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Dairy Free Caramel Apple Nachos

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Need some creative after school snacks? Our dairy free Caramel Apple Nachos are a fun and healthy-ish snack that are also gluten free and peanut free.

photo collage of dairy free apple nachos

This year has been so weird. With everything happening this year, spring seemed to crawl but July and August pretty much flew by.

I haven’t really felt ready for fall to start yet, and yet I’m ready for this year to be over with already. I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that this year!

Whether your kids are starting school in person this year or doing online school, after school snacks are a must. We’re celebrating the beginning of September with our dairy free Caramel Apple Nachos that are great for after school or anytime!

We’ve been using our easy recipe for dairy free “caramel” for quite a few years already, it’s an easy and quick way to make a caramel-like sauce without cooking over the stove.

overhead photo of caramel apple nachos

This caramel sauce is used in several of our other recipes, like our banana cake, caramel cookie dough ice cream sandwiches, and our grilled apples.

I plan on creating a dairy free caramel recipe this year (it’s actually been on my to-do list for several years…), but until then, this “caramel” sauce works pretty great and it tastes awesome. It’s actually paleo as well if you use an unsweetened SunButter!

How to make apple nachos

Like most of our recipes, this is super easy to make! No cooking involved unless you count melting the chocolate chips in the microwave “cooking” (but we hope not).

Here are the steps to make this recipe (don’t forget the full printable recipe card is at the end of the post):

  1. First make your chocolate sauce by melting the chocolate chips (we use Nestle Simply Delicious semi-sweet) in a small dish in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. Whisk in the canned coconut milk and set aside.
  2. Next make your “caramel” sauce by stirring together the SunButter, maple syrup, and vanilla until smooth.
  3. Slice up some apples, drizzle or pipe the sauces over the top of the slices, then top with some chopped chocolate, chopped seeds (like sunflower or pumpkin), or chopped nuts if you can have those.
apple nachos on a white plate

Since apples go brown you’ll want to serve these apple nachos immediately, but you can always rub some lemon slices on the apple slices to keep them from browning if you want to pack this in a snack or lunch box for later.

Since the chocolate and caramel sauces are a little thick, rather than spooning them over the apples, I put them in a small ziploc bag with the corner snipped to make a piping bag (make sure to cut the corner hole fairly small).

This makes it easier to pipe the sauce onto the apples like you’d pipe frosting onto a cake, and it makes it more uniform. But if you’re short on time, you don’t have to worry about doing that.

woman's hand holding an apple

Variations for our apple nacho recipe

We used SunButter to make the apple nachos nut free (if you don’t count the coconut), but if you can have tree nuts, you can make the caramel sauce taste even more like caramel if you use cashew butter instead of SunButter.

There isn’t a lot of added sugars to this recipe, but if you want to have less sugar, you can use sugar free chocolate chips. Just make sure that you’re using a sugar free chocolate chip brand that fits your allergies since many of them are made in facilities with nuts.

We made some of the chocolate sauce using the sugar free chocolate chips from Bake Believe and I noticed that I needed to use extra canned coconut milk. So if you use sugar free chocolate chips, you might need to add a little bit more coconut milk just 1/2 teaspoon at a time until the sauce is the thickness you want.

slice of apple with caramel and chocolate sauce on it

Check out our other apple recipes!

Dairy Free Caramel Apple Nachos

Need some creative after school snack ideas? Our dairy free Caramel Apple Nachos are a fun and healthy-ish snack that are also gluten free and peanut free.
Gluten free, dairy free, vegan; Free of: peanuts, dairy, soy, eggs
5 from 1 vote
Print Pin Rate
Course: Snacks
Cuisine: American
Keyword: apple nachos, caramel apple nachos, dairy free apple nachos
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2 servings
Calories: 124kcal

Ingredients

  • 1-2 apples, sliced thin
  • Chopped chocolate or chopped sunflower seeds

"Caramel" drizzle

Chocolate sauce drizzle

Instructions

Chocolate sauce

  • Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in a small microwaveable dish for about 30 seconds at a time (stirring between each heating cycle) until melted.
  • Whisk into the melted chocolate the canned coconut milk and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

"Caramel" sauce

  • Stir together the SunButter, maple syrup, and vanilla until smooth. Set aside.

Putting it all together

  • Slice 1 or 2 apples (depending on how big the apples are and how many apple slices you'd like for each serving) thin and arrange on 2 plates.
  • Drizzle the caramel sauce and the chocolate sauce on top of the apples. To make this more uniform, I put the sauces in 2 separate plastic bags with a tiny hole cut in the corner to make it easier to "pipe" the sauces onto the apples easier than using a spoon since the sauces are thick.
  • Top with chopped chocolate, mini chocolate chips, or chopped sunflower seeds (or chopped nut if you can have them).
  • Serve immediately and enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 124kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 3mg | Potassium: 97mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 49IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg
Did you make this recipe?Share a photo on Instagram and tag us @TheFitCookie!
5 from 1 vote (1 rating without comment)

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