Oh boy...I'm in trouble again! It began as an experiment to use up some of my extra kefir and ended up with a carmel sauce so decadently delicious that it is half gone in just the first 12 hours since I stumbled upon it. After decades of experimenting with recipes I've concluded that nobody invents a delicious food. It already exists--all we can do is discover it. The beauty is that with tens of thousands of raw ingredients there are trillions of possible combinations. My goodness, so many delicious things to discover...so little time!
Most caramel sauces are made with lots of cream and butter. This one is made with low-fat kefir and coconut oil which is heart-healthy and has no cholesterol. It also reduces overall fat by only 1/3 the amount of coconut oil by volume as traditional caramel sauces call for in butter. Finally, I applied a principle I've been using for several years to improve the color and flavor of my homemade pancake syrup--caramelize a bit of the sugar before adding the rest of the ingredients. The result is a caramel sauce that is rich, creamy, and scrumptious with a complex combination of flavors. The hint of coconut, the burned sugar, the tang of the kefir, as well as the bite of the molasses in the brown sugar give this caramel sauce a distinctive taste that you won't soon forget--you'll need to exercise self-control or perhaps invite over a bunch of friends to help you eat it!
It is delicious on ice cream, on waffles (that's what we had for dinner last night--sometimes you just have to have breakfast for dinner), on French Toast, on pancakes, spread on whole-grain toast, drizzled on your oatmeal, and even as a dipping sauce for fresh fruit (we won't talk about eating it by the spoonful--you'll have to discover those kind of innovations yourself). It may be decadently delectable but it's comparatively good for you. OK, it has a lot of sugar, but no more per serving than pancake syrup, and yes it has some fat but far less than traditional caramel sauces and it's all coconut oil which is actually good for you. Here's a comparison between my Coconut Caramel Sauce and traditional caramel sauce (these are just a few of the health factors that are better--for details see the nutrition information for both at the end of the post):
- 27% less Calories
- 60% less Total Fat
- 98% less Cholesterol
Here is how to make Low-Fat Coconut Caramel Sauce:
- 2 cups Granulated Sugar
- 1 1/2 cups Kefir - could substitute buttermilk if you can't get kefir but the extra benefits of kefir make it worth your while to get some grains and start making it yourself
- 1 cup Brown Sugar - packed
- 1/2 cup Coconut Oil
- 1 generous pinch Salt
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 4 tsp Vanilla Extract
Use a large pot (this sauce is going to foam up and quadruple in size). Put the pot on the stove-top with the heat turned to high. After the pot is hot add the granulated sugar and burrow down to the bottom of the sugar with a spoon. Have the other ingredients ready. Now this part is important, after you put the sugar in and burrow down to the bottom of the pot STAY NEARBY because you'll need to add the kefir as soon as you see the sugar caramelize or it will burn. If you walk away to do something else you'll miss it. Look at the middle left-hand picture in the collage above. That is what it looks like when it caramelizes. The sugar at the bottom of your burrowed hole or around the edges will melt, turn brown, and you'll sometimes get a little puff of smoke. At that point pour in the kefir and stir it up quickly. This part is exciting because when the kefir hits the hot pan the whole mass hisses and splutters (best to have a long handled spoon while you do this). Add the brown sugar and the coconut oil and stir vigorously until it boils. As it begins to boil stir vigorously to keep down the rising foam. Boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda. It will foam up high so stir it down if it looks like it's going to go over the top of the pan. Add the vanilla and stir it in. Leave this to cool down to room temperature stirring in the foam periodically until it's smooth with a rich caramel color.
Now it's time to enjoy this uniquely delicious caramel sauce on everything in sight!
Low-Fat Coconut Caramel Sauce Nutrition Facts | ||
| 30 Servings | ||
 | ||
Amount Per Serving
| ||
| ||
| Calories | 114.6 | |
| ||
| Total Fat | 3.7 g | |
| ||
| Saturated Fat | 3.2 g | |
| ||
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 0.1 g | |
| ||
| Monounsaturated Fat | 0.2 g | |
| ||
| Cholesterol | 0.5 mg | |
| ||
| Sodium | 15.8 mg | |
| ||
| Potassium | 43.9 mg | |
| ||
| Total Carbohydrate | 23.7 g | |
| ||
| Dietary Fiber | 0.0 g | |
| ||
| Sugars | 23.7 g | |
| ||
| Protein | 0.4 g | |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment