Easy Vegan Sweetened Condensed Milk

Make vegan condensed milk easily with just two ingredients! Condensed milk is one of those things that stir up my childhood memories. My mom would have the plain kind in her tea and sometimes coffee and she would let us kids have a sip or two. This simple sweetened vegan condensed soy milk recipe brings back those fond memories without any cows harmed. Click here for the printable recipe.

Video Tutorial for Vegan Sweetened Condensed Milk

During high school and my very early “adult” years, I would often to go to Hong-Kong-style cafes (cha chaan tang) for lunch, dinner, or late night snacks. I’d get the same drinks every time: hot or iced milk tea, iced milk coffee or dong ying yang; which was half milk tea and half milk coffee. Some of my favourite meals were baked “ying yang fan” which is a type of rice dish that had both white and red sauce or Red Thai Curry in a foil packet with rice. For snacks, it was honey garlic chicken wings or thick deep-fried toast with sweetened condensed milk inside.

Even though Cha Chaan Teng are known for being fairly affordable, I stopped going as often when I became a broke college student and later a broke college graduate. Then, I never went back after I became vegan since those places aren’t very vegan friendly.

Still, I missed having those drinks. One key ingredient was sweetened condensed milk and even though I know it is out there, I haven’t found a vegan version in my local grocery stores. Finally, I got around to veganizing that ingredient and discovered it’s just as easy as making the dairy version.

I started with ordinary store-bought unsweetened soy milk. I’m not particular about brand for this one just so long as it isn’t a reduced fat variety.

Then I added sugar. A lot of it. And boiled it down until it got really thick and goopy like the canned stuff. It took a while and it’s bit annoying as you have to stand there and watch it so it doesn’t boil over and create a sticky mess, but I thought the process was worth it.

I am not sure how long it will keep in the fridge, but I would guess about one week since that’s how long the regular canned stuff lasts once it’s opened.

Besides the drinks, sweetened condensed milk is great for dipping mantou (Chinese plain steamed buns). The recipe for those will be up soon!

Printable Recipe for Vegan Condensed Milk

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Yield: 1 cup sweetened condensed milk

Vegan Condensed Milk

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Condensed milk can easily be plant-based by using milks such as soy, almond or coconut. This recipe calls for soy milk but can work with other plant-milks; you will just need to watch for change in timing. Using a wider pot will help you condense your milk in a shorter amount of time.

Ingredients

• 2 cups soy milk (475ml)
• 1 cup granulated white sugar [200g]

Instructions

1. Combine the soy milk and sugar in a sauce pan. Make sure the sauce pan is large enough to accommodate a fair bit of bubbling.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Keep watch so that you can stir down or remove it from the heat when it starts to bubble up. Be careful as this can bubble over quickly and create a sticky mess.
3. Turn the heat down to medium (or a bit lower) so that the mixture can simmer and continue to evaporate. Keep cooking until the liquid has been reduced to one cup's worth; between 15 and 45 minutes depending on the width of your pan (wider is faster). Stir occasionally.
4. Remove it from heat and pour it into a clean heat-proof container. Let cool before using. Then store for up to a week in the fridge. Enjoy!

Notes

• This mixture has a tendency to bubble up so keep a watchful eye on it. Towards the end of the cooking process, you may need to turn down the heat to avoid making a sticky mess!
• Thanks to viewer sweeteuthiedoll on YouTube for sharing this time-saving suggestion! She "used a bigger pot and because of the extra surface area, [hers] was done in minutes. Like 5-10. Definitely less than 15 though."

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

16

Serving Size:

1 tablespoon
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 61Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 15mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 0gSugar: 13gProtein: 1g

Nutritional Information automatically calculated by a plugin and may not be correct.

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