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This Paleo Caramel Sauce is made with coconut milk and coconut sugar for a delicious, silky smooth sauce that’s refined sugar-free and vegan! It’s perfect as a Paleo substitute for caramel sauce in any recipe.
Today I have something delicious to talk about: caramel sauce. Normally a sugar-filled event, right? But this one has NO refined sugar. Instead, I subbed one of my new favorite ingredients: coconut sugar.
The more I bake with coconut sugar, the more I like it. It seriously performs so similarly to granulated sugar, but it tastes more like a strong brown sugar. I’ve found that I can usually substitute it in recipes as a substitution for both the granulated sugar and the brown sugar and it works out pretty darn wonderfully.
It has a caramelized flavor naturally, and it just so happens that that flavor works absolutely perfectly when you’re making caramel. This recipe is a little different than a traditional caramel sauce recipe where you first melt and caramelize the sugar and then add the heavy cream. That process usually takes less than 10 minutes.
Instead, for this recipe, you combine the coconut milk and coconut sugar and cook them down into a thick caramel sauce. This version of making caramel takes a little bit longer, about 30-35 minutes. But, it’s more hands-off and way less stressful.
I added a scraped vanilla bean to the caramel for a hint of delicious vanilla flavor to my caramel sauce. A similar flavor could be achieved with vanilla extract, but you won’t get the gorgeous vanilla bean specks in your caramel! If you don’t want to splurge on a vanilla bean to use in this recipe, vanilla bean paste works great. One jar will last you a while.
Whip up a batch of this caramel and eat it with some ice cream, or with some ice cream. Be sure to save some though – I have a delicious recipe using this caramel coming at you on Wednesday! I can’t wait to share it. It’s to die for! For now, enjoy the paleo caramel sauce!
Drizzle your vegan caramel sauce on…
- Gluten-Free Vegan Brownies
- Paleo Apple Crumble Pie
- Paleo Vegan Pumpkin Pie
- Gluten-Free Vegan Apple Crisp
Paleo Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 14 oz. can full-fat coconut milk
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ½ vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon flaky sea salt or ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine the coconut milk and coconut sugar. Scrape the insides of the vanilla bean and add the seeds and pod to the mixture, if using.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Once boiling, turn the heat to low and let the mixture boil slowly. Stir frequently, scraping the bottom to make sure it doesn’t burn. Continue boiling until caramel has reduced and thickened to thick, syrupy texture, about 30-35 minutes. Remember that the caramel will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Remove from heat and stir in oil, salt, and vanilla extract if using. If you used the vanilla bean, remove the pod and discard.
- Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally to keep the fat incorporated. Pour into a glass container.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Hiii, will definitely try it, but is it ok to not use the salt, i made a date cake and want to drizzle it on top would they match taste wise, and for the coconut oil should i melt it first.
Thanks
Hi Roro, you can definitely skip the salt if you’d prefer. For the coconut oil, it doesn’t matter! It will melt when it hits the caramel either way.
Hi Rachel, I cooked it for about 40 minutes and it seems pretty thin.. I kept it at a low boil. Any advice on how to thicken it up? I haven’t refrigerated it yet but it’s cooled to room temperature
Thank you,
Jenine
Hi Jenine, it will definitely thicken as it cools, but it should’ve been boiling for a while, so if the heat was on too low to be steadily boiling, it may be that not enough of the liquid evaporated. Hopefully, it will be thick enough once it cools! If not, you can always add back into the pan and cook for a little longer, or even add to big bowl and microwave for a few minutes. Hope this helps!
I made it twice now and my boyfriend and i love it now the second batch i used orange zest i enjoy it
Orange zest sounds like a delicious addition! Thanks for the tip, Kristin.
One of my biggest pet peeves when searching for reviews is seeing 5 star rated reviews by people who think it looks good but have not yet made it. So, as a person who has indeed made this, I am giving it a legit 5 stars. This sauce is even better than it looks and thickened up beautifully. I use it for my coffee as I don’t like all the icky ingredients in the store bought options. Next time I may double the recipe since I’ll be using it daily. Thanks for sharing this decadent caramel syrup recipe with us!
Thank you so much for the feedback and review, B! It’s much appreciated and I’m so glad you loved the recipe.
What does the coconut oil do to the recipe? What would coconut butter do?
It adds the same kind of richness that butter would add to caramel, coconut oil should work fine though too!!
Worked well, though in the future I will cut the salt to 1/4 tsp. I used kosher salt. I also added a tsp of molasses and substituted 1/2 tsp vanilla extract for the vanilla bean
Thanks for the feedback, Jennifer! Flakier sea salts are less “salty” than kosher salt. I’ll make a note to reduce the amount if you use a finer salt :)
This was very easy and turned out delicious! (I used cream.) Thank you for this recipe…we will use it in the years to come! It is a keeper.
So glad you loved it! Thanks for the feedback.
I used coconut cream, because I had that, added a cinnamon stick while simmering, and some rum. I’ll make bananas foster with this, (no flames) thank you.
Sounds amazing, enjoy!!
Love your recipe! Thank you for sharing❤️
Thanks so much, Mayra! Glad you’re loving it.