Pastillas De Leche

Pastillas de leche literally means milk bars, pills, or tablets. I'd go with the bars, as in chocolate bars They are teeny tiny, usually less than 1 inch long and ½ inch thick, made with fresh milk, sugar, a little butter, and powdered milk, and optional natural fruit flavoring such as purple yam (ube) and jackfruit. The original candies were made with carabao's (water buffalo) milk which has a higher fat content than cow's milk. I made it a few times before. This time I ended up making 3 batches because the first was a complete fail although I rescued it and made it into milk caramel spread. The second one is plain milk and I added Milo malt drink powder into the third batch.

Philippine Pastillas De Leche (Soft Milk Bars)

makes about 20 candies

plain milk and with Milo malted milk pastillas de leche


2 cups fresh whole milk (do not use reduced fat milk)

1½ tablespoons sugar

1½ teaspoons butter

3 - 4 tablespoons whole milk powder

2 tablespoons sugar for rolling

• Boil milk and 1½ tablespoons sugar over medium low heat to a paste, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. (This takes about 45 minutes.)
• Remove from heat and add butter. Stir well; sprinkle milk powder and blend well. Let cool slightly, transfer onto a work surface and knead a few times until smooth.
• Divide in half and roll each half into a ½-inch thick rope. Cut into 10 pieces. Roll in sugar and wrap each candy in tissue paper.

The first batch developed a caramel color and curdled, probably because I used a small thin-bottomed saucepan. I didn't throw it away because it tastes so good. I like that it has very little sugar, much better than the super sweet condensed milk caramel (dulce de leche). I used a hand blender to make the spread very smooth. Perfect topped on breakfast toast.