Easy Coconut Caramel Sauce
Deliciously thick and creamy, this Vegan Easy Coconut Caramel Sauce makes a great caramel or butterscotch substitute. It goes particularly well with coconut or pandan flavoured desserts!
Calories: 33kcal
Equipment
- Grater (or knife and cutting board)
- Deep and wide pot or skillet
- Heat proof whisk or spatula
- Air tight jar Sterilised
Ingredients
- 7 Units Gula Melaka Substitute: brown sugar, date sugar, coconut sugar, white sugar and molasses etc This recipe is in ratio form, so you could make this 7 spoonfuls or 7 cups of gula melaka, just adjust the rest of the ingredients accordingly!
- 3 Units Coconut Milk If you only have coconut cream, see the recipe post for how to turn it into coconut milk.
- 2 Units Water
- Salt, to taste Just a pinch if using as a flavor enhancer or more if making salted coconut caramel.
- Optional: pandan If using pandan leaves, bruise and tie into a knot (to make it easier to fish out later)
Instructions
- Break the gula melaka into smaller pieces. You can cut it or grate it. Sometimes when I'm lazy I just briefly pound it so it breaks into 2-3 smaller pieces. Obviously they're not as small as if I had cut or grated, so you need to work extra hard stirring here!
- Add all the ingredients to the pot except the salt.
- Turn the heat to medium and bring the pot to a boil- do use a pot that is much bigger than you need so the vegan coconut caramel sauce won't overflow and burn you!
- Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down low so the sauce is at a simmer and stir till everything is dissolved. Stir every now and then to make sure no palm sugar sticks to the bottom of the pot and burns.
- The time you leave the syrup simmering for depends on how thick a coconut caramel syrup you want, your palm sugar (as each batch differs), how fat your coconut milk is, how much sauce you're making and the type of stove you use! The thicker you want it, the longer you leave it on for but you will need to stir continuously towards the end as the coconut caramel burns easily once it thickens up. (For a point of reference, I leave mine for 1-1.5 hours on an induction stove and 30-45 minutes on a gas stove when making 2 Cups of coconut caramel.)
- Once happy, fish out the pandan and toss it (if using). Switch off the stove, stir in the salt (if using), remove the pot from the heat, stir and let the coconut caramel cool down. (If you're tasting, remember to let the sauce cool before trying! Keep out of reach of pets and children so they don't hurt themselves!)
- After cooling, pour it into an air-tight glass jar and put it in the chiller. Make sure to stir this dairy-free caramel before each use!
Notes
Remember that the coconut caramel sauce gets very hot so make sure not to burn yourself!
Storage
Keeps for 2-3 weeks in the fridge.
What to do if your sauce ends up rock hard
I tested this recipe on an induction cooker before trying it on a gas stove. (The cooking times will vary depending on the type of stove you use.) As the gas fire is much stronger, even simmering on low for 1 hour made my cooled caramel sauce so thick and hard, I couldn't even crack it with a hot spoon! (Great for hard coconut caramel candies.) To transform the coconut caramel fudge back into a thick sauce, simply add ¼ Cup of water (adjust based on the amount of sauce you are making) and stir well. Keep stirring till everything has re-dissolved back into a smooth sauce. If you find there are still a few caramel lumps, you can strain through a sieve but I've not found it to be necessary.
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
Calories: 33kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.03g | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 16mg | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.2mg