baitcon | Dulce de Leche recipe

For the last couple of years, I've been making a dulce de leche ice cream; last year it got the highest number of "best" votes, and I overheard several people making yummy comments about it this year -- I thought I should go ahead and document the recipe.

The guilty secret: I buy my dulce de leche pre-made, it's in the Mexican section of my local grocery store, in little 13.4oz tins by La Lechera, a Nestle company. I've made my own, it's easy enough, but the pre-made is yummy enough that I don't feel the need to make my own except on really special occasions, or if the store is out. YMMV :)

This Baitcon I tried two versions: a straight cream base and a custard base. Of the two, I preferred the custard base, so that's the version I'm showing here. If you'd prefer the cream base, just forget the custard and use a cup of heavy cream instead. I found the cream base harder to work with, as it had set to a dense gel while chilling the in refrigerator, and froze into a dense ice cream with little overrun (aeration).

Custard Base:

4 egg yolks
pinch salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Separate out the yolks, beat in the milk, salt, and vanilla. In a double boiler, heat while stirring until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

(for most custard bases, you'd add in sugar, but the dulce de leche already is very sweet, so it needs none).

For the ice cream, you'll need:

1 cup custard base
1 cup light cream
2 13.4 oz cans dulce de leche

I found that mixing the dulce de leche with the still-hot custard base helped dissolve the dulce de leche, as did pre-heating the cans in a pot of hot water ahead of time (the stuff is like a caramel in consistency when cold, very stiff and reluctant to dissolve into solution). Add in the cream and chill, then freeze as per your favorite ice cream method. Or not, the stuff is good enough just as a custard, or right out of the bowl if you can't wait.

I've done variations involving chocolate, mint, and orange liqueur at home; next year I'll probably do a gallon batch for Saturday, and then do some variations involving more exotic ingredients.