Bourbon Dulce de Leche

So, here's something you're going to try some night this week.

Take two cans of sweetened condensed milk(already we're starting out well) and pour them out into a medium sized sauce pot. Now add a cup and a half of vanilla infused bourbon.

Ok, pause, here's how you make vanilla infused bourbon. Take a bottle of bourbon, add a handful of good quality split vanilla beans. Let sit for three days. Got it? Good.

Right, so after adding the vanilla infused bourbon, add three tablespoons of hazlenut oil. I've been seeing this increasingly easy to find. Most local Kroger stores I've been to has it in their cooking oil aisle. It ain't cheap, but boy is it worth it. AWESOME flavor to be added to a lot of your desserts. DO NOT fry with it, the flavor is gentle and delicate, and breaks down quickly under high heat. Buttercream frostings and ice cream though? Rock on, my friend.

Ok, so take all of this mix in the sauce pot and put over a low heat. I'd suggest adding a heat diffuser. If you're feeling fancy, a double boiler will do, if you're lazy and straight to the point, put the pot on top of a cast iron skillet(the single greatest friend to any home cook) and then put that on your burner. You're going to cook this low and gently for a while. Think 45 minutes to start(you're going to do this on a night you've got some free time). The idea is to cook the whole thing, mixing often, until it gets to the color and consistency of caramel topping. Once it's hit that point, pour out into a sealable container. It can be kept for days in the fridge, but I'll be honest, you'll be lucky if it lasts the weekend.

What do you use it for? Oh, all kinds of stuff, my friend. Makes an awesome bit of flair in any tres leches recipe(more on that some other time), and can be a phenomenal addition to various home baked cookies. But at the end of the day, I have two words for you. Words that when you combine them with this recipe, will blow your mind, shake your sanity, and bring you to a new plane of existence.

Ready?

Ice Cream.

Yeah, you're welcome. Oh, and if you want to play around with it some more, next time, instead of the vanilla infused bourbon, go with bacon infused bourbon. But that's a secret I'm not sharing yet.