I wanted to make everyone cog for breakfast this morning. I figured it would be an easy, tasty way to start the day and a good use of the fresh strawberries and blackberries that we had in the fridge.

Unfortunately, neither Reiver nor I had realized that there was no sweetened condensed milk in the pantry. This left me a little flummoxed. I didn't really want to go out to the shops to try to get some at 7am, but I also didn't really have any good alternatives for breakfast. Luckily, we did have lots of sugar in the pantry. And milk in the fridge. So I figured that maybe I'd just try my hand at making the sweetened condensed milk from scratch. And, honestly, it worked out pretty well!

Mine didn't come out quite as thick and syrupy as the stuff you get in the can. I suspect largely due to the fact that I was using low-fat rather than full-fat milk. It still did a nice job of sweetening the cog though and the exact consistency is not important for that, so I'm happy.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

From Bigger Bolder Baking

Ingredients

• 2 c. milk
• 2/3 c. sugar

Directions

1. Combine the milk and sugar and cook, stirring, over medium-low heat until sugar has dissolved.
2. From this point on, do not stir. Continue to simmer gently (adjusting temperature as necessary) until mixture is reduced to ~1 c. and darkened slightly.
3. Transfer to a jar and store in the fridge until ready to use.

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Variants

Non-Dairy Sweetened Condensed Milk

• 2 c. oat milk (or other non-dairy milk of your choice)
• 2/3 c. sugar