Introduction
Do you know that perfect caramel that you get by cooking white sugar in water? Well, today we'll show you how to make the same vegan sauce using only one ingredient: raw dates (and water).
This date caramel contains no heavy cream, no butter, no coconut oil or nut spreads. It's the proper caramel syrup that you use in creme brulees and flans. But instead of using refined sugars, it uses the natural sugars contained in dates.
To do it, we have reversed engineered the classic caramel recipe: instead of dissolving white sugars in water, we have extracted sugars from the dates. We have precise instructions on how to do that below. It's easy!
So what is the advantage of making caramel using dates? Well, date caramel is:
tastier. When eating classic caramel, you are just eating sugars. With date caramel, you are eating pure dates in the form a sticky syrup.
healthier. With classic caramel, you are just eating refined sugars and a bit of water. With date caramel, you also get a good amount of the nutrients you get from raw dates. Plus you get a fraction of the calories that are in traditional caramel, weight for weight.
fun. Turning raw dates into caramel makes you feel like a mad genius chemist. It's going to make your day, guaranteed!
If you want to learn more about why using dates as a sweetener is healthier than using refined sugars, or about the process of making caramel, check out the FAQ section below.
We compared 100g of traditional caramel with our homemade date caramel. We found that date caramel prepared this way has:
50% fewer calories
50% fewer sugars
We wrote in-depth instructions below on how to make it yourself, so just follow along and you'll have it done in a blink! And if you are looking for a recipe to try this with, check out our vegan Vietnamese coffee flan.
NOTE: The default ingredients yield about 80g (2.8 oz) of caramel and one serving consists of one 20g (0.7 oz) spoon.