A can of evaporated milk, used to make fudge beans.
Habichuelas con dulce is a dessert from the Dominican Republic that resembles a kind of sweet soup made with mashed beans. The dish also includes milk, sugar and spices. The liquid from the beans is cooked with the rest of the ingredients in a pan until soft, after which a diced sweet potato is added to help develop the dessert’s thick, creamy texture. Ready soup can be served at room temperature, chilled, or made into ice cream. It is traditionally consumed during the Lent and Easter seasons, along with milk cookies, cassava bread, and raisins as a side dish.
Sweet beans are often garnished with raisins.
Red kidney beans are used as a base for sweet beans. The beans are soaked overnight and then boiled in water until very soft. Once cooked, the beans are placed in a blender, along with a little water if it is too thick, and blended until smooth. The resulting mash is then strained to remove any remaining husks or other particles, and the strained liquid is poured back into the cooking pot.
The next step in making the dessert is to add condensed milk, evaporated milk, and coconut milk to the beans. The color of the soup lightens considerably after adding the milk and boiling it with the liquid. Sugar and chopped sweet potato are added to the sweet beans and the mixture is reduced, giving the sweet potato a rich texture. The soup can be reduced until very thick or can be left thin for better flow, although it will thicken as it cools, especially if chilled in the fridge.
Spices can be added while the sweetness of the beans decreases. These spices are traditionally cinnamon and cloves, although the recipe tends to vary from family to family. Other ingredients that can be added are nutmeg, ginger and vanilla.
After finishing the con dulce das habichuelas and with the desired consistency, add the butter and the raisins that melt in the soup, allowing it to cool slightly. It can be eaten this way or, more often, the dessert is chilled in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. For dessert it is also usually served with milk cookies and a kind of toasted bread made with yucca. The completed mix can also be placed in a freezer or ice cream maker and frozen into ice cream.