If you are like me, then you may have wondered How to Make Sugar Free Caramel Sauce.
There really are certain things that taste so much better with some caramel sauce on top. For example, caramel sauce on top of ice cream. My favorite could be apple slices dipped in caramel.
How to Make Sugar Free Caramel Sauce
I remember the days of making caramel apples every fall season.
We would have to unwrap every individual caramel candy, eating one here and there. Then we would have to melt the candies on the stove which always seemed to end in one kind of a mess or another. Eating those caramel apples always gave me a sticky face as well.
One day, when my kids were young, a friend introduced me to an caramel dip.
I was in shock that this product even existed and I had no idea about it too. That caramel dip put an end to the caramel messes of my childhood for good. It also spared me the messes that could have happened had I actually made home made caramel apples with my kids.
The problem with caramel anything is that they have so much sugar in them.
That sticky mess from my childhood was caused by the sugar in the caramels that we spent forever unwrapping for melting. As an adult, I have little desire to revisit the whole caramel idea. However, making caramel sauce without all of the sugar seems like a good idea to me as an adult.
For this recipe, we will need a granular sugar alternative.
A granular Swerve is one example of a granular sweetener. You can find a selection of granular sugar alternatives on Amazon. Before trying a new granular sugar alternative, please remember to read the label to ensure that there has not been any sugar added to it. You can learn more about sugar alternatives here.
You will also need a brown sugar alternative.
Some people will use molasses as an alternative however, molasses does have sugar in it even though it is digested slower than regular sugar. Another brown sugar alternative that you can use is coconut palm sugar. I like to use coconut palm sugar when I bake cookies. I have read that coconut palm sugar has a relatively low Glycemic Index count and that it may slow down the glucose absorption. However, there has been some skepticism on the use of coconut palm sugar recently when it comes to effects on blood sugar. You can read more about it here. You can find brown sugar alternatives such as Surkin Gold. You can also find coconut palm sugar online.
Lastly, you may need xanthan gum for this recipe.
I know, xanthan gum may sound like something that we should not eat. However, xanthan gum is added to many recipes that you may have eaten in the past. We use it as a stabilizer, emulsifier, thickener, and/or suspending agent. Xanthan gum is found in salad dressing for example. I add it to bread when I am using gluten free flour to make up for the gluten not being there to help hold everything together. In this recipe we will add the xanthan gum if you are not going to use a heavy cream (using milk instead) You can buy xantham gum online.
Sugar Free Caramel Sauce
The recipe for How to Make Sugar Free Caramel Sauce
What you will need to make this recipe.
- Butter (unsalted preferred)- 1 stick.
- Granular sugar alternative- 1/3rd cup + 1 tablespoon. See post for granular sugar alternatives.
- Brown Sugar Alternative- 2 tablespoons equivalent to brown sugar. See post for details and learn more about sugar alternatives here.
- Heavy Cream- 1/2 cup. A substitute for this can be to use 3 parts milk to 1 part butter. While a thicker cream will help the consistency and rich taste of this, using a milk will yield a less fat intensive result. If you are using milk instead of heavy cream add 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum to help thicken your sauce. Read about using Greek Yogurt here.
- Salt- pinch.
- Vanilla Extract- 1 teaspoon (helps with the taste).
- Water- 2 tablespoons, additional as needed.
How to make sugar free caramel sauce.
- Preheat your saucepan on medium heat. I like to spray mine with nonstick before I start just to help with the clean up process later on.
- Next, you can add your butter to the saucepan. When your butter is somewhat melted, stir in your sugar alternatives (both the granular and the brown alternatives). You should stir this while your mixture blends together as you do not want it to burn. When your mixture begins to show bubbles (about 4-5 minutes), you can remove this from the heat.
- Whisk in your heavy cream into the saucepan and then your xanthan gum and the salt.
- After you are done mixing in the ingredients in the last step, you can return your saucepan to the medium heat. When it begins to bubble again, remove it from the heat and stir in the water and the vanilla extract.
- Allow your caramel sauce to cool before you serve it. If it seems to be too thick, add a bit of water a teaspoon at a time, stirring after each addition.
- Butter unsalted preferred- 1 stick.
- Granular sugar alternative- 1/3rd cup + 1 tablespoon. See post for granular sugar alternatives.
- Brown Sugar Alternative- 2 tablespoons equivalent to brown sugar. See post for details and learn more about sugar alternatives here.
- Heavy Cream- 1/2 cup. A substitute for this can be to use 3 parts milk to 1 part butter. While a thicker cream will help the consistency and rich taste of this using a milk will yield a less fat intensive result. Read about using Greek Yogurt here. If using milk add 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum to help thicken the sauce.
- Salt- pinch.
- Vanilla Extract- 1 teaspoon helps with the taste.
- Water- 2 tablespoons additional as needed.
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Preheat a saucepan on medium heat. I like to spray mine with nonstick before I start just to help with the clean up process later on.
-
Add the butter to the saucepan and when it is somewhat melted, add the sugar alternatives (both the granular and the brown alternatives). Stir while this mixture blends together as you do not want it to burn. When it begins to show bubbles (about 4-5 minutes), remove this from the heat.
-
Whisk in the heavy cream and then xanthan gum and the salt.
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Return the saucepan to the medium heat and when it begins to bubble again, remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
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Allow this to cool before serving
See post for details about ingredients and substitutes.
Molly
My only complaint about the recipes is when you copy the recipe to a word doc, (I save recipes on my computer), the recipe becomes one complete paragraph. When printing, it doesn’t scale down to one page when trying to use the print icon.
SFD
Hi. Thank you for this feedback as I had no idea. This is due to the properties of the plugin tool that I have which puts recipes into s recipe card format.
Thanks for letting me know about this issue.
Diana
List of ingredients doesn’t show the xanthan gum. How much do you use?
And when do you use the water?
Ok, found the water in the instructions above the printable version (which doesn’t have it).
SFD
Hi. You are right. I was not clear with the xanthan gum. In the recipe I give the option to use milk rather than a heavy cream. To get that thick (if desired) consistency of the sauce add 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum when you add the milk. Thanks for being so observant!! 🙂