If you are a caramel fan have I got a treat for you! A few week’s back I made cajeta from my goat’s milk from St. John’s Creamery. It took longer then I expected but the resulting sauce was amazing.
Cajeta is the goat’s milk version of dulce de leche and it’s made by cooking milk, cornstarch, baking soda and sugar for hours until it boils down into a thick, rich, caramel sauce.
We’ve eaten it on ice cream, pancakes, waffles and added it to yogurt the last few weeks. The kids of course adore it and we’ve been sneaking it as well.
Here is how to make it:
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 quarts whole goat’s milk
3 cups sugar
In a bowl make a slurry of the corn starch, baking soda and some milk to dissolve the powder.
In the pan add that slurry, the remaining milk and sugar and stir well.
Bring it to a boil, stirring constantly then reduce the heat to a simmer and let it continue to simmer for several hours until it is as thick as you like it.
I cooked mine for about 3 1/4 hours until it was a thick syrup like honey. You can stop cooking sooner if you want a runnier sauce for mixing with milk. You can also make this with cow’s milk but it’s called dulce de leche. I’ve heard of folks using this between cake layers, swirled into brownie batter, as a pudding parfait layer or swirled into ice cream.
I’ve had mine in a jar in the fridge for several weeks and it’s just as good as the day I made it. I’m not sure how long it will last so I plan to freeze dollops of it on wax paper first then put it all in a ziplock in the freezer to take out when I need it. At least that way I won’t be snitching it every time I open the fridge!
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Mmmmm. I would probably just eat it with a spoon!
How often does this need to be stirred during the simmer time?
Did it work to freeze it?
Hi Millie, I just did. It should be stirred frequently towards the end but not as often at the beginning. It also depends how heavy your pan is – the heavier the better. I bet you could make this in a crock pot and not have to worry about it as much though. And it freezes beautifully. I had some in my freezer for about 9 months that was still yummy and perfect texture by the time we finished it.
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