This recipe for salted caramel chocolate pie is a “sweet” entry in our March Recipe Madness Contest, created and submitted by Erin Evenson. To qualify, the recipe contains 8 ingredients or less, but includes Culinary Coconut Milk by So Delicious Dairy Free.
Sarah’s Tasting Notes
For the contest, Sarah of Go Dairy Free tested this recipe. She and found that this is really more of a frozen pie than a traditional chilled pie. And the caramel layer is really a creamy, caramel-flavored layer. Don’t expect a true caramel consistency for the top layer.
Special Diet Notes: Salted Coconut Caramel Chocolate Pie
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.
For a gluten-free and dairy-free caramel chocolate pie, gluten-free graham cracker crumbs are available!
- 3½ cups vegan graham cracker crumbs*
- ⅔ cup coconut oil, melted
- 3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
- 1½ cups dairy-free dark chocolate chips, melted
- 26 ounces regular, full fat coconut milk (So Delicious Original Culinary Coconut Milk used here), divided
- ½ cup muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup (such as Lyle's) or molasses
- 2 teaspoons fleur de sel (flaked sea salt)
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, coconut oil and crystallized ginger until well-combined. Press the crumb mixture into and up the sides of an 8-inch springform pan.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden brown and slightly firm. Let cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted chocolate chips and 1¼ cups (10 ounces) or the coconut milk until well-combined.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into your cooled crust and place into your freezer for at least 3 hours to freeze and firm.
- In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, combine the remaining 2 cups (16 ounces) coconut milk, muscovado sugar and golden syrup or molasses and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and whisk until the mixture has thickened and reduced, about 8 minutes. (Editor's Note: It will be creamy and caramel-like, but not a true caramel). Remove from the heat.
- Remove your pie from the freezer and pour the caramel mixture atop the pie.
- Return the pie to the freezer and freeze for another 2 hours, or until the caramel has slightly cooled.
- Remove your pie from the freezer and sprinkle with the fleur de sel. Remove the bottom from the springform, slice into 8 pieces, serve and enjoy!
4 Comments
This dessert was really frustrating for me. It tasted nice enough, but the chocolate layer was too hard at freezer temperature, and way too soft at fridge temp. And the caramel layer never set up super well, so it was a sauce at fridge temp. I kept on cooking the caramel for way longer than suggested, and added more sugar, and it still just would not set. I think the mock caramel aspect also was just not great: cooking the coconut milk for so long made it taste a bit odd. A real caramel where you add the coconut milk later in the cooking process would have left more of that creamy coconut flavor.
Don’t get me wrong: I was happy enough to nibble at it from the freezer. But I would have been extremely stressed if I was trying to make this to serve at a nice dinner to guests.
Thank you for your feedback on this!
I really liked this dessert though very rich. The chocolate layer was to die for! The caramel layer however never thickened enough and made it a bit oversweet. I cooked double the time and finally added extra brown sugar and it finally thickened a little. I had way too much graham cracker crust, very thick and double on the sides. So when I make again I would probably cut the graham layer by 1/3 or more and the caramel layer as well.
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback on this recipe Nancy!