Salted Caramel Coconut Sauce

Caramel is delicious in any way shape or form but not being oblivious to the amount of sugar that goes into it makes me wish I loved it a little less. Perfect especially for my vegan, lactose intolerant or Coeliac friends or for anyone who just loves coconut. Before you think to yourself this woman can’t spell… YES I can spell, I’m an Aussie so we spell according to the British dictionary. Does that ever bugger anyone else up? I used to be frazzled when it came to converting recipes from the U.S, then some very clever cookie told me that our cup weight/measurements are the same because they are all manufactured in China and the only difference is that here in Australia we don’t use 3/4 cup/tsp measurements. Is that true? If your from the U.S please leave a comment and let me know if that’s true because I am quite curious.

This Salted Coconut Caramel (wow say that five times fast !), is super easy to make and you don’t have to stress about burning the caramel, crystallizing it or any of that jazz. It literally is a matter of putting coconut sugar and the coconut cream into pot, stir and simmer.

This sauce has a really silky smooth consistency. The deep amber hue of the coconut sugar gives the caramel a head start in it’s appearance. I remember my mum telling me that coconut sugar requires less heat to melt than other sugars and that it also has a really high burning temperature which is great for people who don’t have time to babysit their caramel whilst it transforms. You can actually go put the washing out and come back and the caramel will still  not burn.

It’s not to thick and not to thin and if you do simmer the caramel a bit too much, you can always fix it with more coconut cream. Be warned… it is sweet! I don’t mind the sweetness but if your already sweet enough and prefer it less sweet just add a bit less coconut sugar or alternatively add more coconut cream and see how you go 🙂

Another thing you may not have noticed is quite a lot of coconut creams and milks have lots of stabilisers in them and interestingly most of the time only 50% of the contents is actually coconut. I buy the Ayam brand which is 100% coconut but which ever brand you buy, take a squiz next time and see how much coconut is in the product.

 Salted Coconut Caramel
(Makes 250 ml)

1 Cup Coconut sugar

270ml can of Coconut cream

2 tsp Vanilla extract (between 1-2 tsp)

1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

In a medium sized saucepan add the 1/2 of coconut sugar and coconut cream.

Bring to a boil then reduce to a medium flame. Stir from time to time to dissolve the sugar.

Simmer for about 7-10 minutes. Have a stir and if you want it thicker just let it simmer a bit more.

Add the rest of the coconut sugar and just stir to dissolve then remove of the heat. This prevents any splitting of the coconut cream.

Stir in the vanilla and salt. This doesn’t retain heat as long as a traditional caramel would so after giving the sauce a stir, have a taste of the sauce and see if the salt content is enough if not add more ( MAKE SURE YOU BLOW FIRST IT WILL STILL BE HOT!)

Allow to cool, it is hot!!

Pour into a bottle and keep in the fridge for up to a week if it lasts that long 😛

When you take your caramel out of the fridge it will be thick thick thick. Simply nuke it in the microwave for 5 or so seconds and voila!

I have a few posts coming up using this sauce but here are a few ways I enjoy using this sauce:

Drizzled over fruit
Use as a topping for ice creams
Grab a spoon and eat it straight out of the fridge 😉
Drizzled over popcorn