homemade condensed milk

Homemade Condensed Milk

I do not prefer processed foods. I prepare almost everything at home. Today´s recipe is yet another processed food that is easily available in the market. After the Maggi issue, I was too scared to buy any processed food from the store. So I started preparing everything at home. Condensed Milk which is easily available in the market. But

whenever I have milk in excess, I either prepare paneer, condensed milk or unsweetened kova at home.

Many sweets can be prepared with condensed milk very easily. We can also prepare some eggless vegetarian cakes with the help of condensed milk. I prepare sheer korma , paneer kheer  and other various other sweets from condensed milk. Hence, I always stock up on the condensed milk. Condensed Milk is very easy to prepare at home except that it is time consuming. Just put milk on the stove on a flame as low as possible. Keep stirring continuously or every 2 minutes. That is it. Your condensed milk is ready. The only extra thing that you require is lots of patience and time to prepare this condensed milk.

The best thing in the preparation of the homemade condensed milk is that we do not use baking powder or any other preservatives that is normally used in the store bought ones. There are just 2 things that we use here - sugar and milk.

Preparation

Take 3 liters of milk in a wide, thick bottomed pan. I preferred a non stick pan. But you can use a normal pan as well provided it should be thick at the bottom.

Put the flame on high until it comes to  boil. When it starts boiling, reduce the flame to as low as possible.

Keep stirring continuously. You should keep on stirring continuously because the cream should not be formed on the top of the milk. If the cream is formed on the milk then you will not get the smooth consistency of the condensed milk.

Keep stirring continuously or every 2-3 minutes until the milk becomes 1/3rd of the original quantity.

It took for me  approximately six hours for 3 liters of milk to reduce to 1/3rd. If you think you cannot spend that amount of time, you can do with less amount of milk. Say for example, if you take 1 liter of milk, it will take just two hours to prepare the condensed milk. Now, to check if we have reached the required consistency, take a small drop on the plate.

Once cool, put it between your thumb and index fingers. You should get a very light string in-between your fingers. I did not get the below photo right. But, when you pull your fingers apart, you should see a very thin and light string. It should not be a complete one-string. Do not mistake it to be one-thread consistency. It should be less than one-thread consistency. 

That is when you can switch off the flame and allow it cool. Once it comes to room temperature, you can transfer it to tins or glass jars and refrigerate it for further use. You can prepare many sweets from condensed milk like paneer kheer, sheer korma, etc. This stays good for up to a month in your refrigerator. I have used powdered rose petals for garnishing.

Ingredients

Milk 3 liters

Sugar 1 1/2 cups

Powdered rose petals for decoration

Method

1. Take milk in a wide thick bottomed pan. 
2. Keep it on high flame and bring it to a boil.
3. From the moment it starts boiling, reduce the flame and keep on stirring continuously. 
4. Make sure that no layer of cream is formed on the top of the milk to get a smooth running consistency. 
5. Keep stirring until the milk becomes 1/3rd of the original quantity.  
6. To check if the milk has come to the required consistency, take a drop of milk in between your thumb and index fingers. When you pull your fingers apart, you should be able to see a very thin string forming. It should not be a complete one-string ( not one-thread consistency ).
7. At this stage, switch off the flame and let it cool.
8. Once it comes to room temperature, transfer to tins or glass jars and refrigerate for further usage.
9. Condensed milk prepared in this way stays good for up to one month in the refrigerator.

Notes

• Stirring is compulsory to get the smooth consistency of the condensed milk. 
• Layer of cream should not be formed on the milk at any stage.