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Do you have a sweet tooth? Then here's three reasons to love sweetened condensed milk :- fudge, ice cream & key lime pie. Sweetened condensed milk is made by condensing sweetened fresh milk by half of its volume. It can be stored for up to 2 years which makes it a handy addition to the pantry. Years ago I was sharing a house with friends and we ran out of milk for our hot drinks, a housemate opened a can of sweetened condensed milk and we could all still have our tea & coffee. That was my introduction to sweetened condensed milk and my pantry always has it in it.

Fudge is a quick and simple sweet to make especially at Christmas when you want something to give to teachers or children's friends. My simple no-fail fudge recipe requires one can of sweetened condensed milk, a bag of chocolate chips and teaspoon of vanilla. Place the sweetened condensed milk and the chocolate chips into a saucepan and gently heat until the chocolate is all melted and the liquid is smooth. Take off of the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour the mixture into a greased pan and allow to cool before cutting into pieces. Once you have mastered that basic recipe you can make it your own by adding all sorts of different things such as chopped up cherries, sultana's or nuts. These additions should be made while stirring in the vanilla.

A very yummy desert we have in our house is easy peasy ice cream, once again we take a can of sweetened condensed milk to this we add 600ml cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Basically you just beat these together until the mixture is thick and creamy then you pop into a container and pop in the freezer for 1-2 hours. After this take it out and give it a good stir then pop back into the freezer for a few hours before you eat it. I have made a lot of variations to this ice cream, the first one being orange choc chip. After we moved to this country my husband discovered that you couldn't buy his favourite ice cream flavour. His birthday present was home made orange choc chip ice cream and he loved it. After beating the sweetened condensed milk & cream (I added orange essence instead of vanilla) I stirred through choc chips and popped in the freezer as usual.

Now for an easy key lime pie, surprise surprise you'll need a tin of sweetened condensed milk! You will also need a packet of digestive biscuits, 1/3 cup of melted butter, cup of lime juice and some whipped cream. First get a rolling pin and smash that packet of digestive biscuits, it's a really effective anger management move, once your digestives are reduced to crumbs (you can use a food processor if you prefer) then add the butter, mix and press the mixture onto the bottom of your pie dish. Pop the crumb lined dish into the freezer while you get out the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk and mix them together. Retrieve your pie dish and add the lime mixture to the top and pop in fridge to set. Once it's set you can either add the whipped cream on the top or just serve a dollop with each slice. Generally if I have visitors I will cover the pie with cream, whereas if it's just for the family we'll add our own amount of cream to our bowls.

There are so many other delicious dishes you can make with sweetened condensed milk like my requested every Christmas rum balls and the Christmas chocolate truffles that I keep meaning to try. Unfortunately this is an article not an entire cook book so I'll leave you to try the top three sweetened condensed milk recipes. Whilst you're enjoying them thank Mr Gail Borden who was the first person to take out a patent for sweetened condensed milk way back in 1856.

Learn more about this author, Louanne Cox.
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