Homemade Condensed Milk

Like I said in my post on homemade ice cream, I make my own condensed milk, you know... because I can.

I attempted to make condensed milk many years ago when I went through my last hunt for the perfect ice cream, and also when I learnt about making vanilla fudge and butter tablet using the glorious stuff, but it wasn't successful. It caught on the saucepan and burnt, and left me with little brown bitter bits in the finished product. It wasn't nice.

However, this time around I found this recipe, which is much simpler than many of the slow-cooking methods I've found online. However, it is high-maintenance. This was my starting point, but when I made it I found it didn't have exactly the right consistency.


The recipe I developed from this uses a tad more sugar, but only to make it mathematically work. The recipe I use now is simple: 1 ounce weight of sugar for every 4 fluid ounces of full-fat milk.

You may have guessed, I'm a fan of formulas, and also a fan of the imperial system. This works out as 30 grammes of sugar for every 120 millilitres of full-fat milk.

So, here she goes!



FREE FROM
☑ Soya
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Gluten

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy (obviously)
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

• 1 pint (570 millilitres) full-fat milk
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 pinch baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

HOW-TO

• In a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.
• Once boiling, add in the sugar and soda in one go and stir until dissolved. Reduce the heat to low when it reaches the boil again, and simmer gently.
• Simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring very frequently. Don't leave it un-stirred for any longer than 2 minutes at a time. This is quite time consuming, but necessary.
• Cook until it has reduced to a third of its original volume. If you want to be pendantic, you can weigh it, subtracting the weight of the saucepan: it should weigh 9 ounces (250 grammes).
• Another way to test its doneness is to keep a saucer in the fridge. When it comes close to being ready, drop a teaspoonful of the milk onto the chilled saucer, and tilt it. If it runs like it should - thick but still pourable - it's done.
• Allow to cool completely, then pour into a sterilised jar. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

Apologies for the photo, it looked in focus on the little camera screen! Oopsies...