What if I told you that you could now make your very own vegan white chocolate at home from scratch with very little effort? Let's be honest, a lot of store-bought vegan white chocolate bars can be overly sweet and not great when it comes to melting or baking.
It can be pretty tough to get your hands on high-quality vegan white chocolate. But I think you'll love this one. The secret ingredient? Besides the obvious one being raw cacao butter, it uses coconut butter for an even creamier consistency.
If white chocolate isn't really your thing, I've got you covered with this vegan milk chocolate recipe.
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📖 Recipe Overview
- Minimal Ingredients - Made using only 5 main ingredients (6 if you count the pinch of salt!).
- Easy to Make - These dairy-free white chocolate bars are fuss-free and suitable for novice bakers.
- Made with Minimal Equipment.
- Versatile - Suitable for melting, baking, and enjoying on its own!
🧾 Ingredients needed
As promised, this homemade vegan white chocolate comes together with just 5-6 main ingredients and a couple of optional add-ins. Here’s everything you’ll need:
Ingredient Notes
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Raw Cacao Butter - The main ingredient for homemade white chocolate, is the fat derived from the cacao bean.
- Coconut Butter - This is sometimes labeled as "raw coconut" or "coconut manna" and usually comes in a jar. It's practically the same as creamed coconut, which comes in block form and can be found in the Asian section of most large supermarkets. You can very easily make your own raw coconut butter from scratch at home. All you need is raw coconut flakes, a food processor, and a little bit of patience!
- Cashew Butter - This adds creaminess, and depth of flavor, and prevents the chocolate from setting too hard. It also gives a lovely slight nutty flavor to your non-dairy white chocolate.
- Powdered Sugar - It's important to use powdered sugar (icing sugar if you're on this side of the pond) for this recipe as you want to avoid ending up with a gritty texture.
- Vanilla - The best way to add vanilla to this recipe is with a vanilla pod or vanilla powder. I don't recommend adding vanilla extract as this adds unwanted liquid to the recipe. Plus, real vanilla will also give you those lovely vanilla specs!
- Sea salt - I highly recommend this as it helps to balance out the sweetness and enhance the flavor of your dairy-free white chocolate.
🥣 How to Make Vegan White Chocolate
You're just a few simple steps away from enjoying your own homemade dairy-free white chocolate. Here's how it's done:
Step 1: Prepare the ingredients. Add the cacao butter, coconut butter, and cashew butter to a large heat-resistant bowl and place it on top of a saucepan with simmering water (known as a bain-marie or water bath).
Step 2: Melt the ingredients. Make sure the water does not touch the bowl but allow the steam to rise up and gently melt the ingredients. Gently heat until all of the ingredients have melted. Whisk until melted through and smooth.
Step 3: Add sweetener. Remove the bowl from the water bath and add the sifted powdered sugar. Whisk well until the sugar has been incorporated into the chocolate mixture.
Step 4: Flavor the chocolate. Add the vanilla and salt and whisk again until the ingredients are evenly mixed.
Step 5: Mold and set. Divide the chocolate into 5 silicone chocolate molds and place it in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes. If adding nuts or fruit add these on top of the chocolate once it's in the molds.
🔪 Optional Variations
As much as I love this easy vegan white chocolate recipe just as it's written, there is lots of room for you to add your own flair:
- White Chocolate With Berries - You can get creative and add freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries or dried fruit such as cranberries to these bars.
- Nutty White Chocolate - Add chopped or whole nuts such as pistachios, roasted hazelnuts, flaked almonds, and macadamia nuts.
- Caramel White Chocolate - Add 1-2 tablespoons of lucuma powder when adding the icing sugar and mix well. This adds a wonderful slight caramel flavor to the white chocolate.
- Superfoods - You can add any powders such as matcha (for green white chocolate), maca powder, or beetroot powder (for pink white chocolate). Use these powders sparingly and make sure you sift them to remove any lumps before mixing them into the melted chocolate.
- Toasted Coconut - Add some toasted coconut or shredded coconut to these bars for a delicious coconut white chocolate bar.
📝 Recipe Tips
Prepare your equipment and ingredients ahead of time: The process of making this homemade chocolate is pretty easy but does require some care. I always recommend preparing in advance of making a recipe so that you find yourself stopping halfway through to look for equipment etc.
Avoid water and liquids. Traditional chocolate recipes are based on fats. If you add liquid, it will cause the chocolate to seize and go dull and clump together, and sieze. So remember, the most important thing when creating a chocolate recipe is to AVOID LIQUIDS at all times.
Use powdered sugars. Avoid using liquid sweeteners such as maple syrup or agave. The key is to use sugar that has a very fine powder consistency such as icing sugar. Using granulated sugar will give your chocolate a gritty texture, as sugar crystals need water to dissolve (which we’re avoiding in this chocolate recipe).
🍽 Serving Suggestions
There are endless ways to use this homemade dairy-free white chocolate. Here are some ideas to scratch the surface:
- This chocolate melts beautifully. You can serve it poured over dairy-free ice cream or other vegan desserts. Or use it for dipping in your chocolate strawberry bouquet.
- Use it to coat ice cream bars such as these blackberry white chocolate magnums.
- Chop up the vegan white chocolate and add it to baked goods such as these vegan white chocolate raspberry cookies.
- This recipe can be used as the base of vegan white chocolate ganache in recipes like this white chocolate pistachio tart. You can also use it for white chocolate mousse such as this raspberry white chocolate mousse recipe.
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
Once set, remove each bar from its silicone mold, wrap it in baking paper, and place it in an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
You could also use a natural sweetener such as Erythritol or Steviol Glycosides. Bear in mind that unless the sweetener you use is powdered, you will have little 'sweetener' crystals in the finished product
To keep this vegan white chocolate nut-free, you could try swapping out the cashew butter for sunflower seed butter.
➕ More vegan chocolate recipes
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Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ★★★★★ rating in the recipe card below and consider leaving a comment as well, thanks!
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Description
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (285 g) cacao butter
- ½ cup (80 g) coconut butter, (creamed coconut)
- 2 tablespoons (33 g) cashew butter
- ⅔ cup (80 g) icing sugar
- 1 (1) vanilla pod
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) sea salt
- Chopped pistachios, freeze dried raspberries, optional
Instructions
- Lay the silicone molds out on trays that you will easily be able to transfer to the fridge later. Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds with the back of a knife, and set the seeds aside for later. Discard the pod or use it to flavor other recipes.
- Add the cacao butter, coconut butter/creamed coconut, and cashew butter to a large heat-resistant bowl and place on top of a saucepan with simmering water (known as a bain-marie or water bath). Make sure the water does not touch the bowl but allow the steam to rise up and gently melt the ingredients. Be careful that absolutely no water splashes into the bowl as water will cause the chocolate to seize. Whisk until melted and smooth.
- Remove the bowl from the water bath and add the icing sugar. Whisk well until the sugar has been incorporated into the chocolate mixture. Then add the vanilla and salt and whisk again until the ingredients are evenly mixed.
- Divide the chocolate into the silicone molds and place them in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes. If adding nuts or fruit add these on top of the chocolate once it's in the molds. Once set, remove the bars from the molds and wrap them in baking paper, and place it in an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
- Optional Add-Ins: Freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries, dried fruit, toasted coconut, or nuts.
- For colored white chocolate: Add any powders such as matcha (for green white chocolate), or beetroot powder (for pink white chocolate). Use these powders sparingly and make sure you sift them to remove any lumps before mixing them into the melted chocolate.
- Nut-free: Swap the cashew butter for sunflower seed butter or tahini.
- Refined sugar-free: Use Erythritol or Steviol Glycosides. Bear in mind that unless the sweetener you use is powdered, you will have little 'sweetener' crystals in the finished product.
Nutrition
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*This recipe was originally published on March 26th, 2018. The recipe has since been improved and was last updated in March 2023.
