Cajeta on Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Cajeta is a Latin dessert delicacy which is essentially a goatsmilk caramel sauce. The key to achieving a rich brown caramel with cajeta is the use of baking soda to increase the pH balance and increase the level of the maillard reaction. This is not quick to prepare, it is time intensive and requires patience, but the results are very memorable.


The preparation is as follows... Put 4 cups goatsmilk (whole fat) into a chef's pan and place on medium heat. Separately place 1 1/2 cups sugar into a saute pan on high heat. Incorporate 1/3 cup cow's milk into the sugar at the start, then incorporate 3/4 tsp baking soda. Bring the sugar mixture to a froth (it will start to rapidly take over your whole saute pan), then remove from heat and combine with the goatsmilk. Bring the mixture to next to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. This is the tedious part ... stir occasionally (like every 2-5 minutes) for the next 60-90 minutes. What you want to avoid is scorching the mixture, so I erred on the side of caution. There might be a better way to improve the cooking time, but the outcome was perfect. My wife is a cajeta addict, and I had promised this to my little ones as a holiday treat, so everyone went to bed happy after this dessert.