Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Vegan Caramel Sauce

I wanted to bake a dessert that called for caramel sauce, but all of the brands at the store contained dairy. What's a girl to do? Make her own!

(Note: This is a caramel sauce--not hard caramel--and is thick but pourable at room temperature. I recommend storing it in the fridge and heating it up to drizzle over ice cream, vegan cheesecake, apple slices, and more!)


1/2 c. (1 stick) Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
2 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. soy creamer or soy milk
2 T. arrowroot

Combine 1/4 cup soy creamer with the arrowroot. Set aside.

Melt the Earth Balance in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar. Add remaining 1/2 cup soy creamer. Bring liquid to a boil and boil for 4 minutes, stirring frequently.

Take the pan off the heat and immediately add arrowroot slurry. The liquid should thicken quickly.

Pour over ice cream! Or store in fridge for up to one week.

17 comments:

  1. Hi! I just found you by Googling vegan caramel sauce, and I'm so happy you're here. So happy, in fact, that I created a Blogger profile just to tell you that.

    I'm vegan, too, and I just got an ice cream maker, and I can tell by the look of your recipes that they're right in line with my standards on health vs. taste. (I'm generally a healthy eater, but I feel strongly that dessert should be dessert.) I bought Vice Cream, but since our son can't eat nuts for another year because of the allergy history in our family, it did me precisely no good.

    The caramel sauce came out great, btw. So, thanks - I'll definitely be back regularly!

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  2. Anonymous9:50 PM

    Oh yayyyyy!!! This is perfect. I'm going to use this on top of an apple pie I usually make.

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  3. This sauce is great - I think I've been craving (vegan)caramel for years now and didn't realize it until today.
    I hope you don't mind if I add you as a link on my blog - I want to remember to come back here and check out some of your other recipes!

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  4. I just tried this tonight to top some pumpkin cake I made. OH MY GOODNESS! I really had to try to stop myself from eating this stuff straight up. Thanks for this great recipe- it's definitely a keeper!

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  5. Tried this with Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine (which is vegan) and corn starch in lieu of arrowroot. Did not thicken much at all but tasted wonderful. Now, the leftovers in the fridge thickened wonderfully-as long as you don't heat it. I even drizzled some in an ice cream I made-Vanilla Almond Chocolate Chip w/Caramel. Got some arrowroot finally and I'm gonna have to use Earth Balance-the transfat content in Fleischmann's is scary.

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  6. Sadly, I found your recipe through plagiarism on www.vegweb.com Your recipe is really good! I tried it with an veganized Apple and Ice Cream Pie recipe from Cooking Light magazine and it was a smash hit! Everyone loved the caramel :)

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  7. Anonymous8:27 AM

    I just made this, and its the best stuff ever!! Im licking it off the spoon right now, I can't even wait for it to cool its so good!

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  8. I found your recipe for this on the PPK and am going to use it (eventually) to create a muffin that I have been requested to make on my blog.

    I will give credit where and when I use it, but I just wanted to let you know I am doing it, and hope it is OK.

    I'm also glad I didn't have to think of it myself!

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  9. Anonymous8:24 PM

    We made this today and it was awesome! We actually made your chocolate base from the Barack-y Road and swirled in some caramel while the ice cream was churning. Then we added some pecans and had Turtle Ice Cream! It was great. The caramel did make the ice cream consistency runnier though so next time we should add it at the last possible second.

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  10. Anonymous5:44 PM

    Well I just made this to go with my Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake brownies. Caramel sounds like a strange addition now that I think of it, but who doesn't love Caramel, I mean especially this one. It's buttery and sugary...yum. Well anyways it tastes yummy but it is so thin. But as always in my life I did not follow the directions completely. I used hemp milk instead of soy and I also used tapioca starch instead of arrowroot. So I would suggest using less nut milk? then maybe it will be thick enough? Right now I have a caramel soup, how silly.

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  11. Anonymous11:17 PM

    Very easy recipe. Instead, I used chocolate non-dairy milk. And, I incorporated ground cinnamon when I mixed in the slurry. Amazing! Try mixing it the caramel sauce with a bit of cardimon too! yum!

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  12. Mike C5:25 PM

    About to try it, can't wait. Have any of you added in any vanilla extract? I believe I've seen some recipes that call for it. FWIW, Fleishmann's is not vegan. It has whey (milk product) & Vitamin D3, which comes from sheep, I believe. I got the Earth Balance as suggested. Thanks!

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  13. Anonymous12:14 PM

    Fleishmann's has a variety that doesn't have whey (I believe the unsalted, green-labeled sticks). I don't know if it has Vitamin D3 or not.

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  14. maria4:42 AM

    Just made this recipe and the arrowroot slurry clumped up when I added it to the sauce. I think I can strain and save it, but next time I'll make sure to stir constantly when adding the slurry.

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  15. I just made this! I substituted Hazelnut milk for the soy, and used cornstarch instead of the arrowroot and added a splash of vanilla (to cover the hazelnut taste). It's dark and yummy. I am a dope and did not look at your cooking instructions, just the ingredients. So I melted the earth balance and the sugar, combined the 'milk' and cornstarch and added it when the sugar had melted. Then simmered it for more than 15 mins. It probably could have simmered longer but I took it off. I think it helped thicken it. Wonder how much thicker it could have gotten?

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  16. AWESOME SAUCE. At first I put this on the cookie dough ice cream that I made from this site. Once I realized that I was just using the ice cream as a vehicle for the caramel, I started just eating straight from the pot. :)
    Tips:
    1. I always corn starch with these recipes since I haven't been able to find arrowroot, and my local grocery store is Vietnamese. The thing about corn starch is that it will clump is you mix it with hot stuff, so wait until your ice cream base/sauce base cools to add it in.
    2. I stuck the caramel sauce base in the freezer so it would cool to prep it for the arrowroot. When I took it out about 10 minutes later it was the perfect consistency and I skipped the corn starch!
    So, in sum:
    1. Mix corn starch with cold stuff only
    2. Skip arrowroot/corn starch, put the sauce in the freezer for 10 minutes.
    3. I use cheap-o "vegetable spread" from Shop-Rite, it's totally vegan and spreads/melts really well.

    Enjoy everyone! <3

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  17. Anonymous10:42 PM

    I LOVE this recipe so I took a look at your blog. I've been living with Lyme disease and food allergies too. Thank you. I guess misery loves company but even better than that is you sharing your great recipe.

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