This five-ingredient vegan caramel sauce uses no fancy ingredients or equipment and can be whipped up in 10 minutes or less. It's perfect for drizzling on ice cream or any dessert you need a caramel sauce for.
The best vegan caramel sauce
You don't have to give up a delicious vegan classic caramel sauce for a vegan diet.
This recipe actually tastes like regular caramel.
Vegan caramel sauce that has NO coconut in it is hard to come by.
In your typical caramel sauces, you would use canned coconut milk to thicken the caramel-like a heavy cream would.
Now that's not to say you can't use coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk if you wanted to. It will make the recipe richer but it also gives it a coconut hint.
The best part about this recipe is you can choose the vegan milk.
I almost always have almond milk on hand so that's what I use in this and it works great.
The whole process of this recipe only takes about 10 minutes from start to finish that way if you get some caramel cravings you can be drizzling it on whatever your favorite way to eat caramel is in a jiffy.
This vegan caramel sauce tastes amazing drizzled on apple slices.
My son was SO excited when I made this vegan caramel recipe he tried to eat it by the spoonful, and I can't exactly say I blame him.
Recipe Q&A
Vegan caramel sauce with almond milk?
Good news, yup, you heard that right.
If you buy dairy-free caramel sauce at the grocery store it's like a trillion dollars for a small amount and always has a coconut flavor hint to it which in my opinion takes away from the caramel flavor.
This vegan caramel sauce is SO quick to make it's almost dangerous to have on hand.
This dairy-free caramel sauce does start off being pretty thin when it first is done cooking and thickens a ton in the fridge.
If it thickens more than you want just heat it in the microwave for 15 seconds and you will be back to drizzling.
Can I make this without the corn syrup?
Yes, you can replace it with an equal amount of brown sugar. However, it can stiffen up in the fridge having a bit more of a grainy texture.
But once you heat it up in the microwave for drizzling you don't notice the grainy texture at all.
Do I need any fancy equipment to make this easy vegan caramel sauce?
No, not even a candy thermometer, just a small saucepan and something to stir it with.
What do I need to make this easy homemade vegan caramel sauce recipe?
These 5 simple ingredients.
- Brown sugar -yes, instead of white sugar, it makes this taste like caramel and brown properly.
- Corn syrup- this helps make the caramel consistency.
- Vegan butter- makes this creamy. I wouldn't sub this for anything else.
- Vegan milk- you can use whichever non dairy milk you want. Almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, if you want it to be extra creamy but also taste like coconut, you can use full-fat coconut milk.
- Vanilla extract- you could leave this out if you're out, but I would leave it in for the best flavor.
How do I make this dairy-free caramel sauce?
Take a small saucepan/small pot and place all the ingredients except the vanilla and give it a good stir.
Stir on high to medium-high heat until the butter is melted.
Then stop stirring and bring to a boil, the sugar will dissolve, and once it reaches a good boil turn the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes without stirring.
After the 8 minutes remove from the heat add the vanilla extract and stir.
Let it cool for about 10 minutes then place in a glass container for storage.
This will thicken as it cools and become the perfect consistency.
Let it cool to room temperature before storing it covered in the fridge.
If it gets too hard in the fridge you can heat it back up in the microwave, start at 10 seconds and check for whatever pourable consistency you're looking for. Make sure to give the caramel a good stir before placing it back in the fridge.
If you want to make this a salted vegan caramel sauce then go ahead and add a ¼ to ½ teaspoon of salt after the recipe is done and stir.
Next time you have a sweet tooth you can drizzle this vegan homemade caramel sauce on top of vegan vanilla ice cream, or pour some in some hot chocolate, or drizzle it onto a vegan chocolate cake.
What recipes can I add this vegan caramel sauce to?
Easy Vegan Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup corn syrup
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- ¼ cup vegan milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Take a small saucepan and place all the ingredients except the vanilla. Stir on high heat until the butter is melted. Then stop stirring and bring to a boil, once it reaches a good boil turn the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes without stirring.
- After the 8 minutes remove from the heat add the vanilla extract and stir.
- Let it cool for about 10 minutes then place in a glass container for storage. This will thicken as it cools. Let it cool to room temperature before storing it covered in the fridge.
T Tracy says
Hi! Can I use this caramel sauce to fill a vanilla cake with? Not sure if it’ll be too runny. Thank you 😊
Courtneys Homestead says
Hi Tracy! Thanks so much for stopping by! If you wanted to use this in cupcakes, I would let it sit in the fridge for a day to firm up. It does get fairly firm, and I think it will work, just not freshly cooked. I hope that helps! Have a great day!
<3 Courtney
Linnea says
I used brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup. I haven’t tried it yet but I think it should be okay?
Courtneys Homestead says
Hi Linnea, so sorry for the late reply. I was out of town without cell service. Did it work out? I have never tried it, but I think it should have worked out okay? Thanks for trying it!
Erica says
Love love love this vegan caramel sauce recipe! Have tried many others since my son was diagnosed with food allergies, but have now found our go to recipe! Followed the recipe completely as written and it turned out perfectly! Perfect caramel flavor and consistency. Thank you for this amazing recipe 🙂
Flowers says
Followed this to a t… wish that the recipe used temps instead of time because it made delicious caramel hard candy. Not what I was going for! I think I even took it off a minute early. Shoot.
Courtneys Homestead says
Hi, I'm so sorry to hear that! I have made this caramel so many times and never had that happen. Do you have a gas stove? I have an electric one, and I'm wondering if the gas may cook hotter? Next time I make this will stick my digital thermometer in and get the exact temperature. I tried to make it easy for everyone who doesn't have a thermometer. Thanks for trying it, and I'm so sorry you got hard candy instead of soft caramel.
Tabia says
Corn syrup is a no-no for me. Can this be made either agave or honey? And cane sugar is another no-,no for me. Can date palm sugar be used? Thank you for your tolerance of questions.
Tabia from Detroit
Courtneys Homestead says
Hi Tabia! I think that you could use a combo of either honey or agave because they have the same consistency as corn syrup and then you use the other half with the date palm sugar. I think it will work just fine. Let me know how it goes! <3