slow cooker dulce de leche recipe
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Ingredients
  • 2 cans (14 ounces each) sweetened condensed milk*
  • 3 8-ounce jars with rings and lids (or 4 6-ounce jars). Make whatever jars you choose are short enough to be submerged by at least 1-inch of water in the slow cooker.
  • Enough water to submerge jars
Instructions
  1. Pour the sweetened condensed milk among the 3 or 4 jars.
  2. Securely screw on rings and lids: don't go all crazy tight here but don't keep the rings too loose or else the water will flood in and ruin everything. You do not need to sterilize the jars nor do you need to have brand new lids/rings. Just make sure they are all in good condition. Place in each jar in the slow cooker so that there is no contact between them.
  3. Fill the slow cooker with water to cover at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 10 hours. Still not brown enough? Try another hour and look for the rich color.
  4. When cooking is complete, you have two options. You can remove the jars with canning tongs and allow them to cool to room temperature. Or, you can ladle out most of the hot water and allow the hot jars to cool until you can handle them. Once cool, refrigerate for up to 4 weeks. This is great served over vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Some tips from various trials: See those squat half pint jars I used? The low profile works well with most slow cookers, to ensure entire jar submersion. I have a large slow cooker but not an ultra deep one. Plus, the wide opening of these squat jars allows large spoons to scoop up large amounts of dulce de leche at a time.
Some of the rings may develop rust spots from soaking in the water. It won't affect the final taste. Just wipe the rust off with a kitchen towel.

* I tried soooo hard to make my own sweetened condensed milk in the slow cooker that would be thick enough to work in this recipe for dulce de leche. Multiple trials, even trying coconut milk, lids on/off, different heat settings, longer cook times, resulted in a very sweet, but thin, condensed milk. It did not work then I tried to make dulce de leche with it. I've detailed my trials but not included the verbosity here. It's not that important. It really was a hot mess.
Recipe by story of a kitchen at https://www.storyofakitchen.com/dessert-recipes/dulce-de-leche-recipe-slow-cooker-style/