Dolce de leche

Over the summer we went to the Benington Lordship chilli festival and while I was buying chillies, Suzanne was offered a "salted caramel with chilli".  Well, it went down a storm and looking at the recipe it was effectively dolce de leche, a south American sweet caramel made by evaporating milk until it becomes thick and gooey.  I've looked on line and the only recipes I've found use either whole milk or evaporated milk.  The first time I tried it I used whole milk, and while it was good, it was a little grainy from having to reduce it too much and it lacked the buttery flavour of the chill version.  So, second time around I've made it using double cream and butter - not very healthy but at least you don't have much of it!

Here's my recipe if you dare try it!  I don't tend to eat it (except occasionally when I have a low blood glucose) but it's had Suzanne's taste test and she reckons "it's delicious", so I'm happy.  This recipe should make about half of a full size Kilner jar so you may wish to adjust the ingredients!

Ingredients
600ml double cream
250ml caster sugar (yes, that's ml, not g)
a pinch of bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
125g butter


Method
Put all the ingredients except the butter into a large saucepan and bring to the boil.  When it's close to boiling, reduce the heat to low to medium and keep it boiling at a high simmer.  Be really careful for the first 30 mins or so as the boiling mixture will tend to go over the top of the pan very easily if you don't stir it or heat it too high.  You'll need to stir this very frequently at this stage and don't take your eyes off the pan or you'll need to clean your cooker!

Keeping the heat on low, reduce the mix until the colour is slightly lighter than milk chocolate and the mixture has thickened.  Now turn the heat off and add the butter, stirring until it has melted and is incorporated into the caramel.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a sterilised Kilner jar, cover and leave to cool before refrigerating it.  It will last almost indefinitely and you can use it on ice cream, cakes and puddings as a sauce, or just help yourself out of the jar if you wish.