One of the best festival foods now veganized! You will loved these vegan caramel apples, complete with nuts if you like them that way, or not! The choice is yours!
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If you are looking at this post, chances are you either loved getting caramel apples at festivals or carnivals growing up or you went to one recently and it got you curious to see if you could make your own! Well, we’re here to tell you that you can have amazing vegan caramel apples!
Once you get the caramel down, the possibilities are endless for what you can do with it and these vegan caramel apples are once of our favs, especially in the fall!
So grab your favorite type of apple and let’s get going!
VEGAN CARAMEL APPLES INGREDIENTS:
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make this Vegan Caramel Apples:
- Apples – there’s no right or wrong apples to use for this recipe. Something sweeter like gala or fuji make great options, but sweet and tart (like Granny Smith) are also a great option
- Corn syrup – this specific type of sugar helps to reduce any chance of grainy caramel forming. We are using light corn syrup in this recipe
- Brown Sugar – moisture and sweetness is balanced with brown sugar and corn syrup together
- Coconut Cream – traditional caramel uses heavy cream, but since we don’t have many options for that as a vegan, we are using coconut cream. This is the thick part of canned coconut milk
- vegan butter – this adds richness and makes the final product more smooth
- salt – just a pinch of salt to help the flavors pop
SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS:
- Apples -try dipping other fruits in the caramel instead!
- Corn syrup – we have not tried swapping, but you could try with brown rice syrup or golden syrup. Possibly even agave. These many crystalized more than using the corn syrup
- Brown Sugar – can swap with cane sugar
Caramel is very finicky and we wouldn’t recommend swapping out or changing many things without knowing exactly how It’s going to change the recipe
Frequently Asked Questions:
We recommend once made that you store them in the fridge and consume within 2 days.
We don’t have a recommendation for the coconut in the recipe. Non-dairy milks don’t usually have enough fat to make the caramel work in this recipe. For the butter, use a soy free vegan butter.
Traditional caramel is very finicky. Vegan caramel is even more so. You truly need it to be at the right temperature for this recipe to work. Therefore, we HIGHLY recommend you use a candy thermometer. This is the candy thermometer that we use.
What other vegan fall dessert recipe ideas could I make?
- Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- Black Chocolate Vegan Brioche Donuts
- Vegan White Chocolate Reeses
- Vegan Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
Pin these vegan caramel apples for later!
š„³ Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Caramel Apples
Ingredients
- 6-8 apples (use your favorite variety)
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 2 cups brown sugar
- Ā¼ cup water
- Ā½ cup coconut cream (thick part of canned coconut milk)
- Ā¼ cup vegan butter
- ā tsp salt
- Ā½ tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Dip the apple in and then rub off with a towel until completely dry. Place on a silicone mat or wax paper lined baking sheet. Push a skewer down the middle of it.
- To a medium saucepan with high walls, add corn syrup, brown sugar, water, coconut cream, vegan butter and salt. Turn heat onto medium. Stir constantly until butter has melted.
- Once butter has melted, add a candy thermometer to the side. Do not stir the mixture at this point. Let temperature come to 240-245 degrees F. *Do not turn your temperature up or down to make this go faster, you need consistency for caramel.
- Once temperature reached, remove from heat and add vanilla. Do not overmix.
- Let cool for 10-15 minutes (until about 190 degrees F) and then holding onto the stick, dip the apple and coat the sides. Let any excess drip off. Place on prepared baking sheet and place into fridge.
- Roll into any desired toppings immediately after adding caramel. Eat immediately or let set. Enjoy within 2 days.
Nutrition
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Noted!
the carmel didn’t stay soft. once it cooled it was hard as a rock and would just break off like shards of glass when bitten. it was this hard without any refrigeration
Hi Rose, sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you. Caramel is finicky because it has stages. You have caramel sauce, then soft ball then hard ball. So when it was being cooked, it went over. This can literally happen in seconds which is why we suggest a candy thermometer and closely watching. It will be soft when you finished but quickly harden which is why you had the glass like texture. We hope this helps and you try again!
140-145 degrees may be too high. My dairy caramel recipe says 135-140. On my thermometer, soft ball is 130. Hard ball is 140.
Thanks for the feedback! Candy thermometer readings can vary slightly, but traditionally:
Ā Ā Ā Ā ā¢Ā Ā Ā Ā Soft ball stage is around 235ā245Ā°F (113ā118Ā°C).
Ā Ā Ā Ā ā¢Ā Ā Ā Ā For caramel apples, 240Ā°F – 245Ā°F is a safe upper limit to get that perfect chewy-set texture without hardening. But also allow for the caramel to stick and coat the apple and not gradually slip off.
But yes, for a softer finish, stopping at 130ā140Ā°F is valid although I cannot speak for dairy caramels without testing since we’re a vegan site.
so glad I found this recipe! I tried a different one last year with no success. My apples came out great! I need to practice my technique a bit more but I think my next batch will be perfect. Definitely saving this one for the future.
so glad to hear that!
HOLY COW! This turned out so well and is absolutely delicious! Tastes very similar to real caramel. I only dipped 4 apples and saved the rest to use for other desserts. I will definitely make this again and recommend it to anyone needing dairy-free caramel!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe
Thanks for this recipe! One of my children has multiple food allergies and I have tried other vegan caramels in the past that were only ok. This one is great! I only made 5 caramel apples so I have plenty of leftovers that Iām excited to use on other desserts the next few days. Thank you, thank you!
So happy to hear that you loved it Shannon!
This tasted good but wow, unfortunately my jaw is still stuck together, as is my entire family’s jaws…we may be remaining this way well into 2025…please help.