Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk
Make your own homemade sweetened condensed milk and you'll know exactly what goes into it!
So why would anyone want to go to the trouble of making their own homemade sweetened condensed milk? After all, there are only two ingredients in a can of store-bought SCM: milk and sugar. Pretty harmless, no?
Not so fast.
True, it's probably less detrimental to your health than most canned food. But it's still not all that healthy. Here's why:
1) You don't know the origin of the milk. It most likely came from cows fed GMO feed, raised in confinement and given hormones.
2) The sugar, unless it is specifically stated as cane sugar, is most likely from GMO sugar beets. 95% of sugar beet crops in the US were GMO in 2010 (source).
3) Most cans are lined with BPA to stop corrosion.
Besides, it's kind of fun to make! Yes, you do need to keep an eye on the stove for 2 hours, but you only need to stir it every 15 minutes or so.
What do you think? Are you concerned about consuming canned food? Do you care about GMOs?
Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk
This homemade sweetened condensed milk recipe calls for just 3 ingredients and some time on the stove!
Ingredients
- 1 liter of whole milk
- ¾ - 1 cup sugar I used cane sugar, of course
- 1 tablespoon butter to thicken milk I forgot this, and it still turned out fine
Instructions
-
1) Place the milk and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 2 hours or until the milk is reduced by about half. Stir every 15 minutes or so to keep the milk from burning.
-
2) Strain through a fine-mesh sieve if desired and stir in the butter. Store in the refrigerator until needed.
Recipe Notes
adapted from Just as Delish
Ive used this recipe plus some vanilla and almond extracts (homemade) and some milk to cut the sweetness and made my own version of coffee creamer 🙂 delightful and thankyou
Can you make a sugar free version or at least less sugar?
I'm sure you could reduce the sugar - the finished product might be thinner. You could also sub maple syrup or stevia (though I dislike the aftertaste of stevia). You could leave the sugar out entirely, but then it would be more like evaporate milk. 🙂
My goodness, by the time you pay a power bill on 2 hours with of cooking time, you could buy several cans for what you paid to use the power to make it! And wouldn't have to be bothered with the effort!
We live on a mini farm and have tons of extra goat's milk. I am always looking for ways to use it up. Regardless of your opinion on GMOs, using real food that has not been processed and sold in a store is a major plus for health and so many other reasons. Worth every penny of electricity or gas it may cost me to make this. BTW, I have heard you can use Maple syrup and honey to make this as well. We have bees so the honey will be my next project to make this recipe. Nothing like having food that is completely from our farm. Thank you so much.
Great idea to use maple syrup or honey! That's so cool that you could have completely home-grown sweetened condensed milk. 🙂
I stumbled upon this post and applaud you for your desire for home-made goodness. After reading the comments...can I just say 3 things to future readers of this comment thread?
If you support GMO's...(and I don't say this arrogantly...I say it to spur you on to research it for yourself)
1) You have not done your research on healthy eating (food that actually acts as medicine...not poison).
2) You are ignorant to the fact that GMO's don't work (as far as helping end world hunger).
and/or
3) You have never had cancer. (and as far as the golden rice and beta-carotene debate...I don't know anything about it...but it's irrelevant because GMOs kill far more Americans than I'm sure the golden rice is supposedly saving...) Know someone with breast cancer? Thank GMO's.
America....let's open our eyes to truth and not lies.
Erica...I appreciate (x1000) all your hard work in formulating recipes that are healthy.....because substituting healthy ingredients is not always as easy "as 1,2,3" and I appreciate your honest and humble insight. Keep doing what is right.
Aw, thank you so much for your kind comment! It is definitely encouraging to me. 🙂
Thank you for the recipe, I will try it, but I have an issue with the mixed metric/imperial measurements. 1L milk 1 cup sugar? Should be liters and grams OR Quarts and cups. 🙂
Sorry about that! If you prefer, you can use a scant 4 1/4 cups of milk.