Vegan Caramel Tart with Gingerbread Crust

Vegan caramel tart with a gingerbread cookie crust and chocolate ganache topping! This indulgent dessert is perfect for the festive season.

Ingredients you'll need

This easy vegan caramel tart uses only basic pantry staples and equipment! No dates, no candy thermometer, no condensed milk and no blender. This includes:

Notes about the ingredients

Vegan butter of the block variety. I haven't tested this recipe with vegan spreadable butter, though it should work if you reduce the amount of maple syrup.

Nut butter such as cashew, almond or peanut butter for the caramel! Ideally, the nut butter will be as thick as possible (I used store-bought). I'd recommend cashew or almond as they're more neutral than peanut butter.

If you can't have nuts, sunflower butter will also work. Tahini won't work as it's too runny.

Maple syrup is our main sweetener for the caramel. This tart isn't overly sweet so feel free to add more maple syrup to taste.

A complete list of ingredients, quantities and instructions are in the gray recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Gingerbread cookie crust

The crust for this vegan caramel tart is just a classic shortbread pastry but with festive gingerbread spices. It's not as sweet as regular gingerbread cookies because the caramel filling is sweet enough!

The easiest way to make the crust is to add all ingredients to a food processor (or mixing bowl) and mix until just combined. Of course, you can mix all the ingredients in a bowl!

Simply roll out the pastry on a floured surface then transfer it to your tart tin. You don't need to grease your tin as there's enough butter in the pastry to prevent it from sticking.

Prick the bottom of your pastry with a fork then bake it in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until cooked through. The tart crust doesn't really puff up in the oven so you don't need to blind bake it.

Vegan caramel with no dates

This tart features an indulgent caramel that doesn't include dates. Inspired by Food52, this caramel is made of vegan butter (or solid coconut oil), nut butter and maple syrup.

As much as I love authentic caramel, to make one that actually sets (like my vegan caramel slice) requires a candy thermometer or glass of iced water and can be a hit and miss.

To make this easy caramel, simply mix all ingredients in a bowl until smooth! The final caramel is sturdy yet gooey when straight from the fridge (like a millionaire's bar or caramel bar). Or after 30-60 minutes, it will soften a little.

If you don't have maple syrup, I'd recommend any other liquid sweetener. Unfortunately, substituting it with granulated sugar (such as brown or coconut sugar) results in a grainy caramel.

Caramel alternatives

If you can't access vegan butter or maple syrup isn't affordable where you live, I'd recommend making either a:

• date caramel adapted from my cookbook
• caramel made of brown/coconut sugar, adapted from my banoffee pie

The date caramel is pretty easy as you just have to add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

The caramel made of brown/coconut sugar is my absolute favorite as it's extra gooey and doesn't have any nuts. You don't need a candy thermometer but cooking it to the right consistency requires a little patience and experience.

I've listed the 2 alternative caramel fillings in the recipe card below.

Chocolate ganache topping

And finally, the chocolate ganache topping is pretty straightforward and easy.

Simply melt the chocolate and coconut cream in a small saucepan until half of the chocolate is melted. Remove from the heat and allow the rest of the chocolate to melt. We're using gradual heat to prevent the chocolate from splitting!

Eventually, you'll have a mildly thick chocolate liquid. If there are any puddles of oil, it means that your ganache was overheated. To fix this, simply keep whisking or use a stick blender to emulsify.

When your caramel filling has set, pour the chocolate ganache on top and return to the fridge!

Recipe customizations

Other vegan Christmas desserts

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_{This post and recipe was first published in December 2018 and has been updated for simplicity.}

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