Easy Vegan Fudge Recipe

What I Love About This Vegan Fudge

• It's undetectably dairy-free, vegan, and gluten-free. My omnivore friends loved this recipe, and although it's made with coconut milk, none of them could detect any coconut flavor.
• It might be the easiest recipe for fudge, vegan or not. It's made with simple ingredients (no condensed milk!) and requires minimal prep time. Unlike some other recipes, you won't need a candy thermometer, a microwave, or even a double boiler.
• It's incredibly rich and chocolatey, and it tastes just like traditional fudge.

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

What's vegan sugar? Can I substitute the coconut milk? If you have questions about the ingredients in this recipe, check this section (or leave a comment if you don't see the answer here). For the full recipe with ingredient measurements, scroll down to the recipe card.

coconut milk: Make sure you're using the regular (full-fat) canned version. Don't worry, your fudge won't taste like coconut!

sugar: If you're using cane sugar (not beet sugar), you'll want to make sure that it's vegan sugar that hasn't been processed with animal ingredients. In the US, all sugar marked "organic" is also vegan, or you can look for sugar that's specifically labeled "vegan."

vegan butter: This adds rich flavor to the fudge and helps it firm up as it cools. Any vegan stick butter should work, including my homemade vegan butter. Refined coconut oil would also work to firm up the fudge, but the flavor may not be as rich as it would be with vegan butter.

salt: This helps enhance the chocolate flavor in this recipe. I used sea salt, but you can also use pink salt or table salt.

vegan mini chocolate chips: Choose a high-quality chocolate, because this chocolate makes up most of the candy. You could also use other forms of vegan chocolate here, like standard-sized chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, but they may take longer to melt. You'll also want to use a kitchen scale to weigh these larger pieces, since you'll get less chocolate in each cup.

vanilla extract: Adds additional depth to the flavor of the fudge.

Tips For the Best Vegan Fudge

Choose the right chocolate: Since this recipe is mostly chocolate, it's important to use high quality dairy-free dark chocolate chips. I used Cacao Barry's 50% cacao chocolate drops.

Choose the right pan: To keep each piece of fudge square, I prefer to use a pan that has square edges instead of rounded corners and slanted sides. An 8x8-inch pan will produce fudge that's about 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick. For thicker fudge, choose a large loaf pan (8x4- or 9x5-inch).

Prep your pan: Your fudge will be difficult to remove from the pan if you don't prep it with parchment paper. Cut the parchment paper to the width of the pan, but keep the length long enough so that it will hang over the edges of the pan. For the easiest removal, you can cut two pieces of parchment paper, and cross them to cover both sides of the pan.

To secure the parchment paper, grease the inside of your pan before placing the parchment paper, then attach it to the edges of the pan with a strong clip such as a binder clip. Grease the parchment paper before adding your fudge mixture.

For even easier removal, you can chill your fudge in a greased silicone mold.

Serving & Storage

After you remove your fudge from the pan, you'll want to cut it into squares. If you used a pan with rounded corners or slanted sides, you may want to slice off the edges of the fudge so that each piece is square.

To ensure straight and even cuts, I recommend scoring your cuts with a large knife before cutting. You could also measure and cut out a grid from parchment paper to help you position your cuts evenly.

After each cut, you should rinse your knife in hot water, then dry it with a kitchen towel so that you have a clean cut each time.

The best place to store your vegan fudge is in the refrigerator, either in a zip-top bag or wrapped in parchment paper and placed in an airtight container. If you need to leave it at room temperature for a while, it won't melt, but it will get a little soft. I recommend putting it back in the fridge for a couple of hours before eating it.

Your fudge will last about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. For longer storage (up to 3 months), you can freeze it in a freezer bag (or well wrapped inside a freezer-safe container).

Make It Your Own

This chocolatey vegan fudge is delicious on its own, but you can also create other flavors with these variations and add-ins.

Add-ins

• walnuts or peanuts
• creamy peanut butter
• edible cookie dough chunks
• vegan marshmallows (such as Dandies or Trader Joe's)
• crushed vegan chocolate crème cookies

Toppings

• flaky sea salt
• crushed candy canes
• vegan sprinkles or nonpareils

Variations

• soy sauce chocolate fudge: Instead of 1/4 teaspoon of salt, add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce to your fudge together with the vanilla extract and chocolate chips. This creates a unique fudge flavor that's slightly less sweet with a touch of umami.

More Vegan Christmas Sweets

The holidays are a little sweeter when you're enjoying the perfect vegan cookies, confections, and baked goods! Here are some more recipes you might enjoy:

• Ginger cookies
• Cut-out sugar cookies
• Matcha sugar cookies
• Cannoli with tofu ricotta
• New York cheesecake
• Cinnamon rolls