Things I Made A Year Ago

Hey guys! Now that we’re halfway through January, I thought it would be fun to have a look at the things I made a year ago, in January 2013.

January 2013 was all about making dulce de leche. Not only did I test five different methods to make the stuff, I also came up with a fast dulce de leche cheat recipe and developed half a dozen delicious dulce-de-leche-related dessert recipes!

I was kind of going through a caramel phase… Sounds familiar? Read on!

1. Caramel Apple Muffins

Give me more of that apple and caramel goodness! These huge muffins are packed with juicy apple pieces and topped with a generous drizzle of delicious homemade caramel sauce. No dulce de leche, just plain caramel. Scared of making caramel? Don’t be! It’s super easy. Just be careful not to burn yourself…

2. Dulce de Leche Brownies

These babies are soooo good I still dream about them! That’s why I’m making a salted version for Serious Eats this month… And yes, those will be on the blog too! After all, you can never have enough recipes for dulce de leche brownies.

3. Dulce de Leche Cookies with Chocolate Chips

These cookies are the best cookies in the world! They’re super big and deliciously soft. Oh, and studded with both dark and milk chocolate chunks. Got milk?

4. Mediterranean Tomato Bread with Goat’s Cheese

This bread is just super addicting. I’m telling you: it’s impossible to keep your hands off it the moment it comes out of the oven, so be warned! And wear oven mitts…

5. Dulce de Leche Made in a Pressure Cooker

If I had a pressure cooker, I’d use it to make dulce de leche every week. Sadly, I used a borrowed pressure cooker for my January 2013 dulce de leche making experiment, so I eventually had to settle on the closed can method. But if you do have a pressure cooker, use it! In my opinion, it’s the best way to make dulce de leche…

6. Garam Masala Popcorn

I don’t make popcorn very often, but when I do, I love to make this version! It’s salty, spicy and you can whip it up in five minutes. It’s actually made with the same Indian spice mix used to make Tandoori chicken.

7. Dulce de Leche Made in a Closed Can

Ever since my little dulce de leche making experiment, I haven’t made dulce de leche any other way. This method is soooo easy. Just a matter of plopping a closed can into a pan of water and boiling it for a few hours. It’s by far the easiest way to make dulce de leche and no, the can really won’t explode…

8. Dulce de Leche 10-Minute Cheat Sauce

If there’s anything my dulce de leche experiment taught me, it’s that dulce de leche is delicious. And that it takes a really long time to make it. I made this ‘dulce de leche cheat sauce’, in the hopes of coming up with a recipe for dulce the leche that only takes 10 minutes to make! But I won’t be making this stuff again 😉

9. Dulce de Leche Cake with a Dark Chocolate Glaze

This cake is crazy! The dulce de leche flavor is a subtle, but the texture of this cake is amazing! It’s super moist, with a sturdy crumb. It actually makes a really good on-the-go cake!

10. Dulce de Leche Made in a Double Boiler

If you don’t like the idea of making dulce de leche any other way, the double boiler method works fine. I prefer almost all the other methods over this one, but hey, that’s just me…

11. Dulce de Leche Made in the Oven

Personally, I think making dulce de leche in the oven is a lot more dangerous than plopping a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pan of hot water. Making a hot water bath in my oven is just not my favorite thing to do. However, as a method for making dulce de leche it works very well!

12. Dulce de Leche Swirl Ice Cream with Macademias

Every time I make this amazing ice cream it takes me back to 2011, when the Rocking and I went backpacking through Vietnam and Cambodia, where I first tasted it. The salted macademia’s in this ice cream really complement the sweet dulce de leche swirl!

13. Cheesy Pesto Soup

This soup is perfect for those cold January days. It’s loaded with veggies to fight off all those bugs that seem to be going around this time of year and to make it all yummy and delicious it’s flavored with a huge dollop of homemade cheesy pesto. Hmmm…. It’s also the only dinner recipe on the blog! What can I say? I just like sweet things…

14. Banoffee Pie Desserts

These cute little individual desserts were the first banoffee anything I ever had. You see, I was under the impression that banoffee things like pies or desserts just wouldn’t be my thing. Man, was I wrong! These little desserts are amazing… Especially made with homemade dulce de leche.

15. Dulce de Leche Made in an Open Can

Just like you can make dulce de leche in a closed can, you can make dulce de leche in an open can. It’s a little messier,  but if you’re one of those people who can’t get over the idea that a closed can will explode when submerged in a pan of boiling water (which it won’t) you can certainly give this method a go!