Easy Vegan Condensed Milk (No Coconut)

This easy homemade vegan condensed milk is a rich, creamy, refined sugar-free way to sweeten your favorite coffee and tea beverages and add extra wow factor to desserts. Four ingredients and 10 minutes!

Why You'll Love It

If you're anything like me you love recipes that fall into the "anything you can eat I can eat vegan" category. And sometimes it's fun to not only veganize a recipe, but to put a healthier spin on it, too.

And that's what we're doing today with this cashew-based vegan condensed milk. It's every bit as rich, thick, creamy, and sweet as you expect but without the saturated fat and refined sugar usually found in sweetened condensed milk.

If you appreciate naturally sweetened beverages and desserts, this recipe is for you!

Stir vegan condensed milk into your favorite coffee and tea beverages and creamy cocktails. Drizzle it on baked goods or fresh fruit for an elegant, easy dessert. There are so many ways to use this luscious treat.

Ingredient Notes

Raw cashews - the naturally occurring starch in cashews is what thickens the milk. This is key for making this recipe work as written, so I can't recommend any substitutes at this time.

Maple syrup - I used golden maple syrup, which is slightly lighter in color than other grades, but any pure maple syrup is fine. This is the only sweetener I've tested in this recipe so far, but I suspect agave nectar would also work.

Non-dairy milk - I used unsweetened almond, but any other milk you like is fine.

Vanilla extract - for flavor.

Fine sea salt - just a pinch, also for flavor.

How To Make It

This recipe is sooooo simple. Are you ready? The process goes like this (be sure to scroll down for the full recipe):

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender. *A high-speed blender like a Vitamix works best, but if you don't have one, soaking the cashews overnight helps.
2. Blend for about 1 ½ to 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender as needed.
3. Pour into a small saucepan over low to medium-low heat. Whisking frequently, cook for about 5 minutes until thickened and creamy.
4. If it gets TOO thick, simply whisk in another 1 or 2 teaspoons of maple syrup and a tablespoon of milk.

And that's it. Your vegan condensed milk is ready to add richness to your coffee or chai tea and add irresistible decadence to your scones, cakes, brownies, and cookies!

Or cool it completely to use on fruit and in iced beverages.

Once cool, store vegan condensed milk in a lidded glass jar or container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Ways To Use It

No need for any fancy or complicated recipes to put this dairy-free sweetened condensed milk to use.

• Use it to sweeten coffee, tea, and espresso drinks and create decadently creamy cocktails.
• Drizzle it on fresh fruit.
• Incorporate it into your favorite vegan ice cream recipes and cheesecakes.
• Use it as a glaze for baked goods like muffins, scones, and cake.
• And with the natural maple flavor of this alternative condensed milk, it's also an easy way to level-up your vegan pancakes and waffles!

Tips

If the cashew condensed milk is too thick after heating, simply whisk in more milk and maple syrup, 1 teaspoon at a time until it's as smooth and pourable as you like.

With such a short ingredient list, this creamy cashew condensed milk does have fairly strong flavors of both cashew and maple. So if you're not a fan of those ingredients or prefer a more neutral-tasting condensed milk, you may want to experiment with incorporating coconut milk, agave, or follow a recipe that use white sugar instead of maple syrup.

If you try the recipe I would love to hear from you! Comment below and let us know how you used this cashew-maple vegan condensed milk.

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