Dairy free caramels

[kittywitty]

Does anyone have a recipe for dairy free caramels? I am dying for candy. Preferably any recipes that don't call for Silk cream as we do not have that around here. Is there anyway to make it with almond milk or soy milk? And no coconut-I'm allergic. TIA!

[HollyBearsMom]

I made these as a holiday gift  a couple years ago for a gluten free associate of mine, they are also dairy free and it uses a combo of almond and coconut milk.  But I think you probably use all almond milk. They were pretty good. 

http://angelaskitchen.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/gluten-and-dairy-free-caramel/

 

Dairy-free Caramel

1 cup Earth Balance margarine

2 cups sugar

1 can (14.5 ounce) coconut milk plus enough almond milk to make a total of 2 cups (coconut milk and almond milk combined)

1 cup light corn syrup replacement (see below) or light corn syrup

1 1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla

Prepare your pan/s:  Line an 8 inch x 8 inch pan with parchment or, if dipping apples, cover a baking sheet with parchment and poke the sticks into the apples.  I do this by  very lightly oiling my pan, then laying in the parchment so the parchment does not slide around. If you will be coating apples, you can cover a few apples and then place the remaining caramel in a smaller parchment lined container such as a bread loaf pan for the caramel you will have leftover.  If making caramel sauce, have a canning jar and lid ready.  I use a canning jar, pouring the sauce into a clean canning jar, letting the sauce cool before capping and storing in the refrigerator.  Heat caramel sauce by putting uncovered jar in a sauce pan with water and heating to desired temperature.  

Place the margarine, sugar, coconut/almond milk mixture and corn syrup replacement in a large saucepan.  Clip candy thermometer to saucepan.  Slowly bring ingredients to a low boil stirring very, very often.  Keeping things at a low boil prevents the caramel sugars from forming grainy crystals, prevents boil over and hot sugar spatters.  

Cook over medium-high heat while continuing to stir often until candy reaches 248 degrees F. For softer caramels cook to 243 for softer caramels.  If you are making caramel sauce for dairy-free ice cream or for less sticky caramel (like I did for my daughter with braces) cook the caramel to 230 degrees.  This takes quite a while generally 1 ½ to 2 hours with my stove, so I will do this while I have other things I am puttering around with in the kitchen.  Trust me it is worth it!  You could cook it at a little higher temp than I do so it goes faster, but then you need to stir continuously.  It starts out very milky looking, but will become a nice caramel color when cooked.  Mmmmm…

If making caramels:  Pour into the prepared lined baking pan.  Cool the caramel completely.  Us the parchment to lift out the caramel.  Snip with an oiled kitchen scissors or sharp knife .  Wrap in waxed paper (You can cut your own or order then from a candy supply store.  I get mine here:  Sweet Celebrations ).

If coating apples: allow the caramel to cool in the pan for a minute while continuously stirring.  Put sticks into apples (on stem end).  Holding the stick, dip the apple using a spoon, if desired to help coat on more caramel.  After coating the apples you can dip in toasted coconut, chopped toasted nuts, mini chocolate chips (such as Enjoy Life’s gfcf chocolate chips) if you would like.   Place the apples on the parchment lined baking sheet.  Put your apples into the refrigerator to set up or eat them as soon as they cool enough to bite.  (I get my apple sticks and apple cups that do not stick to the caramel from Sweet Celebrations.)

For caramel sauce: Pour the sauce into a clean canning jar, letting the sauce cool before capping and storing in the refrigerator.  When you want to use it, heat caramel sauce by putting uncovered jar in a saucepan that has water in it, heating to desired temperature.  

Light corn syrup replacement

Because I don’t like to use corn syrup if I can help it…

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

Put water and sugar in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil.    Clip a candy thermometer to the sauce pan.  Do not stir!  No matter how much you want to!  If you need to get some sugar from the side of the pan, use a pastry brush dipped in water and run it around the top to the pan.  At a low boil, cook the sugar mixture until it reaches 215 degrees (you could go as high as 220 degrees depending how thick you like your syrup – remember it will thicken more when cool).  Remove pan from heat.  You can put pan bottom in a bowl of cool water to quickly cool the syrup.  Put syrup (you can stir it now) after it cools into a glass jar and cover. 

[catnip]

Here is the recipe I use: http://www.grouprecipes.com/31122/vegan-caramels.html

The fructose in the corn syrup is what keeps the sugar crystals from forming. You can do it with a table sugar based substitute, or with torani vanilla syrup, but you will not get the same smooth caramel result as you do with corn syrup. Wholesome Sweeteners makes an organic version. One bottle is just enough to make this.

[kittywitty]

Thank you both so much! I can't wait to try the recipe. I bought a bunch of stuff to make Irish Cream fleur de sel caramels before I had to go dairy free. But I can't wait to try this.

[HollyBearsMom]

those sound REALLY good!