This is an easy, one ingredient vegan & dairy free caramel sauce or Dulce de Leche that has a rich caramel flavor and is kid-approved!
The other day when we were at the store both of my kids asked for those little packages of apples with caramel and I said no because of all the dairy and unhealthy ingredients. I was feeling bad ’cause they both wanted them so bad, but then when we were at the health food store I saw this can of dairy free sweetened condensed milk and got super excited:
Easy Vegan Dulce de Leche
I remembered that you can make caramel from boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk long enough for a caramelizing to occur and was SO hoping that it would work with this dairy free and vegan version so I bought some and gave it a try. It wasn’t until after I came home and started looking up recipes on how to do it that I discovered that it’s not actually caramel when you make it this way but it’s called Dulce de Leche. However, there’s not much difference.
Dulce de Leche basically just has a thinner, more sauce-like consistency than caramel (even though it thickens considerable in the fridge) but it still has that great caramel flavor that me and the fam just LOVE! In fact, I found both of my kids licking their bowls (and maybe me to!) and asking for more 🙂
While I still love and make my original Caramel Sauce Recipe I was excited to try something new and am now happy to have 2 recipes for caramel! Which do I like better you say? It’s hard to pick since there are pro’s and con’s to each recipe so here’s the rundown:
Dulce de Leche Vs. Caramel Sauce
- If I had to pick totally off of taste I would pick the Dulce de Leche. Since it’s made with white cane sugar that is then caramelized, it has a truer caramel taste. The caramel on the other hand, uses coconut palm sugar and non-dairy butter to achieve a caramelized taste.
- My Caramel Sauce Recipe is Paleo compliant since it doesn’t use refined sugar.
- The Caramel Sauce Recipe is also a lot faster to make. If you don’t care about it thickening up, it can be ready in 10 minutes. The Dulce de Leche, however, takes over 3 hours.
- The Dulce de Leche would not work in recipes calling for thick caramel sauce. It’s thinner than caramel (especially before it’s refrigerated), but would work perfect drizzled over dessert.
What about you, which do you think you will try it? Do you prefer Dulce de Leche or caramel? Let me know what you think!
Pin for later:
*Since making this I found out you can do this in the crock pot – WHAT, that’s awesome!?! Next time I will try THIS CROCKPOT METHOD with the dairy free condensed milk.
Vegan Dulce de Leche
Ingredients
- 1 Can Nature's Charm Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk or as many as you would like
Instructions
- Place the can or cans into a large pot on their sides and cover with 1 to 2 inches of water.
- Bring to a boil, then immediately turn down to Medium-Low or Low until you have a nice, gentle simmer or light boil.
- Let simmer 3 1/2 hours.
- *Important step* Top off the water as it simmers to keep 1 to 2 inches of water over the cans at all times.
- Halfway through the simmering processes, very carefully rotate the cans with tongs.
- After the simmering time, carefully remove the cans with tongs and allow to cool before opening. DO NOT open cans when they are hot, there is a potential for explosion!
- Dulce de Leche can be stored in a sealed mason jar in the fridge for up to a month. Will thicken slightly in the fridge.
Notes
- DO NOT open the cane while they are hot! Let them cool before opening, otherwise, they may explode!
- This recipe this thinner than traditional Paleo Caramel Sauce or Keto Caramel Sauce, but will slightly thicken in the fridge.
- Keep at least one to two inches of water over the cans at all times. Add more water as needed as it simmers.
- The longer you boil the cans, the richer the caramel. Feel free to boil the cans an additional 30 minutes to an hour if desired.
Nutritional information is approximate and may vary.
It did work for me… BUT… I used the 6 Qt Slow Cooker. Put 2 cans with water, making sure water was about an inch higher than the cans, also…the cans need to be on their side. Turned on slow fot 15 hours. Turned it off and left them rest in the water until cooled off. Opened them, and transferred them to a glass container. It was quite thick. I kept in the fridge. Delicious.
I will be making again, tomorrow..
This did not work at all. I cannot figure out what I did wrong, the instructions are so simple. I simmered the unopened can, same brand you have pictured. I simmered for 4 hours covered by 1″ of water, removed the can from the water, let cool for 4 hours, & opened the can. When opened, I still had just warm sweetened condensed milk. ???
Oh no Brenda!!! This has always worked great for me!?! The only thing I can think of is that the water wasn’t hot enough. When it simmers the water should be hot enough that steam is coming up from the pot with an occasional bubble or two and you frequently need to add more water to keep the cans covered. If that’s not the problem, I’m sure simmering it longer would fix the problem. I’m so, so sorry it didn’t work for you!!! I hope you try it again with better results!
-Cassidy
Great recipe- exactly what I was looking for after discovering Nature’s Charm condensed coconut milk in my local store (Scoop & Spice, Yatton, SW England- so it’s available this side of the pond too!). I have missed banoffee pie since turning vegan so bought two cans, looked up recipes for coconut milk dulce de leche and found your website. I boiled it as per your instructions (cooking for three and a half hours with the unopened tins under water), but found it a touch too runny for banoffee pie even when cool, which was as expected given your advice in the recipe that it is runnier than the dairy version. So, experimenting, I added four heaped tablespoons of cornflour to a small amount of coconut milk and stirred this in while heating it up. It actually seemed to get runnier as it heated and I simmered it for a while. It cooled again but still seemed quite runny so I decided to heat it for longer and try to get rid of some of the water content to thicken it. This time as it heated it became thicker and I kept it simmering for about five minutes, stirring all the time, and it became much thicker, even when heating and now seems much firmer even before putting it in the fridge! I’ll be making the banoffee pie tomorrow (for my birthday!) and I’m very hopeful it will work out well, especially reading that it becomes thicker anyway in the fridge in your response to another post. Other websites mention that agar-agar can be used to thicken it (but I don’t have any so cornflour was my only option). Tastewise, it is absolutely delicious- just like coconut toffees. Thank you for sharing how to make dulce de leche 🙂
Where did you find the coconut sweet condensed milk?
Hi Summer!
I found mine at Sprouts and I think it’s on Amazon too 🙂
-Cassidy
Could you use this in a recipe if it is cooked on the stove top and then baked to make it set? Want to make a salted caramel tart that requires sweetened condensed milk but cannot use any dairy.
Hi Valerie!
Hummm, I’m not sure I would have to look at the recipe. If the recipe has instructions to make caramel, just skip the instructions and substitute this caramel. I’m sure you can bake this caramel recipe but it’s fairly thin and only thickens after it’s been in the fridge for awhile. Depending on the recipe, you could completely make the tarte (I’m assuming it has apples or something else in it?) then drizzle the caramel over the top when it’s finished? Sorry, I just can’t say without looking at the recipe but maybe I gave you a few ideas 🙂 Let me know how it turns out!!!
-Cassidy
OOh Yum! Will definitely try!