Dairy Free Caramel (Easy Method)

Our easy dairy free caramel sauce is simple to make and nearly foolproof! It's great in hot coffee, on top of ice cream, in between cookies, and more.

Makes about 1/2 cup of caramel sauce

Gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, vegan. Soy free if using the Country Crock plant butter STICKS (the tubs contain soybean oil)

Course Condiments, Sauces, & Spreads, Desserts

Cuisine American

Keyword dairy free caramel, dairy free caramel sauce

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Cooling time 2

Total Time 2 15

Servings Tablespoons

Calories 109kcal

Author Adapted from a recipe by Just a Taste

Equipment

Small heavy bottom saucepan

Ingredients

¼ cup Country Crock Plant Butter sticks* (½ stick of butter)
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons white sugar**
¼ cup Silk dairy free half and half
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup*** (or pure maple syrup, this prevents re-crystallization of the sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash salt

Instructions

Melt the dairy free butter in the in a small heavy-bottom saucepan over medium/low heat. I used Country Crock Plant Butter avocado oil sticks for this recipe.
¼ cup Country Crock Plant Butter sticks*
Once the butter is melted (which only takes a minute or 2), whisk in the white sugar, brown sugar (if making butterscotch), Silk dairy free half and half (or canned coconut milk or canned coconut cream), corn syrup, and a pinch of salt.
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons white sugar**, ¼ cup Silk dairy free half and half , 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup***, dash salt
Whisk together until mixed and bring to a boil over medium/low heat, then boil for 6-7 minutes.
Remove the caramel sauce from the heat and stir in the vanilla. The caramel sauce will seem thin at first, but trust the process, this will thicken as it cools.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pour into a jar or other heat resistant storage container and let the sauce cool completely. You can serve this warm, but it still needs to cool for a while before serving since this is still extremely hot and can burn you.
This caramel sauce will thicken as it cools, store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Video

Notes

* I also tested this with Earth Balance Soy Free margarine, and it's more oily than when using the Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks. But I have not tried other brands of dairy free butter.

** For butterscotch, replace all or half the white sugar with packed brown sugar. It will be a little bit thinner since it has more moisture, so you can reduce your dairy free half and half by 1-2 Tablespoons for a thicker sauce.

*** Maple syrup works in place of corn syrup in this recipe, but the caramel still ends up being gritty the next day using maple syrup instead of corn syrup.

If you want to darken the color of this easy caramel, you can also use a dark corn syrup to add a deeper color to the caramel sauce.

Nutrition estimates are for 1 Tablespoon of caramel sauce

Nutrition