Dulce de Leche, that sweet caramely Spanish sauce may taste very friendly, but making it at home can be a bit of a nightmare. There are two basic methods for making dulce de leche at home. You can slowly (and I mean very slowly) simmer milk and sugar over low heat until it caramelizes and reduces to about a sixth of its original volume. This method is quite time consuming, but much preferred over the more popular method of boiling unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk for several hours.

I have had many delicious spoonfuls of dulce de leche made using the boiling-the-can method, but honestly, I would never try it at home after hearing that the cans might explode during the cooking process. The prospect of boiling hot metal and caramel spattering all over my kitchen is absolutely terrifying.

Thankfully, Stephanie O'Dea has come to the rescue again with her version of Crock-Pot dulce de leche from Make it Fast, Cook it Slow. O'Dea eliminates the danger and the hours of watching the stove by employing the slow cooker. Using this method, the sweetened condensed milk is poured into an oven-safe container and placed in a water bath in the stoneware and left to cook and reduce for eight hours. No risk of explosion, just perfect dulce de leche ready to be spooned over ice cream or baked into a cake or crème caramel.

Win Make it Fast, Cook it Slow

As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Make it Fast, Cook it Slow to give away this week.