{Cajeta Recipe} How to Make Goat Milk Caramel Sauce! (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between cajeta and caramel? ›

What is the difference between cajeta, caramel, and dulce de leche? The difference between cajeta and other caramel sauces such as caramel and dulce de leche is that cajeta is made out of goat's milk whereas most others are usually made out of cow's milk.

What Is Cajeta? Just like dulce de leche, cajeta is a thick, sweet confection made from boiled milk—goat's milk in the case of cajeta, and cow's milk in the case of dulce. And, just like its cousin, cajeta is almost universally described as "Mexican caramel." On the surface, that makes sense.

The baking soda neutralizes the milk's pH levels and makes cajeta smooth. It also assists with the Maillard reaction, the browning of amino acids with sugars to create caramel. The cajeta can be refrigerated for up to 1 month; after that it starts to crystallize.

Add more sugar to the sauce.

Most caramel sauces are made by caramelizing sugar and adding milk and a little salt. If you increase the amount of sugar in the recipe you'll end up with a thicker caramel. Try increasing the sugar by about 1/3.

Add heavy cream.

Heavy cream has a higher fat content than regular milk, so when the fat combines with the sugar in the caramel sauce, it thickens.

You may want to warm it up slightly before serving, as cajeta tends to get a bit grainy as it sits.

Caramel can be produced in so many forms such as, sauce, a chewy candy, or a hard candy because of how much of an ingredient is added and the temperature it is being prepared at.

Cajeta is a beloved traditional Mexican sweet that deserves to be on more supermarket shelves across the entire United States. Essentially, it's a caramel sauce made from sweetened goat's milk that has been cooked down until thick, gooey, darkened, and delicious.

Once the sauce is properly canned, it will keep in a cool, dry place for about months. Once it's opened it should be refrigerated and will keep for up to a month.

If it's too thin, continue simmering; if it's too thick, stir in a little water. (The slower this final simmering goes, the darker the cajeta.) Strain into a storage container. Once cool, store tightly covered in the refrigerator for a month or more.

Can you use dulce de leche instead of cajeta? ›

Cajeta is a Mexican version of “dulce de leche”. The only real difference between the two is that cajeta is made from goat's milk rather than cow's milk. Since goat's milk has a tangier flavor than cow's milk, I find that the cooked down sugary version is less cloyingly sweet and has a more interesting aftertaste.

The purpose of baking soda in the caramel is to react with the acidic ingredients (brown sugar, cream of tartar, and corn syrup), which creates tiny carbon dioxide air bubbles. You'll notice the caramel froths up when you add it.

Mix brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt together in a heavy 2-quart saucepan over medium heat; stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Stop stirring, and boil mixture for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla until well combined.

Here's how to make soft caramel harder: Put the caramel back in the pot, add 2-3 tablespoons of water, and remelt the caramel. Cook the caramel until it reaches the correct temperature, and pour it back into a foil-lined pan.

To thin caramel, just add some cream or water over heat. Melt caramel loaves in the oven. You can also add corn syrup or lemon juice to caramel sauces to prevent them from crystallizing.

When making a wet caramel, water is added to help dissolve the sugar before cooking. Like dry caramel, you want to gently move the sugar mixture in that same side-to-side paintbrush-like fashion until the sugar dissolves.

The caramel sauce will look very liquid as it cools, but it hardens to a perfect spoon-friendly consistency in the refrigerator. I use it straight out of the fridge to dip apples, drizzle it on desserts, and if I let it sit out 5 minutes, it's the perfect consistency to use in hot chocolate or homemade caramel lattes.