KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES - DULCE DE LECHE CREAM TART

This is another sweet and sinful recipe that I got from Casa Veneracion but first you have to start with making dulce de leche. What exactly is dulce de leche? Well, according to Wikipedia dulce de leche is a confection prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that derives its taste from the caramelization of the product. Literally, it means ‘candy of milk’ or candy made of milk. It is popular in South America, in particular, in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil, Colombia, Eastern Bolivia and Venezuela.
But the product itself varies from country to country – some like in El Salvador, has a soft crumbly texture while in Colombia and Venezuela it is made with corn starch giving it a soft custard like texture. Mexican’s make theirs from goat’s milk while in Puerto Rico, it is sometimes made with unsweetened coconut milk. The most basic recipe calls for slowly simmering milk and sugar , stirring almost constantly, while other ingredients like vanilla, cinnamon may be added for flavor. Much of the water in the milk shall evaporate and so the mixture thickens.
Here in the Philippines, I have learned to make dulce de leche from my fave chef – Connie. You just boil an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for two to three hours (shorter if using a pressure cooker), allow the cans to cool completely before opening them to have your very own dulce de leche. This may be used to flavor candies, cakes, churros, pies or even with plain old pandesal…but enough of the history, you may get the exact recipe at the CASA Veneracion blog…I just want to say that what drew me to this recipe was because it required no baking. You just have to make the crust (from graham crakers) then mix together the cream mixture. Then its assembly time - place the dulce de leche layer on top of the crust then the sliced bananas and cover it all with the whipped cream mix. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and chill first before serving…quite easy eh? Delicious too!