fear at bay and produce foolproof dulce de leche.  I followed these simple instructions.

1.    With a can opener, poke two small holes opposite one another on the top of a can of condensed milk.
2.    Place can in a small saucepan. Fill the saucepan with water so that only a half-inch of the can is left above the water.
3.    Keep the water at a low simmer, replenishing the water as necessary. Simmer for 3-4 hours. Don’t worry if some condensed milk spits out of the holes, and if you find the rattling of the can annoying, you can set the can atop a small dish cloth inside the pan.

After almost four hours (patience is imperative!), I removed my can, crossed my fingers, and carefully opened it. Inside I found a thick, deep brown dulce de leche, a perfect garnish for the salted chocolate tart I’d be making for the Cuban menu. I laughed at how simple, if time consuming, it had been. And I didn’t even lose an eye.

Dalia Jurgensen is the author of SPICED: A Pastry Chef’s True Stories of Trials By Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes On in the Kitchen. Her blog, www.myspicedlife.com, has recipes, stories and reviews.