How To Make Sweetened Condensed Milk

If you love cooking and baking you know how often sweetened condensed milk pops up on your shopping list. This can be a huge stock up item during the holidays. If you are like me you may be likely to forget it at the store.

Sometimes I even look directly at the pallet of it in the middle of the aisle and walk right past. One day in desperation I discovered how to make sweetened condensed milk super easy and all of my recipes come out amazing with it. Now I only stock the cans if I find a sale that makes it worth it.

As the cost of everything is going up by the day having the ability to make simple things like your own condense milk or making your own butter are becoming vital skills to help keep our families fed.

What is the difference between condensed milk and evaporated milk?

When you start the process of making your own sweetened condensed milk you may be wondering what the difference between this and evaporated milk is. The truth is the only real difference is that evaporated milk does not have added sugar.

If you are in need of evaporated milk for something like a creamy mac and cheese you can use this recipe without the sugar. Otherwise, this is great for baking.

There are two ways you can make condensed milk at home. The easiest way is by using powdered milk . I for one prefer this method. If you do not have powered milk you can make your own condensed milk by evaporating the water out of regular milk and cream and then adding sugar.

Use powdered milk to make sweetened condensed milk

I prefer to make my sweetened condensed milk using powdered milk for a base. This allows me to skip the cooking down stage and whip up sweetened condensed milk in about 2-3 minutes time. Buying big boxes of powdered milk to use in our baking helps me save money and skip running out to the store because I used all of the milk on baking treats.

1 1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup hot water

Use a blender or milk frother to fully blend these ingredients. If your final result is not as thick as you would like add more powdered milk to thicken.

Sweetened condensed milk made with milk and cream

If you do not have powdered milk on hand you can still make your own sweetened condensed milk using fresh ingredients. This takes a bit more work but gets you the same creamy sweet result you get from the canned product with none of the preservatives.