My new found love for making caramel and my prevailing love of sauced desserts finally lead to its logical destination. This is a fairly simple caramel sauce and is good on well… everything. Pour it over pies, cakes, tarts, cheesecake, ice cream, or dip fresh fruit in it. I used coconut milk, which worked wonderfully, but did have the slightest of coconut flavor. If you want to avoid coconut, you could use MimicCreme or perhaps some soy creamer. Making caramel is a largely a game of chicken with your sugar. The darker you cook it, the more complex the flavor, but it can go from caramel to burnt in an instant. You can make the sauce by site, but I recommend using a thermometer at least the first time so you have a better idea what your are looking for.

Caramel Sauce

1 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk or MimicCreme
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine water and sugar in a large sauce pan. Cook over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Do not stir. Increase heat to med and boil, frequently swirling the pan. Heat until a chestnut brown color, or between 325° and 350° on a candy thermometer. Watch carefully, as it will go from caramel to burnt very quickly. Remove from heat and add coconut milk and vanilla. Be very careful as mixture will violently bubble up and caramel may size up (that is normal). Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until sauce is smooth, about 2 min. Poor into a heat proof container and allow to cool to room temperature (about 2-4 hours). Store in refrigerator. Sauce will thicken as it cools.

Variations:
Add a tsp or two of sea salt for a salted caramel sauce.
Replace the vanilla with orange extract for an orange caramel.

Caramel sauce under an apple crisp.