Dulce de Leche - How Sweet Milk Is!
Our next Sunday brings me to Argentina, the home of dulce de leche. As I researched pancakes in Argentina, I discovered that Argentinians seem to use dulce de leche on just about any item they can. I was sort of hoping for a more savory pancake from them, but I guess sweet was what it was going to be.
I must admit that neither Sam nor I are overly fond of dulce de leche. Don't get me wrong, I love sweets, pastries, cookies, etc.; however, dulce de leche was just something I have never been able to enjoy. My lack of enjoyment of this sweet is so bad that I almost decided to skip Argentinian pancakes. However I sucked up my disappointment and decided to forge ahead with Argentina anyway.
I decided that I should try to make my own dulce de leche. I hoped that homemade dulce de leche would prove tastier than store bought. Here is the recipe I used to make dulce de leche:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Pour one 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass pie tin or shallow baking dish (I used an 8x8 square brownie pan). Stir in a pinch of sea salt. Firmly cover with aluminum foil. Place the dish in a larger dish (I used a 9x13 cake pan, but you could use any oven proof dish that is larger than the container with your sweetened condensed milk). Put water in the larger dish until it reaches about halfway up the sides of the container with the dulce de leche. Place everything in the oven for 60-75 minutes. When it's all cooked up, this is what you'll have:
O.K., after tasting homemade dulce de leche I now understand the Argentinian obsession with it. This stuff is fantastic! Sweet, creamy, and smooth are the best words to describe this treat. You can make the dulce de leche in advance and store it in the refrigerator. It can be stored there for about 3 months. If you make it in advance, be sure to warm it in the microwave before serving.
Now that I've got the filling made up, let's move on to the pancake, or rather panqueque as it's called in Argentina, itself. It's not as thick as an American pancake, but it's also not as thin as a French crepe. It actually falls in between as far as thickness goes. Here's the recipe I used for the actual panqueque:
3 ounces flour (I used our kitchen scale to measure it out, 3 ounces is a little bit less than 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
5 3/4 fluid ounces of milk
2 fluid ounces of water
butter for frying
Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. I chose to place them all in a bowl and then use a whisk to mix and sift them together.
After sifting together the dry ingredients, beat the eggs slightly in a separate bowl, and then use your whisk to mix them with the dry ingredients.
Mix the milk and water together, and then slowly add it to your dry ingredients/egg mixture until you have a smooth batter.
After you have a smooth batter, allow the mixture to rest for 30 minutes.
When your batter has rested for 30 minutes, heat a nonstick pan. I found that the crepe pan worked best for these. I tried a regular frying pan, but it just didn't seem to work as well. Also, while the recipe calls for butter for frying, I chose to use olive oil instead.
Using a ladle, pour a thin layer of the batter into the middle of the pan, and swirl it around as you would when making a crepe.
Allow the panqueque to cook on one side until it looks dry, and then flip it to cook briefly on the other side.
Place cooked panqueque on a plate in a warm oven or cover it with a clean, dry towel and continue making until all of the batter is used up. The amounts used in this recipe made 5 panqueques when using a crepe pan.
Once they're all cooked up, spread some dulce de leche over half of the panqueque and fold or roll.
Since it was Mother's Day on this pancake Sunday, and my mom was joining me for breakfast, I added some mini baked quiches and fruit to the meal. Even if it's not a special day, you might want to add some sort of protein to help cut down on the sweetness of the panqueques.
I still have about half a jar of dulce de leche that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. Enjoy!
I must admit that neither Sam nor I are overly fond of dulce de leche. Don't get me wrong, I love sweets, pastries, cookies, etc.; however, dulce de leche was just something I have never been able to enjoy. My lack of enjoyment of this sweet is so bad that I almost decided to skip Argentinian pancakes. However I sucked up my disappointment and decided to forge ahead with Argentina anyway.
I decided that I should try to make my own dulce de leche. I hoped that homemade dulce de leche would prove tastier than store bought. Here is the recipe I used to make dulce de leche:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Pour one 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass pie tin or shallow baking dish (I used an 8x8 square brownie pan). Stir in a pinch of sea salt. Firmly cover with aluminum foil. Place the dish in a larger dish (I used a 9x13 cake pan, but you could use any oven proof dish that is larger than the container with your sweetened condensed milk). Put water in the larger dish until it reaches about halfway up the sides of the container with the dulce de leche. Place everything in the oven for 60-75 minutes. When it's all cooked up, this is what you'll have:
O.K., after tasting homemade dulce de leche I now understand the Argentinian obsession with it. This stuff is fantastic! Sweet, creamy, and smooth are the best words to describe this treat. You can make the dulce de leche in advance and store it in the refrigerator. It can be stored there for about 3 months. If you make it in advance, be sure to warm it in the microwave before serving.
Now that I've got the filling made up, let's move on to the pancake, or rather panqueque as it's called in Argentina, itself. It's not as thick as an American pancake, but it's also not as thin as a French crepe. It actually falls in between as far as thickness goes. Here's the recipe I used for the actual panqueque:
3 ounces flour (I used our kitchen scale to measure it out, 3 ounces is a little bit less than 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
5 3/4 fluid ounces of milk
2 fluid ounces of water
butter for frying
Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. I chose to place them all in a bowl and then use a whisk to mix and sift them together.
After sifting together the dry ingredients, beat the eggs slightly in a separate bowl, and then use your whisk to mix them with the dry ingredients.
Mix the milk and water together, and then slowly add it to your dry ingredients/egg mixture until you have a smooth batter.
After you have a smooth batter, allow the mixture to rest for 30 minutes.
When your batter has rested for 30 minutes, heat a nonstick pan. I found that the crepe pan worked best for these. I tried a regular frying pan, but it just didn't seem to work as well. Also, while the recipe calls for butter for frying, I chose to use olive oil instead.
Using a ladle, pour a thin layer of the batter into the middle of the pan, and swirl it around as you would when making a crepe.
Allow the panqueque to cook on one side until it looks dry, and then flip it to cook briefly on the other side.
Place cooked panqueque on a plate in a warm oven or cover it with a clean, dry towel and continue making until all of the batter is used up. The amounts used in this recipe made 5 panqueques when using a crepe pan.
Once they're all cooked up, spread some dulce de leche over half of the panqueque and fold or roll.
Since it was Mother's Day on this pancake Sunday, and my mom was joining me for breakfast, I added some mini baked quiches and fruit to the meal. Even if it's not a special day, you might want to add some sort of protein to help cut down on the sweetness of the panqueques.
I still have about half a jar of dulce de leche that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. Enjoy!
Comments
Post a Comment