Several weeks ago, I went to Fomu in Allston and tried their salted caramel ice cream. Even though I was stuffed from dinner (a vegan po’ boy and unnecessary but delicious hush puppies) earlier at Root around the corner, I consumed the hilariously large ice cream and instantly became obsessed with salted caramel. In the following weeks, when I would see prepared salted caramel in grocery stores, I’d snatch it up to read the ingredients, knowing full well it wouldn’t be vegan, yet still hoping that it somehow it would be. But, no.

And then I thought: how hard could veganizing caramel be? Earth Balance can easily stand in for butter, but could cashew cream stand in for dairy cream? Why, yes!

I made my first batch with all of the ingredients listed below, except the whisky and sriracha, and it tasted amazing: rich and buttery, without being sticky or too sweet. But I wanted to introduce these two things into my second batch just to see what would happen. The whisky delivered a subtle kiss of smoke on contact, while the sriracha rounded everything out with a gentle slap of spice at the end. The flavor was addictive without being too aggressive, making this a unique snack that’s perfect to gift to another or keep for yourself.