Yesterday I took the Deep Dish Apple Cranberry Pecan Pie to work for our potluck / Secret Santa / Christmas / holiday party. There was just one little problem. It looked too plain. It was beautiful in its own “real food” way, but I knew the top needed to be dressed up, otherwise I'd be bringing most of the pie home myself.

I decided that something was going to be pecans [affiliate link] and caramel. Spiced caramel, to be exact.

So I went looking on the Internet for some “real food” honey [affiliate link] sweetened caramel. For reference, here are the two I found. My recipe is slightly different than each of these, plus I added in some mulled cider-type spices.

• Easy Peasy Caramel Sauce from The Nourishing Gourmet (however, this one calls for coconut sugar)
• 3 Step Honey Caramel from Urban Poser

Spiced Caramel Dip & Topping

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk [affiliate link] (preferably the cream, harvested from the top layer)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice [affiliate link]
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon [affiliate link]
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves [affiliate link]
• 1 teaspoon vanilla [affiliate link] (homemade recipe here)

1. Mix honey, coconut milk and butter in a small heavy bottomed pan. It really helps to have a thermometer for this recipe so that you know when you should take it off the heat.
2. Bring to a boil and lower heat to simmer until you reach 245°F to 250°F which is the firm ball stage (candy making verbage). This will take at least 25 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and allow it to cool before adding the other ingredients. You can speed up the cooling process by placing the bottom of the pan in an ice water bath. Remove as it thickens and stir, then place in the ice water to cool further.
4. Once the syrup has cooled slightly and has begun to thicken, add the vanilla and spices and mix thoroughly.

Use for dipping apples, making candy, topping ice cream, inside of layers of cake, or on top of pie.