Dulce de leche (sweet made of milk) is a caramel sauce made with sweet milk and heavy cream. ย In this Dolce de leche recipe Iโm using whey left over from cheese making and condensed with slow cooking to create the caramel.ย Whey contains most of the sugar found in milk, in the form of lactose. Therefore making dulce de leche from whey, after cheese making, is an economical and efficient use of your homestead milk.ย The final caramel sauce has a complex flavour that is reminiscent of salted caramels.
It requires patience as the whey is cooked very slowly much like maple syrup is cooked down from maple sap.ย It is reduced over low heat by 80%, while the lactose in the whey caramelises.
Use dulce de leche as a topping for ice cream, pour it over cheese cake, spoon it into pecan tarts or pour it over custard.ย ย Cook it a little longer and you will have fudge or toffee. Whey candy is a treat!
Dulce de leche recipe from whey
Makes: 2 to 3 cups
Ingredients:
1 to 2 gallons of fresh whey left over from cheese making
1 cup of organic sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
2 tbsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla (Homemade is best.ย Hereโs my recipe)
Method:
In a slow cooker or Instant-Pot, simmer fresh whey over medium heat on the slow cooker setting.ย Leave the lid off the pot to encourage evaporation.ย There is no need to stir it at this point.
When the whey is reduced by half add the butter and the sugar.ย Stir to dissolve the sugar and melt the butter.ย Continue heating over medium heat to evaporate more liquid.ย If milk solids precipitate in the whey, which can happen if the whey is on the acidic side, blend for a few minutes withan immersion blender when you add the sugar and butter. This will smooth out any graininess in the mixture.
When the whey is reduced by 70% add the heavy cream.ย Turn up the temperature on the slow cooker to high. (I used the sautรฉ setting on the Instant-Pot™ on medium for this step.) Now stir constantly ensuring that the mixture doesnโt stick to the bottom of the pot nor burn.ย The mixture will darken to a russet brown colour and thicken.
Once the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove the pot from the heat.ย Stir for 5 minutes while the mixture cools. ย ย This smooths the caramel.ย Add the vanilla.ย Continue stirring. It is very hot so donโt taste test.ย Ouch.ย When it is cool enough to touch, pour into a glass wide-mouth jar.ย Keep refrigerated.ย The dulce de leche will keep for 2 months if kept refrigerated.ย Freeze it for longer storage.
More recipes to make from whey
Cheese made from 6 quarts/litres of goat’s milk — left to right: gjetost, ricotta, cheddar with chives.
This dulce de leche recipe is just one of several things that you can do with the whey leftover from cheesemaking.
Gjetost or mysost cheese are other cheeses made from leftover whey.ย Gjetost made from goatโs milk whey and mysost made from cowsโ milk whey, are popular breakfast foods in Norway.ย ย There are caramel flavoured overtones in these unusual cheeses.
Of course, you already know about ricotta cheese and mizithra cheese, both made from whey.
So before you pour out that whey on your garden, try these recipes for making delicious cheese and sweet dulce de leche from that whey thatโs leftover from cheese making.
Your turn:
I’d love to hear your results.ย Let me know what you did with the whey you have leftover from cheese making.
Can I use frozen whey from Manchego cheese making?
I just made it using what I had at home: 1 gallon whey (from straing yogurt), 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp butter, only half cup cream, vanilla. It tastes quite nice although I guess I cooked it for too long since I ended up with toffee. Will try again next yogurt batch. Any other advise? Thank you for the recipe!
I am finding it a bit tart. I have a lot of milk and make a lot of cheese and therefore have a lot of whey. Am I maybe not using enough sugar? I usually use about 5 gallons of milk, make cheese, then boil to make ricotta, then use that whey. I probably had about 13 or 14 gallons of whey that I was getting down with probably about 4 cups of sugar (I am terrible about measuring). My friend said maybe lactic acid was making the off-taste. What do you think?
That’s probably it or the lemon juice or vinegar that you are adding when you make your ricotta.
This is so wonderful. Thank you!
Can you use the whey left over from yogurt making and straining?
Yes. It’s a bit sour though.
I was wondering the same, I make 0 fat yoghurt, would that make a difference and if it’s a bit sour what could you do to change that? Also in U.K. What is heavy cream is that double cream? Thanks
Heavy cream is 35% butterfat. In Canada we call it whip cream (35% butterfat). In UK double cream can have as much as 48% butter fat, and would work as well. Since the whey is mostly protein and sugar, the extra butterfat gives it a better mouth feel, more like caramel.
Can this be done on the stove over low heat? Is there a reason you prefer a crock pot or instant pot? Also, if I only have about four cups of whey, could I reduce everything by ยน/4 and make it or should I save the whey until I have more? Maybe freeze it? Thanks!!
I prefer the crock pot because I don’t have to stir it to keep it from scorching.
your web site is amazing- i’ve been at all this for some time now but i always learn something new from you- thank you so much!!! here’s my question; can you use whey from clabbered milk instead of whey from cheesemaking? i think you’re going to say “yes”
Yes. You do want it not to have any off flavours though. So check that before you go through all the steps as there is a large time investment to make this.
Oh – I so want to make this! Looks yummy!
Andi, it is. I used some for a cheesecake for this weekend.