Caramel sauce, yes please!

Today was supposed to be the day that I got a bunch of shopping done, some housework out of the way, cook a nice dinner with my guy and bake up a batch of vegan caramel brownies for dessert. Got the shopping done, as well as some of the housework. Dinner was a great success (tried out a new recipe for a celeriac remoulade that was fabulous!) but notice the words "supposed to" in that first sentence? Yeah, the vegan caramel brownies were where things kinda fell apart.

The vegan caramel sauce turned out amazingly! THAT recipe will follow shortly, promise. But attempting to modify 3 separate recipes and amalgamate them all into one should not bring expectations of success on the first go around. Which is where I find myself at this moment. See, what I had been hoping to pull off (and because I'm a stubborn wretch, one day I will) was a vegan brownie based on the Moosewood recipe that I have been using for more than a decade, combined with a vegan coconut caramel sauce that I was going to modify to use the assembly instructions for a gluten and dairy full recipe for said. Should have been easy, right?? *bang head on table* To make a long and very humbling story short, what I got resembled asphalt in both texture and rigidity. This would be one of those occasions where "In to the garbage you go!" was heard in regards to an experiment. So, back to the drawing table. We did, however, make up a second batch of unaltered brownies on top of which we spread the lions share of the sauce, because after all that, we wanted our caramel brownies!

Now for the good part: vegan caramel sauce.... *drool* This stuff is not only Very simple to make, but doesn't have much in it and for all that you need 2 tins of coconut milk, you wouldn't know it to taste it! The one down side to this is that unless you routinely keep tins of coconut milk in your fridge, you won't be able to do this on a whim. All you use is the coconut fat, so by keeping it in the fridge, the fat solidifies at the top and the "milk" collects at he bottom, allowing you to separate it very easily.

I got this recipe from LauraFriendly.com and it truly is as simple and divine as she says.

Vegan Caramel Sauce

• 1 1/2 cups Coconut milk Fat (from 2 tins of full fat coconut milk, refridgerated overnight)
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract (not artificial if you can swing it)
• 1 teaspoon Sea Salt

Turn the tins of coconut milk upside down and once opened, pour off the coconut milk/water for later use (hello, coconut rice pudding!). Add the cococut fat, brown sugar,vanilla and salt to a medium sized pot over fairly high heat, whisking to combine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and allow to slow boil for anywhere from 40-50 minutes (she says 35-45, but I left it a bit longer), whisking every few minutes. After about 30 minutes, the caramel will change to a darker colour, and from there, the longer you let it cook, the thicker it will become. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly for immediate use or store covered in an airtight containter. Can be refridgerated for up to 2 weeks (but lets be honest, it won't last that long).

Enjoy!