Easy Salted Vegan Caramel Sauce Recipe
This is the easiest way to make thick, lush, gooey vegan caramel sauce recipe using the no-fail easy wet method. Made with just 4 simple ingredients (no coconut milk!), you can make a salted version or omit the salt for classic caramel sauce. You’re never going to believe it’s dairy free- use it for cakes, ice cream, cheesecake, and more!
For the ultra-caramel lovers, I use this recipe specifically between the layers of my moist vegan caramel cake with brown butter frosting and ridiculously fudgy vegan chocolate caramel cake.
Why this vegan caramel recipe works:
If you’re in need of a creamy, sweet, easy and downright delicious caramel sauce recipe that’s not only vegan, but also dairy free, look no further my friends!
This caramel sauce recipe is truly all you’ll need:
- The perfect topping sauce and component ingredient. I use it as a topping to any of my hundreds of vegan dessert recipe (and if you really have a sweet tooth, you’ll want to check out 110+ more vegan dessert recipes in my cookbook that this will work great with!)! AND I actually specifically use it as both the based and the topping in my ultra-creamy vegan salted caramel cheesecake.
- Unbelievably identical to traditional dairy caramel. Unlike date caramel (which does have its place!), this vegan caramel is really and truly undetectably vegan.
- Just 4 ingredients! Plus, there are no funky ingredients like you’d find in store-bought caramel sauce. I wanted this caramel sauce to be the ultimate celebration of some of sweetest and creamiest plant-based ingredients.
You’ll have no problem dripping, drizzling, and smearing this vegan caramel sauce recipe on just about any treat (or spoon, let’s be honest, I’ll just eat it straight up!). You can even bake it directly into treats, like my fudgy brown butter vegan caramel brownies, where thick caramel is layered into the brownie batter to create the ULTIMATE indulgence.
KEY Ingredients:
You’ll notice that the ingredients are incredibly simple (and not dissimilar from traditional caramel). For this vegan caramel, you’ll need:
- Vegan butter: I recommend Miyoko’s vegan butter for the best tasting results! You can also swap in coconut oil. If you don’t want a coconut flavor, you can use refined coconut oil.
- Granulated sugar: Use organic granulated sugar so that it’s vegan! I recommend using Florida Crystals sugar. You can also swap in half of the amount with brown sugar or with coconut sugar. If you use all brown sugar, then you achieve more of a vegan toffee sauce. Still delicious! I
- Heavy vegan cream: Vegan heavy cream also makes this caramel ideal for rich dairy-free desserts like caramel cheesecake and caramel ice cream. I really like Plant Crock or Silk! You can also substitute in soy milk or oat milk. If you’d really like to, you can use coconut milk or coconut cream, but please note that in my testing, I’ve noticed a distinct coconut flavor.
- Vanilla and Sea Salt (flavor enhancers!) These are optional but highly recommended!
If you don’t want to make a salted caramel sauce, you can easily omit the sea salt!
A quick note about why I recommend sea salt: personally, because it definitely has a different taste.
How to make vegan caramel sauce from scratch:
- Stir the sugar and water together in a saucepan on medium heat.
- The sugar will continue to melt and caramelize into the water to turn a deep caramel color. Keep watching the sugar and stirring occasionally, as you want to avoid burning the sugar (you can’t recover burnt sugar!).
- The caramelized sugar should be a toffee color at this point. You don’t want it too light nor burnt.
- Stir in the room temperature butter while the pan is still on the stovetop. It will bubble and foam, but keep stirring to integrate.
- Once the vegan butter is integrated into the melted caramelized sugar, pour in the room temperature vegan heavy cream.
- If it’s having trouble integrating, you can remove from heat and stir vigorously, but it should integrated with a few stirs into the vegan caramel on low heat. Then allow the caramel to cook for an additional minute on low heat.
- Allow the caramel to cool in the pan off of heat for at least 30 minutes. This gives it a chance to thicken up.
- Once cooled, use immediately in your recipe!
Storing & reheating caramel sauce:
I’ve tested this several times, and it will last just about 2 weeks in the fridge within an airtight container. That being said, it will last longer in the freezer.
You don’t need to reheat the sauce either to use. It will still be moveable and drizzle-able (I just made up a word and we’re rolling with it haha!), but it will be thick.
If yours is too thick to move, just let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before using. Additionally, you can reheat this vegan caramel sauce in the microwave for 15-20 seconds on high.
Recipes that use this vegan caramel recipe:
I already have a few recipes on the blog that use this caramel sauce recipe! Here are a few of my favorites:
One bowl caramel apple spice cake
For an over-the-top fall dessert, drizzle it over my vegan apple crumble cheesecake with gooey cinnamon apples– it’s basically begging for some gooey salted caramel to bring together the apple filling, cheesecake, and crumble.
It’s also a fantastic topper on my beautifully moist caramel apple cider cupcakes!
You’re just going to absolutely love this easy vegan caramel as much as I do! If you give it a go, be sure to let me know down below in the comments section.
As always, I love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there.
Happy caramel making!!
Watch how to make salted vegan caramel sauce:
🌟MADE THIS RECIPE & LOVED IT?🌟I’d love it if you’d like a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below! This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
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Easy Salted Vegan Caramel Sauce Recipe
- Prep Time: 2
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 32 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stove
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This is the easiest way to make thick, lush, gooey vegan caramel sauce recipe using the no-fail easy wet method. Made with just 4 simple ingredients (no coconut milk!), you can make a salted version or omit the salt for classic caramel sauce. You’re never going to believe it’s dairy free- use it for cakes, ice cream, cheesecake, and more!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200 g) organic granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 1/3 cup (90 mL) vegan heavy cream, room temperature
- 5 tbsp (76 g) salted vegan butter or coconut oil, room temperature
- 1 tsp sea salt
- Optional: 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
Instructions
- Before beginning: Make sure you give yourself 1-2 hours before you need this caramel sauce for a recipe. It will take about 20 minutes to make, but if you want a thicker caramel sauce, you need to let it cool in the fridge.
- Prep: Measure out all ingredients.
- Dissolve the sugar: In a medium sauce pan (preferably non-stick, but it’s okay if that’s all you have- it can work), add in the sugar and water and mix until the sugar is wet. Use a pastry brush to wet the sides of the pan to prevent the caramel from sticking to the sides.
- Melt the sugar: Heat the sugar on medium to medium heat, stirring every so often with a heat-safe silicone spatula or whisk, until the sugar is bubbling and darker in color (more caramel like). With the wet caramel method, the sugar will appear wet, then bubble to these stiff bubbles, and then melt into clumps, and finally melt into a caramel colored sugar syrup. You have to make sure you continue to stir though!
- Stir in the vegan butter, and flavor enhancers: Add in the room temperature vegan butter, and whisk again on low heat until combined.
- Add in the heavy cream: Take the pot OFF the heat briefly. Then add in the ROOM TEMPERATURE vegan heavy cream. Stir constantly until the heavy cream is incorporated. If your cream isn’t integrating into the caramel, bring the pot back to heat and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves into the heavy cream. You can also stir in the sea salt and vanilla extract if desired. Stir until integrated.
- Heat: Now bring the caramel to medium-low heat, and allow the mixture to bubble for 1 minute without touching the caramel. If you want a lighter color caramel and/or slightly thinner, you can also add in more heavy cream here.
- Cool: Once bubbling, remove the caramel from the heat and pour into a heat-safe jar, bowl, or container. Cool the caramel in the fridge for at least an hour to thicken.
- Use and enjoy! Use your caramel in the recipe desired or as a topping! Refrigerate covered for up to 1 month.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
See blog post for all tips and tricks!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tbsp
- Calories: 47
- Sugar: 6.1 g
- Sodium: 6.4 mg
- Fat: 0.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 6 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0.1 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
So easy and SO delicious! Can’t get myself to stop eating it
I’m so so happy you love it too!! I’m OBSESSED, I keep making it for all of my fall bakes right now 😂The BEST!
lol never mind I’m so sorry, I see someone already asked you answered that! Thanks again!
In recipe you say 5 tbsp of vegan butter but in the video you used 3 – does this matter? Thank you!
Absolutely delicious, though your written instructions don’t align with your video which is confusing. Despite following instructions to the letter mine crystallized almost immediately so I wasn’t able to get a nice color before I had to add cream so it didn’t turn into hard candy, but I still found myself eating by the spoonful.
So I used country crick vegan homestyle butter sticks and cream. It tastes burnt and it’s solid after putting it in the fridge to cool. Any advice?
Hi CaLynn! It sounds like you burnt the sugar- how dark was your melted sugar when you added in the vegan butter? Burnt sugar is unfortunately not recoverable!
Hi!! The recipe calls for 5 tbsp of the butter, but in the video I heard you say 3. So sorry, can you share which is the correct measurement? 😇
Hi Angela! So sorry for the confusion! The video is a bit outdated 🙂 Making a new one, but the correct measurement is always written, so 5 tbsp! Enjoy!
hello, can I use coconut milk?
Hi Dee! Yes, it will work!
My caramel sauce separated in the fridge? Help!!
Oh no!! So this is fixable, it sometimes happens when there wasn’t good enough whisking (emulsification) of the butter/vegan heavy cream into the sugar. You can reheat it and whisk vigorously again, and it should fix!
This sauce is so beautiful! Thank you for the recipe!
Omgsh so happy to hear it!! Thank you so much for the kind review!! ENJOY!
Hi! I’ve just made this and it tastes divine but has ended up much more solid than I expected – like a chewy caramel rather than a sauce. Can I rescue it at all? I have cream left over? As far as I’m aware I followed instructions exactly! TIA ☺️
Oh yes absolutely!! You can just stir in more heavy vegan cream while the mixture is hot! Start with 1/2 cup and add more if needed!
I’ve made this twice and love the taste but I can’t get the color right. The color is lighter from step1 forward. I didn’t use vegan granulated sugar, would that make a difference?? Going to try the caramel brownies next so I want to get it right.
Hi Linda! Thank you so much for your question! The color really comes from the simmering process. With the wet caramel method, the sugar will appear wet, then bubble to these stiff bubbles, and then melt into clumps, and finally melt into a caramel colored sugar syrup. You have to make sure you continue to stir though! Too much buttercream could also cause a lighter color. I hope this helps!