Nestlé La Lechera Dulce de Leche
15.8-ounce plastic squeeze bottle, $5.49
Jennifer Mastroianni: SPATULA UP
I happened upon this product in the Mexican aisle at Giant Eagle. Beats me why I even picked it up. Certainly it was not the label depicting a lady with an upside-down bucket on her head and a stack of pancakes with brown goo being poured over them.
Must have been fate. Turns out this is one of my favorite finds in recent months. It is dulce de leche, meaning “milk candy” in Spanish, and it is a rich and decadent syrup very much like caramel sauce. However, unlike caramel, which is made by heating sugar, dulce de leche is prepared by heating sweetened milk.
The sauce is sweet, creamy, and silky smooth, and is luscious as a topping and an ingredient.
Get recipes at www.lalechera.com. It’s also addictive. Heaven help us all.
Jim Hillibish: SPATULAUP
The secret’s out — Latin American sweeteners are in.
Nestlé is capturing the market, starting with its Abuelita brand Mexican baking chocolate. It differs from usual chocolate by offering a slightly bitter sweetness, a welcome change.
La Lechera (The Dairy) has produced sweetened condensed milk in Latin America since 1921. Nestlé is driving that well-known brand into new products.
La Lechera Dulce de Leche Manjar (sweet milk delicacy) adds a caramelized version of classic La Lechera condensed milk. It’s a beautiful thing, creamy liquid sweetness that mixes with milk or coffee and tops pancakes, ice cream, fresh fruit and pastries.
Dulce contains only milk and sugar and a preservative. It is sweet enough without chocolate, but in the Latino tradition, not excessively sweet. It’s a reprieve from chocolate syrup.
Nestlé smartly added a squeeze bottle. The stuff originally came canned, but who needs all that in one use? Squeeze offers 12 servings whenever and wherever you want them, maybe just a quick spoonful — liquid candy.
Also new under the same brand are Dulce de Leche Nips hard candies and a sweetened La Lechera Flakes cereal.
The Repository
