Salted Coconut Toffee Caramels | gf + v

In Sweden, bulk candy is huge. This is how most people like to buy their sweets if they don’t buy chocolate of course. I have never been a fan of bulk candy (or any other candy for that matter) because I think it’s waaay too sweet. As an adult, I’m even more skeptical because candy is full of so much junk, like palm oil, trans fatty acids, additives and unnatural BS. So, when I want something sweet I usually buy organic (often also vegan) chocolate, some natural vegan candy or I make some sort of raw food balls consisting of dates, nuts, nut butter and other amazing ingredients.

Some might think this is pretentious, but I want to fuel my body with real food, with micronutrients and just good stuff, you know. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want something sweet every once in a while. And I love to bake! I always try to find healthier alternatives to white, refined sugar and I’m a big fan of all things coconut. I almost always use non-flavored coconut oil instead of butter when I bake, and I love coconut sugar. And this recipe is very coconut-ey, to say the least.

So, candy is a must during the Christmas celebrations, right? Healthier and homemade candy, that is. We usually don’t make a lot of different types of candy, but we have a couple of things that we absolutely love. One is hazelnuts covered in chocolate, another is cashew balls covered in shredded coconut or melted chocolate, and the third one is some sort of toffee caramels. Like today’s recipe. This year, I wanted to try a new recipe for toffee caramels and I wanted it to be as healthy as possible. I also wanted it to be vegan and easy to make. So I searched the Internet and found two recipes that I thought had a lot of potentials. So I decided to combine them, you know, pick out the best from each recipe and create a ”new” one. One of the recipes I used was created by Wallflower Kitchen (here) and one by Renée Voltaire (here). And I must say that I have never, ever, eaten such tasty toffee caramels. You have to make these!

Alright, so just a couple of notes before we get started.

• Coconut butter is not the same thing as coconut oil.

• When you cook the toffee, it’s very important that you stir all the time. Otherwise, it’ll burn and you’ll never be able to get your saucepan clean again.

Salted Coconut toffee caramels  

makes about 30 caramels 

2 1/2 dl | 250 ml coconut oil – non-flavored
2 dl | 180 g coconut sugar
1/2 dl | 50 ml organic maple syrup
4 tbsp coconut butter
1/4 tsp ground vanilla
pinch of salt

Directions

1. Melt the coconut butter over a hot-water bath.

2. In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil and add coconut sugar and maple syrup while stirring. Bring the mix to a boil, then lower the heat. Don’t stop stirring!

3. Add the melted coconut butter, ground vanilla, and sea salt.

4. Let cook over low/medium heat until the toffee has a temperature of about 120 degrees. Keep stirring! You can also see if the toffee is ready by adding a little of the batter to a glass with cold water. If you can shape the toffee batter into a ball, it’s ready.

5. Pour the batter on a parchment paper and let set. If you want, you can sprinkle some more sea salt on top.

6. Cut into small caramel pieces and wrap in parchment paper.