It is so easy to make a healthy sweetened condensed milk substitute using less than a handful of real food ingredients. Slowly warm them in your slow cooker and use them for baking your favorite desserts!
We’ve hashed out the pie vs. cake question here before. (You know, the really big matters in life.)
And we’ve all taken our sides.
Ultimately, our family falls to the pie side. Unless cake is being served in which case we do cake “with all our might.”
So you can imagine, as I’ve traveled our food journey these last few years, how distressing it was to me that our hands-down, all-time favorite ever pie, sweet potato pie, have a can of sweetened condensed milk in it.
Now normally, I don’t see that as too big a deal. I mean it’s not like we’re eating it every day or even every week, but if you let your mind wander you might start to wonder about the ingredients in a can of sweetened condensed milk…. where did the milk come from? Is the sugar from GMO sugar beets? Is there anything nutritional left over from the cooking process?
I had the decision to make. Let it fall under the 80/20 rule or take up the challenge?
I might do the former in a pinch at other times, but on this occasion, I decided to take up the challenge. I like to torture myself like that.
The result? A homemade, maple syrup-sweetened condensed milk made with only a few ingredients, most of which not only came from this township, but my very own backyard… or front yard depending on which side of the house the cattle are grazing today. I’m so happy I can make my own vanilla pudding and hot sweet chocolate anytime with my own ingredients.
Sweetened Condensed Milk Recipes
Check out some of these recipes for using your homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk:
- Sweet Potato Pie
- Homemade Hot Chocolate
- Key Lime Pie
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
- Sweetened Condensed Milk Cake
- Peach Sherbet
- Almond Joy Fudge
- No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
Homemade Condensed Milk Dessert Recipe (Maple Sweetened)
Print Homemade Condensed Milk Maple Sweetened
- Total Time: 48 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
Ingredients
- 3 cups of milk
- 1 cup of maple syrup (or other natural sweetener such as honey or evaporated cane juice)
- ⅓ cup butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Whisk together the milk and maple syrup in a crockpot.
- Turn it on high and leave the lid off so the liquid can evaporate and reduce.
- Occasionally give it a good whisking. Whenever you remember.
- When it has reduced to about 28 ounces and thickened up, you’re all done. I eyeballed it and only had to weight it twice before I got the right amount.
- Whisk in the butter and vanilla.
- Refrigerate until you want use it.
- Prep Time: 3
- Cook Time: 45
- Cuisine: International
Enjoy!
If you’re using non-homogenized milk, the cream will rise in the fridge. Just whisk it back in before using it. The final total is equivalent to 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk. Use one now and have another on hand in the fridge for later.
This will last a couple of weeks under refrigeration. A good old-fashioned sniff check will tell you if it’s still usable.
That is brilliant to make it in the crockpot! I make it using goats’ milk and then out favorite way to eat it is in Vietnamese-style yogurt. So thick and sweet and yummy 🙂 Thanks for sharing your recipe.
-Jaime
Oo… that sounds SO.GOOD! Will be trying it for sure! Thanks 😀
I used this recipe to create the best coffee creamer ever! I have been trying since the day we brought home our cow to kick our store bought creamer habit, to no avail. I had a bunch of skim milk left over from making cream cheese and decided to use that. Figured I wasn’t out anything if it didn’t work out and the pig would love sweetened skim milk too! Well, let me tell you, it turned out amazing. I made a crockpot full so it didn’t get as thick, but it has officially added one more item to our “never buy at the store again” list! Thank you so much!
Awesome! That sounds amazing! I can’t drink coffee (but it smells so good). My husband does and when we made maple syrup he was using that in his coffee so I know he’ll like this idea. I’ll be sure to pass it along. Thanks!!
Have you ever tried freezing this?
I haven’t, but it does keep in the fridge for a couple weeks for sure. If it freezes anything like milk, it will be chunky. If that’s the case, I bet whipping it through a blender before using would take care of it. Otherwise I don’t see any issue.
I know I’d love it for lots of things! I miss the non-pasteurized cream that was as thick as mayonnaise that my mom used to buy from a farmer over 50 years ago. I might just take up regular coffee drinking and cereal eating again if this tastes like I imagine it will. .
And pleeeze tell me where to get those cute cream bottles!!!
I found that one at an antique store, but I was shopping around here a few weeks ago and saw they have lots of cute little milky bottle items. And they’re VERY reasonable!
https://www.save-on-crafts.com/search.html?keywords=milk+bottles
I got this onehttps://www.save-on-crafts.com/cratebottles.html (though I see it’s out of stock right now) cause my 5 little girls all have floral middle names- my petites fleur- and I set it on my kitchen window sill & assigned each one a little jar to put a couple of stems in when they go flower picking. Already in the dead of winter they found green ferns along with some dried foxtail. It was so good to see something green!! 🙂
Thank you so much for answering!
I could hug you….. LOL Just Brilliant!
Thank you. It’s been something I’ve always wondered about, but never tried. I am going to have to attempt this recipe. I wonder if you could freeze the extra ( we don’t use a lot of condensed milk here)?
Blessings
Renata:)
You are my hero! It's so much work to make cheese and all the other dairy products you make, so I am so proud of you for doing it! Cheese making is on my bucket list to try this year.
Well stay tuned then, because I just reviewed a copy of a friends new ebook called Cheesemaking Made Easy and it is AWESOME! When I finished my first batch of perfect mozzarella cheese I could have cried for all the hours and hours I've lost making my Traditional Mozzarella cheese. If all goes well, I should be posting about it sometime next week 😀
Have you tried canning this milk?
Sorry, I haven’t tried it yet.
So clever – thank you for sharing such a simple process!
Do you have a non dairy recipe for this?
Does this work with goat milk?
Sorry Teresa, I don't.
I'm not 100% certain Tanya, but I don't see why not. You're simply slowly reducing the milk until it has thickened. It might take longer or shorter depending on how watery the milk is.
Sorry Teresa, I don't.
Reformation Acres
Ok thanks
Reformation Acres Thanks.
I will try this, for sure! If you're looking for a source for the maple syrup, go to our website, Sillowaymaple.com, and read all about our family sugaring operation.