Date caramel is made with 3-easy ingredients and perfect to use as a pie filling, ice cream swirl or topping. Or just eat it with a spoon!
Date caramel is the absolute best thing ever.
It tastes decadent and divine but it’s actually super healthy! Fruit I tell you. Fruit. That’s all there is to say about that.
Dates are known as ‘nature’s candy’ and oh my, they do taste like candy.
Date caramel is extremely versatile and can be used in a number of desserts. Or you can just use it as a sweetener for your oatmeal or vegan yogurt or wherever you need a sweetener.
How To Make Date Caramel
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Place your pitted dates and vanilla extract in the food processor and process on the S blade.
- The dates will initially form a giant ball of toffee. Continue to process beyond this point until the giant ball begins to break up. You can also stop the processor and break it up with your hands, and then start it up again. The ball will get smaller as more of it sticks to the sides. Switch off the processor, scrape off the sides with a spoon and switch it back on.
- While the processor is running, begin adding coconut cream slowly until it has all been added. Process for a minute or so and then stop the machine and scrape down the sides. Continue to process until it is smooth and creamy.
Ingredient Notes
Dates. Your dates need to be moist and soft for best results in this recipe. If they are not, then you can either soak them first or do another little trick that works great which is to put them in the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute, the heat softens them up nicely.
Coconut cream. This recipe uses the separated (hardened) cream from one 14-ounce can of coconut cream, chilled overnight in the fridge.
How To Use Date Caramel
Use it in your pies, your sundaes, your ice creams, on your oatmeal, wherever you may think to yourself: ah….some caramel sauce would be so nice right now….THIS is the caramel you need.
It’s beyond delicious.
It’s so rich, creamy, smooth and caramel-y, you just can’t beat it.
Vegan caramel pie anyone? This is the caramel you need! Need a caramel swirl in your vegan cheesecake ice cream? This is the caramel you need!
Storing Instructions
Keep it stored in an airtight container in the fridge and it will stay good for up to 7 days! But really if it lasts that long I would be amazed, you’ll probably find yourself eating it by the spoonful.
More Awesome Vegan How-To Recipes
- How To Make Coconut Butter
- Homemade Vegan Butter
- Vegan Dulce De Leche
- Vegan Nutella
- Vegan Caramel Sauce
- Vegan Heavy Cream
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Date Caramel
Ingredients
- 2 cups Pitted Dates (350g) Packed
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ¼ cups Canned Coconut Cream (300ml) hardened cream only from one 14-ounce can, chilled overnight in the fridge
Instructions
- Place the can of coconut cream in the coldest part of your refrigerator and leave there overnight.
- When you're ready to make your date caramel, remove from the refrigerator, open the can and scoop out only the cream section that has risen to the top, leaving the water behind. You will use only this cream portion in your date caramel.
- Place your pitted dates and vanilla extract in the food processor and process on the S blade.
- The dates will initially form a giant ball of toffee. Continue to process beyond this point until the giant ball begins to break up. You can also stop the processor and break it up with your hands, and then start it up again. The ball will get smaller as more of it sticks to the sides. Switch off the processor, scrape off the sides with a spoon and switch it back on.
- While the processor is running, begin adding the coconut cream slowly until it has all been added. Process for a minute or so and then stop the machine and scrape down the sides. Continue to process until it is smooth and creamy.
- If you want it completely smooth, then once you have got it as smooth as it will go in the food processor, transfer to your blender jug for a quick blend to make it completely smooth.
- Processing time is around 12-15 minutes.
Notes
- Two packed cups of dates is approximately 20 pitted medjool dates.
- Dates should ideally be soft and moist before you begin. If they are not you can soak them in hot water first, or heat them in the microwave for a minute or so to soften before you begin.
- Keep it stored in an airtight container in the fridge and it will stay good for up to 7 days!
Hi Alison,
Do you think it would work to process this from the first step in a Vitamix?
Hi Mary, I find a food processor works much better for this. It’s very thick, and even with a Vitamix, it can be too tough to get this to break down in a blender.
Just made it for the first time, it’s perfect !!
Thanks Anna!
Hi, first off, I’m obsessed with dates, though being they are dried, making them calorically high, I gotta eat them sparingly, haha.
Do you think instead of coconut milk (for those watching fat content) you could use a Japanese Sweet Potato or Garnet Sweet Potato that has been baked well?
Just a suggestion, of course, though I’ve been experimenting adding sweet potatoes to oatmeal or adding cacao or carob powder for a sort of ‘ice cream’ texture!
Hi Darrian, I haven’t tried using sweet potato but that would definitely be an interesting experiment, let us know how it goes if you try it like that! 🙂
Hello Alison, I was wondering how the date caramel might hold up if it were baked, like inside of a shortbread cookie bar. Have you ever tried baking it?
Also, I am totally enchanted by your dessert recipes! They all look so tasty and high quality, I just want to make everything – and I’m a long time pastry chef. 🙂 Thanks for sharing with us.
Hi Freya! I don’t think I have baked with this actually, was just wracking my brain but I don’t think I have. I have baked desserts using date syrup as the sweetener and that was fine and date syrup only has one ingredient which is dates. And I’ve baked with coconut cream of course which is the other ingredient here, so I’m thinking it might be fine…. though it may get quite runny? That would be my only worry, that the heat would make it quite runny. But definitely worth a try! And thanks so much, I’m thrilled you like the recipes! 🙂
Hi Alison! Your vegan food blog is absolutely amazing. You have got a wonderful collection of vegan recipes. I have a query regarding the above recipe – will the coconut cream add a coconut flavour to the date caramel? If yes , then is there a way to omit the coconut flavour by adding something else in the place of it?
Hi Angela, thank you, so glad you like the blog! I don’t think it adds a coconut flavor, the flavor is very much ‘caramel’ but you can also try a version with a different kind of vegan cream, or you could just use a little hot water, only as much as needed to get the dates nice and smooth, the dates themselves have all the flavor so that also works great! 🙂
Utterly divine!
Soooo…I’ve never soaked dates before. What are the instructions? Pour boiling water over them and let them sit an hour, or something else?
I’m thinking soaking them too long may cause some of the natural sugar to escape.
Let me know??
Hi there! I’ve since discovered a great trick for softening your dates if they’re a little hard. You just blitz them in the microwave for a minute first. This softens them perfectly. If you don’t have a microwave or don’t want to microwave things then another thing you can do is heat the coconut cream first before adding it in. All these things are really to shorten the time it will take to turn this into a lovely caramel. If the dates are hard, it just takes longer. Yes, you are right – soaking them first does result in some of the sugar going into the water. However, it doesn’t impact the end result, dates are so sweet that there is plenty of sweetness left. If you were going to soak them first, then an hour would be plenty and you can soak them in cold water. They soften fast. You can soak them and then just check them as they go until they feel soft and then go for it.
Thanks!! My dates are soft-“ish” so I’ll use your tip to warm the coconut cream. I’m churning my CARAMEL-SWIRL CHEESECAKE ICE-CREAM right now!❤️
Ooooh yum!! 🙂