Leche asada

Leche Asada

I feel bad to have disappeared for such a long time. Thankfully, I have my heavy travel schedule to blame for it. I’m happy to be back and even happier to share with you a recipe discovered and cooked by Melina.

Just before I left for my travels, I helped my daughter with her World Thinking Day project. Every year on February 22nd, Girl Scouts celebrate global friendship by participating in activities that help connect with their sister scouts in the world, discover their own values in friendship, empower themselves in knowledge and take action when needed. My daughter’s group is researching Peru. She used Choosito! (exciting search engine for schools) to learn about Peruvian food. She picked her favorite dessert, cooked it, and made a movie to share and contribute to the group’s presentation. It was a lot of fun to take a video of her presenting her recipe and then teach her how to video-edit the movie for her presentation. You’ll have to excuse the low resolution photo. It’s been captured from the movie.

Have your kids make this very easy and yummy dessert. Even better, have them learn about Peru or other countries whose recipes you love. Leche asada means baked milk in Spanish and it was a big hit in our family. Way to go, girl! Thank you for engaging us in such cool projects. I had fun learning about Peru.

Ingredients

1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 eggs, beaten
1 cup water

How to make: In a big bowl, mix the condensed milk, evaporated milk, ½ cup of sugar (less or none if the condensed milk is heavily sweetened), vanilla and eggs. To make the caramel, put 1/4 cup water in a pan and add 1/2 cup sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Keep stirring until the liquid becomes bubbly and light brown. Pour the caramel in a glass container. Pour the milk mixture on top. Place the glass container in a bigger dish and add the 3/4 cup water. Bake at 400°F for 30-45 minutes or until the center is wobbly but firm. When it’s cooled off, turn it upside down and let it slide on a serving dish. Keep it in the refrigerator.

Credits for the recipe go to the Peruvian recipes wikia site.

Notes and tips: There’s even simpler versions of this dessert. You can skip the caramel and just pour the milk mixture in a baking dish and bake it in the oven. Let the top brown.

Update: January 26th, 2014

We made the leche asada again today and finally got a photo! Not sure if there’s an easy way to get the bubbles out. It’s not easy to tap the pot because it’s up to the rim and the liquid really runny. Bubbles or no bubbles, it’s a great dessert!