Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk now in caramel flavor

Recently while I was shopping I noticed that Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk came in 2 new flavors.  I was waiting to determine what holiday baking I was going to do before I bought the new flavors.  Lucky for me, they sent me a few cans to try out. 

If you are reading this, you probably know that I make homemade caramel several times during the year.  But if you do not, you probably end up buying the little caramel squares with the cellophane wrapper on them.  They are quicker than making it homemade but still a pain to unwrap and melt.  So I was really excited to try the canned caramel flavor sweetened condensed milk.

I have seen many recipes where people boil or steam a can of regular sweetened condensed milk to make caramel.  I understand it tastes wonderful, but worry that this can be dangerous because the can may explode.  This is a much safer method to get that delicious caramel flavor easily.  If you need your caramel thicker, you should be able to empty this into a glass bowl and cook down in the microwave. 

I decided to make my samoa cookies which use about a pound of caramel anyway.  I opened the can and in it was a nice liquid texture caramel.  No unwrapping or melting required.  What a timesaver.  But would it taste good?

I have to say it was an easy swap and the taste was fantastic.  Here's the recipe that I previously posted but modified to use Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk in caramel flavor.  The flavor was wonderful and it cut quite a bit of time out of my recipe.

Samoas Cookies copycat recipe
Makes about 4 dozen

Shortbread recipe

¼ cup	Confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup	Granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups	Unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks) refrigerated and cut into 8 to 10 pieces
2 ½ cups	All purpose flour
Dash	Kosher salt

 
Preheat oven to 325°

Place both sugars in food processor and process until very fine. 

Add butter, pulse until sugar disappears.  Add flour and salt, pulse until no dry particles remain.  (Mixture will be moist and crumbly.)   

Cookies w/hole in center

Make balls about 1 inch and place on a cookie sheets 2 inches apart.  Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass or a rolling pin.  Each cookie should be about 2” when flattened.  Using the back of a round wooden spoon, make a small circle in the middle of the cookie.  My circles were about ½ to ¾”.   Optionally you can try to roll out this dough…but it can be difficult to roll out nicely. 

Bake 20-25 minutes until pale golden.  Remove from cookie sheets; cool completely on wire racks. 

 

Topping recipe:

·       2 ½ cups          Shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted

·       1  can               Eagle Brand caramel flavored sweetened condensed milk

·       Dash                Kosher salt

·       ½ lb.                Dark or semisweet chocolate chips

·       1-2 tbsp           Shortening (such as Crisco)

·       4 dozen           Shortbread cookies

To toast the shredded coconut, put it in a large frying pan on medium to low heat.  Stir the coconut until it is toasted.  Do not look away or it goes from perfect to burned in seconds.  Remove from heat and place on a plate to cool.  See the video for easy instructions.   

 

Pour the caramel into a medium sized bowl, then stir the toasted coconut into the caramel. 

Gently spread the caramel/coconut mixture on top of your cookies.   

Melt the chocolate chips and shortening in the microwave 15 seconds at a time, stirring well after each interval.  When the chips are almost melted, remove from the microwave and stir, using the residual heat to melt the remaining chips.  DO NOT OVERHEAT or you will ruin your chocolate. 

Bottom of cookie dipped in chocolate.
Top has caramel/coconut, then
 drizzled with chocolate

Now, be prepared to get messy.  Spread some of the chocolate on a plate.  Hold the cookie on the edges and dip the cookie into the chocolate to cover the entire bottom.  Place the chocolate cookie on either parchment paper or a Silpat.  Continue with the remaining chocolate.  (Do not discard the remaining chocolate as you will use it in a few minutes.)  If your kitchen is really hot, you may want to put the cookies in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

Use the remaining melted chocolate to drizzle over top of the cookies once they're all dipped. We used a fork to drizzle uneven strokes of chocolate on the top of the cookie.  Let the chocolate harden and enjoy.  Store in an air tight container for up to a few days.