Vegan Vanilla Fudge tastes great at any time in the year but I love to add mine to Christmas hampers. Find out more below.
Christmas Hampers
Christmas hampers are the perfect gift. Everyone loves food and drink and you can customise them for the recipient.
Each Christmas I make sweets, biscuits, savoury snacks and more for my Christmas hampers. I hand out baskets of home made treats to my Grandparents, aunties and uncles every year. Hosting a Christmas party? You'll get a Christmas hamper too! They are my favourite gift to give.
My Vegan Vanilla Fudge is definitely a staple in my hampers along with some of the other treats at the end of this post. Often I will add in different flavours or extras like fruit, nuts or marshmallows. More on variations below.
Making vegan fudge
I'm well known in my family for baking sugary treats. I'm a fan of getting out the old sugar thermometer, having made my own marshmallows plenty of times before. Now that it's possible to buy vegan Carnation Condensed Milk, I've begun making big batches of vanilla fudge.
One of the great things about this recipe for fudge is that it involves just 5 ingredients and takes about 30 minutes to make. It's going to be one of your go-to recipes when you need a sweet treat at the last minute.
Just 5 ingredients
Classic, vegan vanilla fudge is made with 5 ingredients:
- Vegan condensed milk (I used Carnation)
- Plant based single cream or milk
- Light brown sugar
- Vegan butter
- Vanilla bean paste
We are lucky that there are so many plant based versions of dairy products these days. They're often available in your local supermarket too! So no specialist shops or online orders are required.
If you can't get Carnation's vegan condensed milk (which, in my opinion, is best) you could use coconut based condensed milk but there will be a slight coconut flavour.
In this recipe I call for plant based cream (Elmlea or Oatly being my two favourite brands). If you can't get hold of plant based cream then soy milk or nut milks will work too.
For vegan butter I recommend you use a block vegan butter such as Flora or Naturli but you could use a plant based margarine too.
Heating the ingredients
Fudge is simple in that you add the five ingredients to a heavy bottomed sauce pan and then simply bring to the boil.
But, you should start this process slowly, heating the pan just enough to melt the sugar and butter.
Once everything has melted together you can turn up the heat and bring the mixture to the boil.
Using a sugar thermometer
It's important that you let the fudge reach 112 - 115 C before you take it off of the heat. It's easiest to tell this if you have a sugar or jam thermometer. They are designed to record incredibly high heats which other thermometers (like meat thermometers) are not.
If you don't want to invest in a sugar thermometer then you can have a bowl of ice cold water next to you. Drop in a little of the bubbling mixture and once it has completely cooled it should form a soft ball.
Beating the fudge
Once you've reached the right temperature it's time to take it off of the heat. This is the hardest part of the process. You need to take your spoon or spatula and beat the fudge for 10 minutes. Yes, 10 minutes (or until it is thick and has lost its shine).
It is incredibly hard work but it's worth it. Beating it makes sure you get the right texture so don't be tempted to just let it cool without the extra effort.
The Recipe
Classic Vanilla Fudge
Ingredients
- 379 grams Vegan condensed milk
- 150 millilitres Soy milk Or other plant milk
- 1 vanilla pod seeds only
- 450 grams light brown sugar
- 115 grams Vegan butter softened
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in a heavy bottomed non stick pan over a low heat until they have all melted together.
- Bring the mixture to the boil and then simmer for 10-15minutes stirring continuously.
- Keep stirring until the mixture hits soft-ball stage on a sugar thermometer (roughly 118 degrees C) or until the mix sets when dropped into ice cold water.
- Remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring/beating the fudge until it cools down and begins to thicken.
- Do this for roughly 10 minutes. Until it is cool enough to touch, is thick and glossy, but is still runny enough to be poured.
- Pour the molten fudge into a rectangular pan lined with grease proof paper.
- Set to one side and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.
Nutrition
Variations
This is a classic vanilla fudge recipe so can easily be jazzed up a bit!
Why not add:
- nuts
- dried fruits
- marshmallows
- crumbled cookies
- cocoa powder
- your favourite alcohol to flavour
You can also dip the fudge into chocolate once it has set!
More hamper ideas
Do you put together hampers of baked treats for your friends and family? What kind of things do you include? Mine are often sweets and biscuits as you can see below! You can never have too many during the festive season...I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments!
All of these recipes can be made plant based if you want to make a completely vegan hamper!
wimmonday says
Looks yummy! 🙂
efwalt says
Thanks! Tastes pretty good too :-p you should give it a go!
wimmonday says
I think I just might! Happy holidays! 🙂
rollcinnamon says
Thats 30 mins of strring then???
efwalt says
Pretty much I'm afraid! Good to have a helper on hand to assist with checking temps etc as you stir 🙂
rollcinnamon says
Sorry stiring
rollcinnamon says
Ok quick question where are you on the fudge continum? Tablety,Crumbly, chewy, gooey or melt in the mouthie? Mine ends up one of these each time i make a batch!
efwalt says
This is melt in the mouthy 🙂 and pretty consistently so! Though I do love tablet...will have to work out what's different for making tablet next time!!
rollcinnamon says
Ok will try your recipe but might double the quantity to make all the stiring worthwhile
efwalt says
Haha I like your thinking!!! 😀 the more fudge the better.
Jon says
Just made this, enough for a big slab of fudge, the taste and texture I love. I used an electric whisk to get it to the right consistency when the fudge was taken off the heat. I also used a teaspoon of vanilla extract as I had no vanilla pods, added when the molten fudge had cooled just a little but was still liquid.
Emma Walton says
Sounds fab Jon. You've got me drooling! Glad you've enjoyed it 🙂 good idea using the electric whisk and swapping the vanilla extract in!
sarahg says
Condensed milk is not vegan......
Emma says
You can buy vegan condensed milk. Nestle do a version and you can buy coconut derived condensed milk too