Vegan Carmelitas

A carmelita (or caramelita) is an oat-based bar cookie that has a ribbon of caramel sauce running through its middle.  Its filling typically contains chocolate chips and nuts as well. It’s a sweet and rich treat that’s almost a cross between a cookie and a candy bar. With vegan candy bars few and far between, desserts like this can be a nice alternative.

If you’re a real caramel fan, feel free to double the caramel filling. You could double any of the other filling ingredients (the chocolate chips, the coconut, or the slivered almonds) if you wish also.

Vegan Oatmeal Carmelitas

Dry ingredients:

2 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 ½ cup turbinado or demarara sugar

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg (optional)

1/8 tsp cardamom (optional)

Wet ingredients:

¾ cup oil

1/3 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp maple extract or mapelline (optional)

¼ tsp almond or coconut extract (optional)

Caramel filling:

1 cup agave nectar

1 cup soymilk

1 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp vegan margarine or vegetable oil spread

3 Tbsp flour (more whole wheat pastry would be fine)

½ cup vegan chocolate or carob chips

½ cup shredded coconut

½ cup slivered almonds OR any other nut you like

Directions:

Preheat to 350 degrees F.

To make the base: Mix together dry ingredients (oats through cardamom). Mix together wet ingredients (oil through almond extract). Using your fingers, combine dry and wet mixtures until well incorporated. Press 2/3 of this dough into the bottom of a sprayed 9 by 13” pan (or two 8” or 9” square pans), reserving rest of dough. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Pull out of the oven and set aside.

Agave caramel

To make caramel filling: Mix soymilk and lemon juice and let sit for a minute or so. Add soy-lemon mixture to a tall-sided saucepan along with agave nectar. Clip a candy thermometer on the side of the pan so that its tip is submerged in the agave-soymilk liquid but not touching the bottom of the pan. Cook over medium to medium-low heat, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pan until you reach 230 degrees F. Pull pan off the burner and quickly stir in the 3 Tbsp of flour, salt and cinnamon. Put pan back on burner and cook 1 minute more, stirring constantly. Pull it off the heat again and stir in vanilla and margarine.

Sprinkle chocolate, nuts and coconut over baked oat base. Pour caramel sauce on top. Pour carefully because it will not be easy to spread. Sprinkle reserved oat dough on top, breaking up any large clumps. Press down gently into an even layer with your hands, taking care not to touch any hot caramel sauce. Bake 20 minutes more, until lightly browned.

Let cool for at least an hour before attempting to cut, or the caramel will be oozy. Slicing is somewhat difficult, but may be easier if you score the pieces most of the way through and then break them apart with your hands. I like to cut them into somewhat small pieces because of their richness.

Note: The caramel sauce, minus the flour, can be made on its own and used for anything you would use store-bought caramel topping for, including vegan ice cream sundaes.

Edited to add: The last time I made these, I increased the proportion of caramel by 1/3, and added 1/2 tsp maple extract/mapelline to the caramel. They were even  better!

Vegan Chocolate Covered Caramels

Valentine's Post #4. This recipe turned out pretty nice. It's the first recipe I've posted that has involved the whole candy thermometer/boiling hot sugar rigamarole.  I'd recommend you shoo the kids and pets out of the kitchen for the caramel making.  Cooking sugar can be dangerous--not only does sugar boil at a much higher temperature than water, it's sticky, which means that if hot liquid sugar does get on you, it will stick to your skin and keep burning you until you can scrape it off. That means you can get a much worse burn than with something like water. So be careful and stay focused during the dangerous parts.

All that said, I didn't find this recipe too difficult. I believe the agave-based caramel may be less prone to crystallization than sugar-based caramels.

A chocolate covered caramel, A chocolate caramel with a layer of peanut butter fudge, and a wrapped vegan caramel.

Chocolate Covered Caramels

Caramel:
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup soy milk
1/4 tsp lemon juice
a dash or two of cinnamon (optional)
1 tsp margarine (I used smart balance light)
1/4 tsp vanilla

a pinch of salt (optional--Iforgot this time)
Nuts (optional)

Mix lemon juice and soymilk and let sit for a minute. Pour into a saucepan with the agave nectar and cinnamon; stir.  Bring to a boil, stirring intermittently. Cook to the firm ball stage, 245-250 degrees F. I went to about 248. Stir continually (and watch like a hawk) for the last several degrees, scraping the bottom to prevent burning.

Cooking the Caramel

When you reach temperature, pull the pan off the heat and stir in the margarine, vanilla and salt. Pour into a pan that is oiled, lined with wax paper, or both (caramel is the very definition of sticky). Spread it out a little if necessary. Let cool. You can score it before it cools completely if you want.

Nuts can be sprinkled on top before it cools, or stirred in before it's poured.

Cooling caramel, half covered with nuts

Chocolate coating:
3/4 cup vegan chocolate or carob chips
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp soymilk

Melt chocolate and peanut butter and stir in soy milk. Pour out 1/3 to 1/2 of the chocolate mixture into a rectangle slightly larger than your caramel. Lay your cooled caramel on top. Pour the rest of the chocolate over the caramel. Cut when cool.

Alternatively, you could cut the caramel into squares and dip them individually into melted chocolate.

That would be a bit more labor intensive, though.

This recipe double or triples fine, by the way.



Here's a fun variation that's a little fancier--it has an additional peanut buttery layer.

Chocolate Covered Caramels with a layer of Fudgy Peanut Butter Filling:

Make one batch of Caramel recipe above
Make one batch of Chocolate coating recipe

Make Fudgy Peanut butter Filling:

2 Tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp agave nectar (or other syrup)
2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup carob powder*

Mix together wet ingredients. Work in powdered sugar and carob. Knead like bread dough for while. If it refuses to come together, add a little more water. Press into a wax paper lined loaf pan. Chill.


*If using cocoa, for this recipe you might want to decrease by a few tablespoons and increase powdered sugar the same amount.

Fudgy Peanut Butter Filling

To Assemble:
Pour a layer of chocolate mixture into a wax paper lined loaf pan. Lift fudge filling out of its pan and place on chocolate layer. Place a layer of caramel on top of that. Pour rest of chocolate mixture over top and sides. Chill and cut into bite-sized pieces.

You can also choose to make a half recipe of the chocolate coating and just pour it over the top and sides of the stacked peanut butter filling and caramel without bothering with the bottom foundation of chocolate coating. I found there was a certain tendency for the bottom to flake off anyway.

The fudge filling can also be eaten straight, or covered in chocolate without the caramel.

This one went over pretty well.  I liked that the fudge filling didn't need to be cooked and came together pretty fast.

Chocolate covered peanut butter caramels