Condensed Milk - Current Use

Current Use

Condensed milk is used in recipes for the popular Brazilian candy brigadeiro, in which condensed milk is the main ingredient (the most famous condensed milk brand in Brazil is Moça, local version of Swiss Milch Mädchen marketed by Nestlé), lemon meringue pie, key lime pie, caramel candies, and other desserts.

In parts of Asia and Europe, sweetened condensed milk is the preferred milk to be added to coffee or tea. Many countries in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, use condensed milk to flavor their coffee. In Malaysia, teh tarik is made from tea mixed with condensed milk, and condensed milk is an integral element in Hong Kong tea culture. In the Canary Islands, it is served as the bottom stripe in a glass of the local café con leche. A popular treat in Asia is to put condensed milk on toast and eat it in a similar way as jam and toast. In West Yorkshire, in the years after WWII, condensed milk was an alternative to jam. Nestlé has even produced a squeeze bottle similar to Smucker's jam squeeze bottles for this very purpose. Condensed milk is a major ingredient in many Indian desserts and sweets. While most Indians start with normal milk to reduce and sweeten it, packaged condensed milk has also become popular.

In New Orleans, sweetened condensed milk is commonly used as a topping on chocolate or similarly cream-flavored snowballs. In Scotland, it is mixed with sugar and some butter and baked to form a popular sweet candy called a Tablet or Swiss-Milk-tablet, this recipe being very similar to another version of the Brazilian candy brigadeiro called branquinho. In some parts of the Southern U.S., condensed milk is a key ingredient in lemon ice box pie, a sort of cream pie. In the Philippines, condensed milk is mixed with some evaporated milk and eggs, spooned into shallow metal containers over liquid caramelized sugar, and then steamed to make a stiffer and more filling version of crème caramel known as leche flan, also common in Brazil under the name pudim de leite.

In Mexico, sweetened condensed milk is one of the main ingredients of the cold cake dessert (The leading brand is "La Lechera", the local version of Swiss Milch Mädchen by Nestlé), combined with evaporated milk, Marie biscuits, lemon juice, and tropical fruit. In Brazil, this recipe is also done exchanging fruit for puddings, most commonly vanilla and chocolate, known as torta de bolacha. It is also used to make homemade dulce de leche by baking it in an oven, and to make Brigadeiro, a simple Brazilian chocolate bonbon. In Brazil, it is common to do this by baking the closed can in a bain-marie, the result being doce de leite. In Britain and Ireland, the contents of a boiled can is used as the layer between biscuit base and the banana and cream level in banoffee. In Mexico and other Central American countries, condensed milk (along with evaporated milk and whole milk) is used as a key ingredient in the popular tres leches cake desert.

During the communism era in Poland, it was common to boil a can of condensed milk in water for about three hours. The resulting product, essentially the same as dulce de leche, is called kajmak - a sweet semiliquid substance which can be used as a cake icing or put between dry wafers. It is less common nowadays, but recently some manufacturers of condensed milk introduced canned, ready-made kajmak. In Russia, the same product is called varionaya sguschyonka (translates as 'cooked condensed milk'), and the name kajmak is reserved for the product similar to the Devonshire cream. It is now widely commercially produced, and is a national favorite for the sweets fillings. Boiling the can in this way is central to the making of banoffee pie and homemade dulce de leche. In the southern US the product of boiling sealed cans of sweetened condensed milk is also called "danger pudding."