Caramel Cakes Recipe (Dulce de leche)

I am not feeling very insipred today to have a full meal or anything, so I thought that I would put up an easy dessert.  My Aunt Edna used to make these caramel cakes every Christmas, and they were one of my favourites.  Sinfully sweet. I got thinking about these the other day when I was dipping an arrow-root cookie into a jar of store bought dulce de leche. (Sounds odd, maybe.  Was it tasty?  Oh yes!).

The easiest way to make a dulce de leche is with a can of sweet condensed milk.  It takes all the guess work out of measuring things to make it the old school before-you-had-cans-of-condensed-milk-way.

So anyway, here is what you need for Caramel Cakes:

One can (or two, if you want to make a bunch) of sweetened condensed milk
12-24 store bought pre-made mini pie shells (the two bite kind if you can get them)
125ml Whipping cream
1 tbsp of icing sugar
Sweet Tooth

Place the can(s) of condended milk, with all the labels off of the can into a pot of boiling water, with enough water in the pot to completely cover the can.  Put a lid on it, but you will have to go back every so often to top up the water as it evaporated.  Always, always, always make sure that there water completely covering the can.  Can't be stressed enough - the can not completey submerged could lead to the can exploding, which is bad.  Boil the can for around three hours (seems like a long time, yes.  Is it worth it? Absolutely).  In the mean time, prepare the crusts.  They may need to go into the oven to brown or something.  When the time is up on the condesed milk, carefully take it out of the pot and let it cool completely before you open the can.  Spoon the nicely made dulce de leche into the crusts.  Top with fresh whipped cream (whip the whipping cream with the icing sugar until fluffy).

Alternatives:

-To make a low calorie desert, substitute the entire desert with a stick of celery.  ;-)

Until next time

-d