The typical caramel sauce recipe consists of a cup of sugar, half a cup of butter, and some milk or cream. Um, no. As in, no, our 2-ingredient no-sugar date caramel sauce contains none of those. We’ve hacked all the bad ingredients out of it — sugar included— by making it from dates and almond milk. That’s it! Unless you’d like to go the extra inch and add a pinch or grinding of salt — you know, salted caramel — to take it up a subtle notch.
And unlike regular caramel sauce, there’s no need to cook at all. You do need a good blender for this, though, to make it nice and smooth.
This is incredible as a dip for sliced apples and/or pears, or as a topping for vegan cakes and ice creams. The best thing is that you’re delighting your sweet tooth with fruit rather than devilish sugar. This makes about 1 cup.
- 1 cup pitted dates (preferably Medjool, but Deglet are fine)
- ⅔ cup (or as needed) vanilla unsweetened nondairy milk
- Pinch of salt or grinding of coarse salt, optional
- Soak the dates in hot water to cover for 30 to 60 minutes, then drain well.
- Combine in a blender with the nondairy milk and blend until very smooth.
- If it seems like the sauce will be difficult to pour out of the blender, add just a touch more nondairy milk and blend again. On the other hand, if the sauce seems thin (it should have body, though it won’t be as dense or sticky as sugar-based caramel sauce), add a couple more soaked dates.
- Pour into a serving container and serve over nondairy ice cream, vegan brownies, or as a dip with fruit.
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This and photo at top: Hannah Kaminsky
Vegan Date Carmel Sauce is as delicious as a topping for vegan desserts as it is a dip for fresh fruits.
Photo: Hannah Kaminsky
- Enjoy more of our Vegan Food Hacks.
2 Comments
Jo
May 7, 2017 at 10:55 amHow long with the date caramel sauce last in the fridge?
Thanks!
Lynda
October 3, 2017 at 6:20 pmStrictly speaking, shouldn’t this read no added sugar? Dates are naturally high in fructose but do contain fiber, potassium and other nutrients that granulated sugar doesn’t. Sorry to be picky I just find this misleading.