Easy Vegan No Bake Fudge Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is fudge not vegan? ›

What makes chocolate fudge unsuitable for vegans? Chocolate fudge is typically suitable for lacto-ovo vegetarians. However, it usually includes several prominent dairy ingredients: sweetened condensed milk, butter, and, in most cases, milk chocolate.

The main reason is that your Fudge has not reached the optimum temperature. If your mixture only reaches 110 or 112 degrees Celsius it will always be soft. That's why we recommend investing in a sugar thermometer. Another reason your Fudge is not setting is that the ratio of liquid to sugar is too high.

Fudge Didn't Set

If your fudge turned out super sticky, or it didn't set as it cooled, it probably never got hot enough. This mistake is super easy to avoid if you use a candy thermometer and cook the fudge to the temperature specified in the recipe (usually between 234 and 239°F).

We'll say it again: resist stirring.

After the mixture raches the soft-ball stage, you want to let the fudge cool to about 115° without stirring. Potential grainy moment: If you stir your fudge before it cools to 115° F crystals can form. Take a deep breath. You can do it!

Beer and Wine

Isinglass, a gelatin-based substance derived from fish, is used as a clarifying agent in some beer and wine. Other non-vegan ingredients sometimes used are casein (from milk) and egg whites.

While dark chocolate is usually vegan-friendly, milk and white chocolate typically are not. Milk Chocolate, as the name implies, contains dairy, making it not vegan, unless it is made with a nondairy milk like oat milk or almond milk. White Chocolate also frequently contains dairy products.

You have to control two temperatures to make successful fudge: the cooking temperature AND the temperature at which the mixture cools before stirring to make it crystallize. Confectionery experiments have shown that the ideal cooking temperature for fudge is around 114 to 115 °C (237 to 239 °F).

OPTION 3) Sieve together some powdered sugar and cocoa powder, and gradually work this into your unset fudge until it reaches the consistency of dough, then roll out and cut into squares, or shape into balls and then roll in powdered sugar (roll the balls in icing sugar, not yourself).

​Harden the fudge:​ Place your container or tins in the fridge for 2 hours, which is the time it takes for the fudge to set. Once it's hardened, cut the fudge into 12 pieces or remove it from the muffin tins. Store in the fridge or the freezer (if you don't devour it right away).

Fudge can turn into caramel due to overcooking or undercooking, incorrect temperatures, or wrong ingredients.

What causes fudge to get hard? ›

If there is too much evaporation, when the cooking time is too long, there will not be enough water left in the fudge and it will be too hard. Conversely, if the cooking time is too brief and there is not enough evaporation, too much water will remain and the fudge will be too soft.

It might be that you haven't dissolved all the sugar before boiling the fudge mixture. It could be that there just wasn't enough fluid or fat to enable the sugar to dissolve or it might even be that the fudge wasn't beaten long enough or hard enough.

A lot of big crystals in fudge makes it grainy. By letting the fudge cool without stirring, you avoid creating seed crystals. Stirring would help sucrose molecules "find" one another and start forming crystals.

Stir the ingredients to dissolve the sugar until the mixture comes to a boil. If your recipe uses milk, stirring will keep the mixture from curdling. But once it reaches about 236–238 degrees F/113–114 degrees C (the "soft-ball" stage), do not stir it or even shake the pan.

How do you make hard, crumbly fudge soft again? Add 3–4 US tbsp (44–59 ml) of whipping cream and remelt the fudge. If you let your fudge get too hot, the sugars will start to concentrate and the fudge will be crumbly, dull, and hard.

If there is too much evaporation, when the cooking time is too long, there will not be enough water left in the fudge and it will be too hard. Conversely, if the cooking time is too brief and there is not enough evaporation, too much water will remain and the fudge will be too soft.

Let the fudge rest at room temperature for 15 minutes before placing in the refrigerator, uncovered. Refrigerate until the fudge is firm, about 2-3 hours (or overnight), before slicing and serving.

We like to set this fudge in the freezer to make it quicker! Once you add the fudge to your pan it will need just 30 minutes in the freezer to set.