How we make Cajeta or “Mexican Candy” at the Freedom Farm.

As it currently stands we are not even close to being totally self-sufficient for our food. Every couple of weeks, infuriated with giving my money to supermarket corporations, I go through the shopping list and figure out what else I can replace with homemade. Just this week in fact I learned to make my own yoghurt with the milk from our goats and chickpeas. 

Something that I’ve struggled to replace however, is chocolate and chocolate biscuits. A great many cups of tea are consumed daily and so the demand for chocolate biscuits is high.They’re expensive, unhealthy, and chocolate is a non-local imported product from the other side of the world. So, despite the fact that I love them, I kinda hate them. What could I possibly make on the farm that can compete with biscuits?

Enter Cajeta, also known as “Mexican Toffee”, there are now very few of our friends and neighbors who would still rather have a chocolate biscuit when the cajeta jar is on the table. Cajeta is very similar to Dulce de Leche, which is made from boiled cows milk, but of course Cajeta is the goats milk version. You heat the milk but the bicarbonate of soda prevents it from boiling, very slowly it condenses into a thick delicious caramel-like sauce.

It is sweet and creamy, we eat it like Nutella and spread it on things. It goes particularly well with the classic Spanish biscuit called a “Maria“, not unlike the British digestive they are relatively inexpensive and are symbolic of socialism and resistance to facism- so you know we love them! 

Once you’ve got the hang of making Cajeta you will start incorporating it into everything. We especially enjoy it in our homemade yoghurt, porridge, and rice pudding, in milkshakes and on toast and pancakes. 

Here’s my Cajeta recipe. 

Ingredients

1 litre of whole goats milk.

100g of sugar.

¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.

⅛ teaspoon salt.

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients and heat gently for 15min until all the sugar is dissolved.
2. On a medium-high heat stir frequently for 45min until thick and golden.
3. Store Cajeta for up to three months in the fridge.

Tips: 

1. Like making jam you want to wait for the desired consistency.
2. The Cajeta will thicken as it cools so stop cooking before desired thickness is reached.
3. Keep cooking until it’s super thick and you’ll get a product like toffee that you can cut into cubes. 
4. Add a little bit of milk to thin your cajeta if it gets too thick.