Salted Coconut Caramel Dip

She’s back in the kitchen!  Watch out, appliances – gonna take a lot more than that to keep me down!

. . . Wait, please don’t take that as a challenge!  Have mercy on me, kitchen gods.  Please.

I thought of something fantastic to do yesterday to make my kitchen a little cheerier upon my return!  I’ve had these little floral paintings lying on my kitchen counter since I moved, trying to find a place to hang them.  Every time I tried to put them up, their sizes and shapes just seemed too awkward for any one spot.  Yesterday it became very clear – hang them in that scary spot where I saw my little blood splatter.  Blegh!  Soooo much better.  Now when I look up at that place on my wall, it’s bright and cheerful instead of scary and traumatizing.  And their awkwardness is easily forgotten when they have such a purpose!

Whew.  I can cook in peace.

This is kind of the promised apple make-up recipe.  I say kind of because I was going to make a toffee dip for apples based on a dip I’d stumbled across as an accident. 

I repeatedly tried making hard toffee to coat some almonds about two months back (right?!? how good would that be?!)  Time after time I could not get the toffee to harden!  But it was so delicious, I figured I’d make the best of it and publish it as an apple dip!  Then when I tried to make it for Apple Week, suddenly my toffee decides it’s time to harden.  Not good for a dip recipe.  Grumble grumble grumble . . .

Doesn’t look like a total failure, but that giant blob on the bottom of the wax paper turned rock hard after just a few seconds.

I think I’ve figured out what happened.  But I have to test it again, and I just was not up for a recipe test.  I wanted my first recipe back in my kitchen to be easy and successful.

So instead of toffee, I’m making an awesome salted coconut caramel dip.  I raved about the salted caramel sauce I had at my first VCC dinner last month at Tower Bridge Bistro.  What I didn’t tell you (because the challenge had just started and I didn’t want to spoil any secrets) is that the awesome Chef Clay told me how to make that sauce!

So I’ve been indulging in this secret wonderful caramel sauce that is crazy easy to make.  Now that it’s November and the challenge is over, I’m spilling his little tip!  Guess what it is?  Coconut milk and sugar (plus salt of course for the salted variety.)  Um, wow.  Simple yet genius.  (Though it turns out, not so secret – I’ve since noticed it all over the blogging world – guess it just hadn’t caught my eye!)

serves 8
1/2 C light coconut milk (*see note below)
1/2 C raw sugar
1/2-1 t salt

Combine coconut milk and sugar in a saucepan or just a skillet with a decent edge over medium-low heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce is smooth and the sugar has dissolved.  

Look what a pretty process that is!

Though it turns out that opening a can is really a two-hands job.  This was the best I could do 🙁  fortunately it worked.

Next, stir in salt to taste – start with just a little.  But don’t taste it right away, that stuff is HOT!

You’re done.  So easy! 

Dip some apples in that goodness!  OR: pour into a soy cappuccino, drizzle over ice cream or apple cake, swirl in the top of brownie batter . . . soooo many opportunities. 

*A note about the coconut milk: I’ve now tried this with light coconut milk, full fat coconut milk, and just the coconut cream off the top of a chilled can (note: you can buy entire containers of just coconut cream at Asian markets and now at Trader Joe’s!)  All of them will result in a yummy caramel sauce. But the more fat you use, the thicker and creamier the sauce is.  This light variety goes really well as an apple dip and mixes into lattes wonderfully (though I didn’t realize until this photoshoot that the light version separates a little – the more I dipped apples, the creamier the dip got.  Stir that stuff up!)  But feel free to play around!  All-coconut-cream is ridiculously good too.  I’m pretty sure that’s what the brilliant Chef Clay did 🙂

Nutrition facts per serving:  Calories: 83; Calories from Fat: 32; Total Fat: 3.6g; Saturated Fat: 3.2g; Sodium: 150mg; Total Carbohydrates: 13.3g; Sugars: 13.0g; Protein: 0.3g

Gratuitous cat picture cause he was just too cute yesterday!