Salted Caramel Blondies With Vegan Caramel Sauce

Salted caramel is my new FAVORITE flavor addiction. I’m pretty sure I dream in salted carmel.

Honestly, even though carmel is delicious, it was never really a flavor that I was completely sold on until I had it in biscotti form. My best friends mom, makes homemade biscotti and sells them (which you can find here and order – http://biscottobellissimo.com/). Being an awesome person, she brings over new biscotti flavors to try all the time.

At first, I used to be obsessed with the lemon flavored ones. I’ve always been partial to refreshing fruit flavored desserts. Then, one fateful day, she brought over salted caramel biscotti. At first, I was skeptical. Salt.. and caramel? I never really understood the whole sweet and salty thing. When I tried one however, I was indefinitely changed for life. I had a sudden realization, I LOVE SALTED CARAMEL.

From then on, I wanted to make everything salted caramel flavor. Yesterday morning, I got out of bed with this recipe planted in my head (are your first morning thoughts desserts or am I just weird?). When I made them a couple of hours later, I was so pleased with how perfect they came out.

They are warm, soft, gooey, buttery, sweet, and savory. Everything you could want from a dessert. These taste so far from healthy, you would never believe in a million years that they weren’t laden with pounds of butter and refined sugar. Make these, and shock your friends and family with just how tasty healthy can be.

Salted Caramel Blondies
Yields: about 12

• 3/4 cup oats (blend first to get a flour like consistency before adding to the rest of the ingredients)
• 2 Tbsps applesauce
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 2 Tbsps coconut oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla, carmel, butter extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup stevia
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Salt (as much as you prefer. I like salt so I added a good amount to the batter ,then more on top when I took them out of the oven)

Preheat oven to 350. Blend all of the ingredients above in a food processor and mix until smooth. For me, this took about 4 minutes. I found it pretty impossible to get all of the chunks out due to the chikpeas, so even if it’s not totally smooth it’s not a problem. Then, pour your batter into a greased baking dish, and bake at 350 for 35 minutes 🙂 When they are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool for 20-25 minutes.

While they are cooling, make your carmel.

Heaven-Sent Vegan Caramel Sauce

• 2 Tbsps water
• 1 can of full fat coconut milk (refrigerated overnight)
• 1/4th cup of honey
• 1/4th cup of coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
• 2 Tbsps vanilla
• Pinch of salt

First, bring your water and coconut sugar to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduced the heat and add in the test of the ingredients. For the coconut milk, take the can out of the fridge and open it up. Then, scoop out the thick cream that is left at the top and add it into your water/coconut sugar mixture. This should be about half the can (maybe a 1/2 cup). When all the cream has been scooped out, you are left with water. You are welcome to keep it for smoothies (yum), or just throw it out. Once all of your ingredients are in the pot, bring them to a slow boil and stir continuously so they do not burn. I did this for about 20 minutes. It should get a bit thicker, and darker during this time. When the time is up, transfer the sauce into jar or bottle (with a lid) and place it in the fridge. Leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours to harden up and get thicker. When you take it out, if it is too thick to pour, you may need to microwave it and shake it up. If necessary, microwave it small increments at a time, to avoid making it too hot, and in turn, too thin.

On a serious note, this caramel sauce tastes SO far from healthy. I could drink the whole bottle, I’m totally serious.