Heladitos de Tres Leches con Crema de Coco (Three Milks with Coconut Cream Ices)

The kids love it and it's EASY and QUICK to make.  You just have to wait a few hours so they can freeze.  But prepping is a breeze.  

What you need: 

1 can of cream of coconut

1 can of evaporated milk

1 can of coconut milk

1 cup of whole milk (you can also use heavy cream)

4 cinnamon sticks

1 table spoon of whole cloves

Blender!

What to do:

Add all your liquid ingredients to your blender and mix

1 cup of whole milk

Mix

Once you have mixed everything well, add about 2 cups of your mixture into a pot and heat on medium (do NOT boil)

Add your cinnamon sticks and cloves to the pot and heat for about 10-15 minutes so that all the flavors soak into the mixture

Drain the mixture in the pot back into the mixture in the blender and mix all together again

Pour into shot glasses 

Sprinkle cinnamon powder to garnish

Popsicle sticks are optional (insert your popsicle sticks about an hour after your shots have been in the freezer or until the shots are hard enough so that the sticks stay up).

Once frozen, they are ready to eat.  ENJOY!  Buen Provecho!

Locrio de Salchicha (mixed rice with vienna sausages) Estilo Dominicano

What you need: This amount serves my family of 2 adults, 2 teens, 1 toddler and 1 six year old... AND THEN SOME

Caldero (this rice tastes best when cooked in a caldero); you can order from amazon
1/3 cup of sofrito (How to make basic sofrito is in my first Blog for June 2014)
4 cans of Vienna Sausages
2-3 links of sweet sausages (optional)
1/2 cup of Canola or Vegtable oil
1/2 teaspoon of vinegar
2 packs of sazon with Achote and culantro (found at any super market in the goya section)
5 1/2 cups of rice
6 cups of water

Remove your salchichas from the can and rinse

Chop them up in about 1/2 inch sizes

Cut up your sausage

Heat up your caldero

Add the 1/2 cup of oil to the pot

Cook your sausage on Medium high

Add your vienna sausages/salchichas to the same pot right on top of the sweet sausage

Add your sazon/seasoning 

Mix everything up

While that is cooking; wash your rice and add to caldero (pot) once all cleaned up

Since we are cooking 5 1/2 cups of rice, add 6 cups of water to the pot; cook on high

The rice will start to dry

Once you see that the water has evaporated; cook on low and cover up for 1/2 hour

After a 1/2 hour, turn your rice over (mix up) so that the rest of it can cook

Serve; ready to eat

This dish is excellent with a scoop of bean stew right on top

Tres Leches Cake

The Trest Leches Cake is a sponge cake soaked in 3 kinds of milks (evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream).  

What you need:

Step I

Cake: 

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

5 large eggs

3/4 cup of sugar (for one part)
1/4 cup sugar (for second part)

1/3 cup of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (preferably dominican vanilla extract)

Add your all purpose flour in a mixing bowl

Add your baking powder to the mixing bowl

Add Salt to the mixing bowl

Mix dried ingredients and set aside

In another mixing bowl (in the mixer) add your egg yolks and 3/4 cup of sugar

Turn mixer on medium to high speed until you have a sort of pasty look to the eggs and sugar

Turn off mixer and add milk in the mixer

Add vanilla extract

Turn mixer on again on medium to high speed

Once it's all mixed, add to the dry mix of flour that you just set aside

Wisk and set aside

In another mixing bowl (or you can just wash the one you just used for the egg yolks like I did) add your egg white and the remaining sugar (1/4 cup) to the mixing bowl.

Turn mixer on high

Mix on high until you get a fluffy look to the mix

Combine both batters and mix together

Pre - heat oven to 350 degrees

I use a 9inch round baking non stick pan

Pour batter into baking pan

Bake for 35-40 minutes

Once cake is done, let it sit and cool for about 20-30 minutes.

In the meantime... get started on this: 

Step II

Tres Leches Mix: 

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1 can of condensed milk 14oz

1 can of evaporated milk

Mix all the ingredients and set aside for use once the cake has cooled down.

Step III

Icing: 

3 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of dominican vanilla

1 pint of whipping heavy cream

1 tablespoon of confections sugar

Pour the confections sugar in a mixing bowl

Add other ingredients to the mixer

Turn mixer on high

Icing should look like the below

Step III - soaking the cake

Remove the cake from the bake pan

Pour the tres leeches liquid right on top of the cake so that it can absorb in the cake

Let it sit for about 1/2 hour until it is soaked in; some of the liquid will be on the pan, that's ok

Step IV

Put your icing on refrigerate and serve cold... Enjoy the sweetness