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EveryCow

Milk sweets

Dulce de leche

Milk and sugar cooked slowly until thick and brown, spread on bread and filled into alfajores across South America.

Dulce de leche is milk and sugar cooked slowly for hours, stirred until it thickens and turns caramel brown. A pinch of baking soda helps the colour and keeps it smooth. It is spread on toast, filled into alfajores, crepes and cakes, and eaten from the spoon. Argentina and Uruguay claim it as national, and Brazil calls it doce de leite.

What goes in

Whole milk: 67%67%Sugar: 20%20%Baking soda: 7%Vanilla: 7%4parts
  • Whole milk1067%, Cooked down by about two thirds.
  • Sugar320%, Caramelises as it cooks.
  • Baking soda17%, A pinch, for colour and smoothness.
  • Vanilla17%, Added at the end.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each input's share of the product.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house and herd to herd; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Boil Bring milk and sugar to the boil in a heavy pan.
  2. Step 2: Cook Add a pinch of baking soda and lower the heat.
  3. Step 3: Cook Simmer for hours, stirring often, until thick and brown.
  4. Step 4: Set Stir in vanilla and pour into jars to cool.
  5. Step 5: Serve Spread on bread or fill alfajores.
  6. Whole milk: 67%67%Sugar: 20%20%Baking soda: 7%Vanilla: 7%
    Finished Dulce de leche, by share.

A tale from the pampas

A popular Argentine story says it was discovered by accident in 1829 when a maid left milk and sugar on the fire during a meeting of rival leaders. The story is a legend: milk cooked with sugar was made in Spain, France and the Americas long before. Uruguay and Argentina have both tried to claim it, and both eat it daily.

Across the continent

In Colombia and Venezuela it is arequipe, in Chile manjar, in Mexico cajeta, which is made from goat milk. Brazil's doce de leite from Minas Gerais is famous. Alfajores, two biscuits sandwiched with dulce de leche, are sold everywhere in Argentina, and dulce de leche ice cream is one of the most popular flavours.

Where it is used

AlfajoresOn toastIce cream and cakes

The breeds behind it

Holstein FriesianThe main dairy breed of Argentina and Uruguay.

Also part of it, and being written: Argentine Criollo cattle (The old cattle of the pampas.), Jersey cattle (Kept on dairies across South America.), Girolando (Brazil's leading dairy breed.).

More on EveryCow

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and dairy makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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