If you were given a choice between a delicious dulce de leche and a sweet caramel sauce, what would you do? Well, obviously, you’d eat them both – but would you know which is which? If you’re not intimately familiar with how both dulce de leche and caramel are made, you actually might not be able to tell which is which. One consists of slowly heating sweetened condensed milk until it browns and thickens. The other is made from heating a mixture of sugar and water. So let’s talk about the differences between the two.
Dulce de Leche
Dulce de leche is a Central and South American treat that’s made solely from sweetened condensed milk that’s been heated slowly over time. The result is an absolutely delightful concoction that varies in as many ways as there are countries that serve it. Translating literally to “jam of the milk”, most of the time it’s served in the form of a sauce. But, it can also be a little more solid and crumbly – like a candy. Either way, it’s a perfect way to top off pastries, cookies, or drizzle on coffee. You can also try out a vegan version of dulce de leche that we concocted here.
Dulce de leche is used as a dessert in and of itself, but it’s also used in many desserts and sweets, like:
- Tres Leche Cake
- Alfajores (Argentinian cookies filled with dulce de leche)
- Banoffee Pie
- Flan
- Cajeta (a kind of lollipop in Mexico made from dulce de leche)
Caramel
Most Americans are a bit more familiar with caramel – the result of heating sugar and water until it crystallizes. Caramel can veer a little more towards dulce de leche, since sometimes milk or cream can be added to the mixture to make milk caramel or to turn basic caramel into a caramel sauce. But at the end of the day, caramel and dulce de leche are inherently similar since they share similar ingredients.
And aside from being turned into candies and sauces, you can use caramel in a number of ways too:
- Caramel Dipped Shortbread Cookies
- Caramel Cake
- Salted Caramel Apple Knickerbocker Glory
- Chocolate Caramel Cream Pie
It’s hard to say which is better: dulce de leche or caramel. What do you think? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
