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.
Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone is having a relaxing holiday weekend, soaking up the last few moments of summer that you can and enjoying the company of the people you love. As you read this, I’ll be spending the Labor Day weekend with my dad in Victoria, British Colombia to celebrate his birthday, which was on the 6th.
I’ll totally fill you all in on the trip and how beautiful that place is, but today I have something delicious to talk about: caramel sauce. 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 usually works out pretty darn wonderfully, if I do say so myself.
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 together 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 also added a scraped vanilla bean to the caramel to add 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, I love using vanilla bean paste to get vanilla bean flecks without having to use a whole vanilla bean. 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!
Save Print Prep time 3 mins Cook time 30 mins Total time 33 mins Author: Rachel Conners Serves: 1¼ cups Ingredients - 1 14-oz. can full-fat coconut milk
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ½ vanilla bean, split or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon salt (I recommend a flaky salt like fleur de sel)
- 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.
Hungry for more? Check out some of my similar recipes!
Vanilla Bean Crunch Almond Butter Bark
Paleo Magic Cookie Bars
Caramel Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Apple Cider Poached Pears in Cinnamon Sugar Puff Pastry
Yellow Cake with Caramel Buttercream
Salted Caramel Filled Dark Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie
