Vegan Salted Caramel Sauce

A few years ago, I attended my first Northwest Chocolate Festival. It’s an annual event here in Seattle. At the time I wasn’t a huge fan of chocolate, but I went because I love to bake and I wanted a better sense of the finer points of it so I could do a good job when I bake for other people. I sat at the culinary stage all weekend, learning some tips and tricks.

Autumn Martin, the mastermind behind Hot Cakes, took the stage. She did a demo on making caramel and DIY cold-smoking chocolate. (When I tried that at home, I scared the crap out of my dog, but that’s a different story!) While I was still learning to like chocolate, I already knew that I LOOOOOOOOOOVED caramel. I was super surprised to learn how easy it is to make. I was especially thrilled when she mentioned that you can easily substitute coconut milk for heavy cream, thereby making the caramel vegan. While I’m not vegan, I have a number of friends who avoid dairy and I like to have something special for them when they come over for dinner.

Autumn recommended swapping heavy cream with luscious coconut milk, thereby transforming the caramel into a heavenly vegan delight. you can use coconut milk or coconut cream as a delightful substitute in your salted caramel recipe. The rich and creamy texture of coconut milk beautifully mimics the luxuriousness of heavy cream, while adding a subtle tropical note to your caramel creation. While I may not follow a vegan lifestyle personally, I cherish the opportunity to delight my dairy-avoiding friends with special treats during our shared dinners. Instead of heavy cream,

The secret in the sauce

One thing I learned is that any recipe that instructs you to merely melt butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup together, this does not genuinely yield caramel! Caramelization can only occur when sugar is applied to heat. It’s the process of browning the sugar that gives it that rich caramel flavor. The process of gently browning the sugar is what allows the genuine caramel flavor to develop. When it comes to caramel: accept no substitutes, and embrace the magic born from the alchemy of sugar and heat.

As the heat is applied to the molecule, it makes the atoms move faster. In room temperature, the sucrose is still slightly moving, but still standing in one place. The heat causes  the atoms to be more freely flowing and turn into a liquid. The force of the heat and the moving of the atoms becomes stronger than the force that holds together the atoms. These break apart and come together to form the caramel. The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars. It typically happens when head is raised rapidly from 140 to  165 °C. This happens at a lower temperature than caramelization, but it is what gives it its brown color.

– The Chemistry of Caramel

It helps to warm the coconut milk for a minute in the microwave so that it’s about room temperature. This way, it is less of a shock to the caramel and helps prevent the sugar crystals from seizing up. A glass measuring cup for liquids works great for this task. The coconut milk should be lukewarm/room temp, not hot or boiling. Be sure to use canned coconut milk, because it’s thicker and more like heavy cream. Boxed coconut milk WILL NOT work for making caramel sauce because it’s too thin. Some grocery stores carry something called coconut cream, but it can be pretty expensive and I don’t think it’s necessary for this recipe.

I prefer using my heavy-bottom Revereware 4-quart soup pot with spouted sides for making caramel. The light color of the stainless steel allows me to see where I am in the caramelization process, and the spouted sides make it easy to pour into a jar when I’m finished. Some people prefer to use pans that don’t have any corners so that the sugar doesn’t have anywhere to collect and “hide” during the cream integration process. Experiment and figure out what works best for you.

If you are using an electric stovetop, let your pot heat up a bit before adding the sugar. If you’re using a gas stovetop, you don’t need to wait. If the sugar starts clumping where you’re trying to incorporate it into the melted caramel, you’re adding too much of the dry sugar at a time; try incorporating a bit less. As more of your sugar melts and caramelizes, you can mix in more of the dry sugar. It’s about keeping the proportion of melted-to-dry sugar weighted more toward the melted.

I recommend pouring the caramel sauce into a glass jar for storage. It keeps in the fridge extremely well. You can pour it directly from the chilled jar, or heat it in the microwave to make it extra smooth.

This caramel sauce has been called “liquid gold” by the people I’ve given jars to as gifts. Just sayin’, this makes a great gift for birthdays, graduations, or holidays! No one has ever been unhappy getting this from me.

Vegan Salted Caramel Sauce

Recipe by Molly Colleen

0.0 from 0 votes

Difficulty: Medium

Yield (in pints)

1

pint

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Total time

20

minutes

Indulge in the irresistible sweetness of this vegan salted caramel sauce. This dairy-free delight is the perfect blend of creamy caramel and a hint of savory salt. Drizzle it over your favorite desserts, from ice cream to brownies, or use it as a dip for fresh fruit. With this easy-to-follow recipe, you can create a delectable vegan treat that will satisfy your cravings while staying true to your plant-based lifestyle. Prepare to experience pure caramel bliss like never before!

Cook Mode

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Ingredients

US Metric

• 2 cups sugar (divided)

• 2 cups coconut milk (1 13oz can)

• 1 tsp sea salt

• Optional

• 1 whole vanilla bean

Directions

• (Optional) If using vanilla beans, split the vanilla bean lengthwise, and scrape the seeds into a small dish. Set aside.
• Pour your coconut milk into a microwave-safe container and warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds – 1 minute. Set aside.
• Pour 1 c. sugar into the pot you are using, and shake to even the surface. Leave it alone (no stirring!) and let the sugar crystals start to melt around the edges.
• Once the sugar starts melting, use a wooden spoon or silicon spatula to stir the melted areas and slowly start incorporating the unmelted sugar crystals into the melted sugar. Keep the sugar moving so that it doesn’t burn, and only incorporate a little bit of unmelted sugar at a time.
• When all of the crystals from the initial cup of sugar have melted into a smooth amber liquid, add a bit of sugar from the remaining 1 c. and stir to incorporate. Continue adding sugar just a bit at a time, stirring constantly and letting the crystals melt completely before adding more. Do this until all the sugar is gone, then remove the pot from heat.
• Slowly stir in a small amount of coconut milk (approximately 1 Tbsp) while stirring continuously. DO NOT STOP STIRRING until the small amount of coconut milk is fully incorporated. The caramel sauce will bubble and hiss when you pour in the coconut milk, and will continue doing so until that bit of coconut milk is fully incorporated. Continue adding small amounts of coconut milk in this way until the caramel sauce receives the coconut milk without bubbling or hissing. At this point, you may stir in the rest of your coconut milk and whisk to fully combine.
• Stir in the vanilla beans (if using), and salt.
• Let cool, then pour into an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator. Reheat if necessary for use.

Notes

• I recommend pouring the caramel sauce into a glass jar for storage.
• You can use as little as 1/4 tsp salt if you don’t like salted caramel.
• The vanilla beans are optional; they add a little flavor, and make the sauce very pretty, but they are not necessary. You can skip them if they’re a little too pricey for your taste. If you still want a bit of vanilla taste, you can add up to 1 Tbsp vanilla extract to stir in at the end.
• This recipe can easily be halved.

Equipment

• Wooden spoonBuy at Amazon
• Liquid measuring cupsBuy at Amazon
• Cooking potSearch at Amazon

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