Easy Vegan Caramel Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is vegan caramel made of? ›

The base for this 5-ingredient caramel is coconut cream, dates, and arrowroot starch, which are blended until creamy and smooth. This makes up the liquid ingredients, which are added to a bit of coconut sugar and cooked until glossy and just bubbly.

Combine brown sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan and bring ingredients to a boil. Remove thickened mixture from heat before adding (optional) vanilla extract. Let the caramel cool slightly before using. The result is an impossibly rich sauce that is guaranteed to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Like caramelization, it is a form of non-enzymatic browning. The trouble is that vegan butter does not contain milk solids and also most do not contain any significant protein. This means that straight from the container, the majority of vegan butters will not brown like non-vegan butter.

By substituting milk and butter for cream, you eliminate the need to run out and buy an extra ingredient -- you likely already have these two on hand. The resulting caramel may be thinner, but when drizzled atop your favorite dessert, you likely won't be able to taste or notice the difference.

Is caramel vegan? Because caramel is essentially just sugar, in its purest form, it is vegan. However, it is often mixed with dairy cream, butter, or milk, which is why it's important to always check the back of store-bought caramel candy.

Like regular caramel, this vegan caramel is made from a base of sugar, cream, and butter. We'll be using coconut cream instead of regular cream, and dairy free butter to keep it all dairy free since most caramel is not vegan. Then you'll need some salt and vanilla for extra flavor and that's it!

Wet caramel is made by combining sugar and a liquid and cooking them together, while dry caramel is made from just sugar, heated in a dry pan until it liquefies and browns.

What are good vegan butter substitutes? In baking, you can use vegan butter, applesauce, dairy-free yogurt, coconut oil, coconut butter, olive oil, nut butter, mashed banana and mashed avocado. In cooking, you can use olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable stock, or avocado oil to replace butter.

Applesauce. Applesauce can be used to replace regular or melted butter in a recipe. Make sure to strain out any excess liquids before you add the applesauce, though.

What is the best vegan substitute for butter? ›

Coconut oil is a delicious vegan alternative to butter as it behaves similarly to butter compared to other oils. It solidifies when cool and melts at room temperature, making it very versatile. If you use unrefined coconut oil, you can expect a more distinctive taste, but refined coconut oil is basically flavourless.

Sugar, water, salt, and milk are the base ingredients for any caramel. Can I substitute milk for heavy cream in caramel? Absolutely! You can use any milk you have at home, whether whole, non-dairy, or evaporated, to make a deliciously creamy caramel sauce.

Can sweetened condensed milk be used as a substitute for heavy cream in recipes? If so, how much would be needed per cup of heavy cream called for in the recipe? Yes, in a 1:1 ratio. However, remember that it is heavily sweetened, so you'll need to reduce the sugar accordingly.

Be careful: The milk can boil up quickly when it hits the hot caramel. The caramel can also separate because the temperature changed too quickly. Once the milk has been added, gently warm the mixture over medium heat. Whisk the mixture together and boil for 1 minute until the sauce thickens slightly.

The main ingredient in caramel is sugar. However, depending on the recipe you use, you may have to incorporate butter, heavy cream, water, or corn syrup as additional ingredients. High-quality, real caramel is always made with three basic ingredients and those are sugar, heavy cream, and butter.

The only vegan sauce option is the mocha sauce — all the other sauces are made with dairy. There is a difference between the caramel sauce and syrup — while the sauce (aka drizzle) has animal ingredients, the syrup does not.

However, not all Starbucks syrups and sauces are dairy-free, and it can be confusing. Case in point: the caramel syrup is vegan but the caramel sauce is not. Here is everything you need to know about these flavor-enhancers so you can order with confidence the next time you stroll up to a Starbucks.

​ Artificial Caramel Flavor may not be vegan. Per the FDA, artificial flavors cannot be derived from natural substances like meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy products. However, some vegans choose to avoid artificial caramel flavor since it may have been tested on animals when it was initially developed.