Did you know that you can easily make your own delicious vegan caramel sauce from a can of coconut milk?
The best vegan caramel sauce
- You’ll fall in love with the thick, creamy texture.
- Naturally gluten free, egg free, and dairy free.
- Sweet, salty, and buttery flavor, made with just 3 ingredients.
- Absolutely no corn syrup and no vegan butter. You probably already have everything you need in the kitchen pantry to make it right now!
If you’ve been looking for an easy vegan caramel recipe that tastes just as decadent as traditional caramel, this is the one to try.
The coconut milk creates a smooth and silky sauce without heavy cream, while coconut sugar imparts a rich caramel flavor.
Unlike many other caramel sauce recipes, there’s no need for a candy thermometer or complicated techniques. And no dates or condensed milk here either.
It’s perfect for dipping fresh apple slices, pouring over ice cream, iced coffee lattes, and other vegan desserts, or eating straight from the jar with a spoon.
Try it on top of Healthy Apple Pie
Step by step recipe video
I had a can of coconut cream that needed to be used, so luckily, I came across this recipe. It turned out great!!! I have it sitting in my fridge now and am doing my best NOT to eat it all. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!
Vegan caramel ingredients
From caramel apples, to grilled pineapple, to ice cream, dessert will never be the same. All you need to make the simple vegan recipe are coconut milk, sugar, salt, and optional vanilla extract.
Coconut Milk: For the creamiest and thickest caramel dip, choose full fat canned coconut milk or coconut cream. Light coconut milk, almond milk, and oat milk are tasty but yield a much thinner consistency.
Coconut Sugar: This unrefined sugar gives the homemade caramel its beautiful golden brown color and a deep, almost toffee-like flavor. You can use white or brown sugar, or pure maple syrup or agave if you prefer. Xylitol works well for a sugar free caramel.
Salt: Include a fourth teaspoon of salt to balance the sweetness of the sugar, or increase to half a teaspoon for more of a vegan salted caramel taste.
Vanilla Extract (optional): A small splash of pure vanilla extract adds yet another layer of warm flavor. It’s important to stir in the vanilla after turning off the heat.
How to make dairy free caramel sauce
Step 1: Whisk ingredients. Add the entire can of coconut milk or coconut cream, coconut sugar, and salt to a medium saucepan. Turn the heat to medium, and whisk until sugar dissolves.
Step 2: Bring to a boil. Stir occasionally until the liquid begins to boil. Once bubbling, allow the mixture to boil for about five minutes, stirring constantly and watching to ensure it does not boil over. Trust me, sticky caramel sauce on your stove top is not fun to clean!
Step 3: Turn to low. Lower the heat to a simmer, and let the liquid cook down to about half its original volume, stirring as needed to prevent sticking. This step should take around forty to sixty minutes, and the caramel will look thick and lightly golden in color when finished.
Step 4: Add the vanilla. If using, whisk in the vanilla extract after removing the saucepan from the heat, to avoid burning the vanilla.
Step 5: Cool and store. Let the plant based caramel sauce cool fully before transferring it to a covered jar or container. Refrigerate until cold, during which time it will thicken even more.
Vegan caramel is delicious drizzled over a Frappuccino Recipe
Coconut caramel FAQ
Not really. The finished sauce may possess a subtle coconut flavor, depending on the brand of coconut milk you use. However, the coconut sugar, salt, and vanilla do a great job of masking the coconut, and I rarely taste coconut when I make this.
You can absolutely use pure maple syrup or agave, and the vegan dessert sauce still thickens the same amount as with a granulated sweetener. I personally just think it tastes more like classic caramel when using coconut sugar. Completely your choice!
Light coconut milk contains more water, so you’ll get a much thinner sauce. If you do not mind, then yes it is fine to use light coconut milk or another nondairy milk.
If you are a fan of chocolate caramel, try the following variation of the recipe:
Simply whisk three tablespoons of sifted unsweetened cocoa powder into the coconut milk before heating on the stove top. It really is that easy.
Let the sauce cool, then transfer it to a mason jar or covered container. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to a week. Or freeze for up to three months and reheat in a saucepan. Note that the texture of thawed frozen caramel will never be as creamy.
The recipe below gives you a thick sauce that’s good for drizzling or spreading. It will not work to create hard vegan caramels.
It does work on caramel apples if you cook the caramel until it is super thick, not thin and runny. Wash the apples with vinegar and water to remove the wax coating that would cause the caramel sauce to slip off. Then add two coats of vegan caramel and refrigerate until ready to eat.
How do you get thick vegan caramel?
Be sure to use full fat coconut milk. Or choose coconut cream for even faster, thicker results.
If the sauce still looks thin after heating forty minutes, continue to simmer another twenty minutes or so. It will further reduce as the water evaporates.
Finally, chill the caramel in the refrigerator after cooling. Coconut milk caramel thickens as it sits. If time permits, refrigerate in a jar or container overnight for a perfectly thick, smooth sauce the next day.
Ways to use vegan caramel sauce
Drizzle it over nondairy frozen desserts, pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, brownies, or pretty much anything you can imagine. Below are four of my favorite uses for dairy free caramel.
Vegan Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 13.5 oz full fat coconut milk or coconut cream
- 2/3 cup coconut sugar (95g) (pure maple syrup, agave, brown sugar, or xylitol also work)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
- 1. Stir canned coconut milk or coconut cream, sweetener, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil.
- 2. Once boiling, whisk continuously for 5 minutes. Watch the pot to make sure it does not boil over.
- 3. Turn the heat to a simmer, and cook 45-60 minutes or until the liquid thickens and reduces to about half its original volume. Stir occasionally during this time.
- 4. Remove the saucepan from the heat, then stir in the optional vanilla extract.
- 5. Let the vegan caramel sauce cool fully before transferring it to a covered container or jar. It is perfectly fine to use right away, or you can refrigerate overnight for a thicker texture.
Video
Notes
More homemade vegan desserts
This sauce is the best! It’s so delicious! Thank you Katie!
Hi Katie I love your recipies. I’m just wondering if I were to add agar agar into the caramel sauce if it would set so I could use it in a banoffee pie? thanks
You never know unless you experiment! Be sure to report back if you do!
Hi. Thanks for the recipe. I tried it out but with coconut cream and a white sweetener and now it looks as if it’s less than half reduced. Now cooled down it’s thicker but WHITE! Shouldn’t it be brown? Please reply.
I love all things coconut, but I do not care for this coconut caramel sauce. I made it last night and included the butter and brown sugar. The color is caramel and the taste is coconut and sugar. I’m not sure if I will make this sauce again or what I might use it for. I was looking for something to dip apple slices in.
Thinking about making this, but was wondering…Could this be added to iced coffee or is it too thick?
I don’t see why not!
Jason
Soooo I tried it with iced coffee, but it didn’t mix in very well. It pretty much just solidified in the bottom of the cup.
I made another batch but only let it simmer for 20 minutes this time (I did 40 minutes before). Going to try it with my coffee again this afternoon/tomorrow morning! ?
Thank you so much for this recipe! In my quest to go without refined sugars and to be mostly dairy-free, I assumed that caramel was out of the question. But this was a great substitute! I do allow myself to have butter, so my added fat at the end was browned butter, which helped with the caramel flavor.
This also worked really well to make an easy strawberry topping by mixing about equal amounts of the caramel and Strawberry Simply Fruit (fruit juice sweetened jam). Other flavors would be good too!
Thanks again!
Please could anyone tell me if this would be thick enough to use in Banofee Pie as the caramel needs to be quite thick.
Many thanks
Anita
THIS.IS.AMAZING.
I found a recipe for coconut ice cream and then found this recipe for coconut caramel… it’s obvious where this is going.
So I made this for my coconut ice cream which I still needed to chill over night, but we had friends over and half a tub of vanilla ice cream leftovers so naturally we had to test it! (The only reason to have store bought vanilla ice cream is to smother it in sauce). These friends aren’t the “strange food” type of people so I made loads of excuses as to why I have caramel made out of coconut milk and why they should test it first. Anyway, we all ended up using almost everything on our cheap ice cream and I had to put it away before I have to make another batch for my expensive ice cream. My friend even asked for the recipe.
The next day I finished the coconut ice cream and added the caramel. During the last seconds of churning I added the last two tablespoons and it made lovely caramel swirls. The ice cream came out amazing!!
I used half agave and half honey because I wouldn’t have had enough agave for my ice cream. It turned out perfect!! However, Ionly simmered the caramel for 45 minutes because I was afraid it would burn or be bitter. But I will definitely go for the full 50-60 minutes next time. Yes, there will be a next time…and a next time, and a next time…
Katie, what sweetner did you use to get that caramel color. I’m making it now but it’s still a white color, I used E.D. Smith no sugar added syrup. Thanks
Maple syrup (pure maple syrup) or agave will give it a caramel color.
This tasted good, but I was wondering if you have any tips for making the caramel thicker/stickier? That’s how I prefer my caramel sauce. 🙂
Keep cooking longer and more of the moisture will evaporate and it gets thicker as it sits overnight as well for the same reason, if you leave it uncovered so the moisture has a place to escape.
I made this with coconut cream and it came out great!! Very yummy!
Thanks for the genius idea, Katie! I wanted to make a caramel sauce to go with apple bars, but my grocery store ran out of whipping cream, but I always have coconut milk in the pantry 🙂
For those of you who are having problems with the color, I used a half a cup of sugar (omitted the agave or honey) and cooked that over medium heat first, stirring constantly. Then I added a spoon of butter (but you can use coconut oil instead), followed by the coconut milk, and proceeded with the recipe. I only cooked mine for about 25 minutes or so, but it was on medium heat, and I constantly stirred. Absolutely divine! Thank you!
How long does this keep in the fridge?
Saw comment regarding making in Instant Pot. Would greatly appreciate instructions. Thank you.
Is there any way to modify this recipe so that it solidifies into a soft caramel versus a drippy sauce? For example, to put on cookies?
Hmm, maybe add coconut oil, which solidifies when chilled?
I had a can of coconut cream that needed to be used, so luckily, I came across this recipe. It turned out great!!! It didn’t take nearly as long–more like 15-20 minutes, perhaps since the coconut cream has a more solid consistency. I have it sitting in my fridge now and am doing my best NOT to eat it all. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!