Vegan Caramel Slices

Vegan dessert recipes tend to be more difficult and expensive to make. Often because these recipes are much more wholesome and full of healthy and minimally processed ingredients. But I figured, what about the people who just want to throw together something that tastes great with less effort and without having to spend a small fortune. So here, I bring you vegan caramel slices. Get the caramel right and these bad boys taste unreal. Loaded with sugar of course, but who cares when it's for a special occasion. Not me anyway.

So. What do you need?

Ingredients (to fit a bread-loaf tin):

Base:

100g Digestives

50g oats

50g melted butter-alternative (or coconut oil)

25ml maple syrup (or other)

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Caramel:

150g brown sugar (white will do if you have no brown)

100g cashews (soaked for 3+ hours)

1tsp vanilla

150ml water

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Topping:

200g Chocolate

2tblsp any oil

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Method:

Base:

1.Crush the digestives with either a blender or by crushing in a bag with a rolling pin.

2. Mix the oats with the crushed digestives and then add your melted spread(or oil if using), mixing with a spoon thoroughly. Then add the maple syrup and mix fully.

3. Press the base firmly into your lined loaf tin.

4. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius in a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.

5. Once cooked remove and let cool.

Caramel:

1. Blend the soaked cashews until creamy and fully blended and set aside.

2. Add sugar and water to a large saucepan and put over medium heat.

3. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, until sugar dissolves, once dissolved don’t stir anymore as this can cause sugar to crystallise.

4.Allow syrup to simmer for approx 8 mins without stirring.

5. To be sure when it’s done have a jug of cold water on the side and when almost done add a drop of the syrup into the water. If the syrup dissolves it’s not done, if the syrup thickens in the water then it is probably done. You don’t want it to harden or thicken to the point of almost being toffee in the cold water as this is overdone. It should resemble golden syrup almost once cooled.

6. Remove the caramel syrup when done from the hot stove and place the saucepan in a a basin of cold water for about 20 seconds.

7. Add in your blended cashews and mix thoroughly to make a creamy caramel.

8. Pour over your base and set aside to cool or place in the freezer for 30 minutes to speed up this process.

Topping:

1. Melt your chocolate and oil together and pour evenly over your cooled caramel layer.

2. Allow to cool and set. Once cooled, cut and serve 💚

And tah-dah. You have got vegan caramel slices. Surprisingly basic ingredients. If you have your own base preference that's fine too. It's the caramel part I thought would be tricky to make and get to taste nice. Surprisingly this was actually fairly straight-forward. Although, the sugar boiling process part is tricky. You can use a sugar thermometer if you have one to get this spot on. I haven't a clue about temperatures though, but google will surely sort you there.

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Note: this isn’t a healthy caramel slice recipe. It’s just a vegan-friendly version. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.