Easy Vegan Chocolate Sauce: Without Cream

Learn how to wow your friends and family with this easy homemade vegan chocolate sauce. The recipe only requires two ingredients, is made without cream and takes just minutes to make. It’s rich, velvety and feels ever so decadent. Pour it over ice cream, pancakes, waffles, bananas and more. Or use it to make the most scrumptious hot chocolate ever.

When I say chocolate sauce made without cream, I mean exactly that. There’s no need for a vegan substitute. The sauce you can see in the images here is made with leftover champagne. That said, water works brilliantly too.

I have to confess the recipe came about through a failed attempt at vegan champagne truffles. I don’t regret it though as the sauce is a revelation and so useful for so many things.

Dive Right In

• How To Fix Split Chocolate Ganache?
• Easy Vegan Chocolate Sauce
• Chocolate Sauce With Water
• Chocolate Sauce With Champagne
• How to Make Easy Vegan Chocolate Sauce
• Easy Vegan Hot Chocolate
• Swaps & Substitutions
• Difference Between Chocolate Sauce and Chocolate Syrup
• Other Sweet Sauces You Might Like
• Keep In Touch
• The Recipe

How To Fix Split Chocolate Ganache

If you’re making a standard chocolate ganache with cream, it’s fairly easy to fix if it splits or goes grainy. Just add a little more hot cream and stir until smooth.

However, if you’re making champagne ganache or water ganache, it’s not so easy. Also, if the intention is to make truffles, as mine was, there’s a limit to how much additional liquid your truffle mixture will take.

There’s one super easy way out, forget the truffles or ganache and make a stupendously smooth, velvety and delicious chocolate sauce instead.

Easy Vegan Chocolate Sauce

My easy vegan chocolate sauce recipe is my go to, whether I’m having a vegan day or a vegetarian one. It not only tastes really good, but it’s a healthier version than the cream one and it doesn’t cost nearly as much money.

It only requires two to three ingredients depending on whether you use champagne, sparkling wine, coffee, orange juice or water. No cream required.

What’s more it only takes five minutes to make. If you use chocolate buttons and you’re quick, you’ll be able to do it in less.

As the chocolate I used in this particular batch of vegan chocolate sauce is made with coconut sugar, I too used coconut sugar to sweeten it. You can, however, use golden caster sugar instead. My choice of chocolate contains 81% cocoa solids, so it does need a bit of sweetening. But how much sugar you use, if any at all, will depend on the type of chocolate you go for.

Chocolate Sauce With Water

Chocolate sauce made with water is the best way to get the most out of your chocolate. You only need two ingredients, chocolate and water. There are no other flavours to muddy the waters – so to speak. If you’re using a really good quality chocolate, you probably don’t want anything else but water and maybe a little sugar depending on how dark the chocolate is and how sweet your tooth.

However, if you’re using a run-of-the-mill chocolate, you might want to add a bit of vanilla extract to flavour the sauce or a pinch of sea salt to enhance it. You can see some other ideas further down the post.

Instead of water, you can use orange juice, coffee or champagne. When I say champagne, any sparkling wine you like will work.

Chocolate Sauce With Champagne

Making chocolate sauce is a great use for leftover champagne. In fact any sparkling wine you like works well. I’ve used cava and prosecco and they’re both good. It doesn’t matter if your wine has gone flat either as you lose the bubbles whilst making the sauce anyway.

Champagne chocolate sauce tastes slightly fruity and a little boozy. It’s delicious, but probably best enjoyed by adults.

Although I sometimes make my chocolate sauce with only chocolate and water, I always add sugar when I make it with sparkling wine. It needs a little sweetness to balance out any acidity.

How Long Does Homemade Chocolate Sauce Last?

In our house homemade chocolate sauce doesn’t last very long. If we don’t pour it over pancakes or ice-cream, we drizzle it over bananas or use it to make the most sumptuous hot chocolate.

However, this easy vegan chocolate sauce will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for at least a couple of weeks. As it’s made with water, sparkling wine or orange juice, there’s no dairy to turn it, so it lasts longer than homemade chocolate sauce containing cream.

It will thicken up quite considerably once cold, so you’ll need to heat it up again to make it pourable.

How To Make Easy Vegan Chocolate Sauce

All you need for this recipe is a few minutes of your time along with a pan, a whisk, vegan chocolate, some liquid and sugar.

Step 1. Heat Liquid

Heat the water, sparkling wine, coffee or orange juice in a small pan along with the sugar, if using. Stir as it heats up to ensure the sugar dissolves.

Top Tip

How much sugar you use will depend on your chosen chocolate and liquid. Some chocolate is more bitter than others and the cocoa content will also vary. You may find a smooth chocolate with lots of interesting flavour notes is best made with only water.

Orange juice varies as to its sweetness. If it’s particularly tart, you may want to add more sugar than the recipe states. Likewise with champagne or other sparkling wines. Coffee is quite bitter, so again you may want to add a bit more sugar.

Step 2. Add Chocolate

If you’re using chocolate buttons, no preparation is required. However, if you’re using a solid bar of chocolate, you’ll need to chop it fairly finely. I used mini buttons.

Take the pan off the heat just before it comes to a boil and then add the chocolate.

Leave for a minute so the chocolate has a chance to melt, then whisk until you have a beautifully smooth sauce.

Add any extras at this point and whisk again. See the section on swaps and additions further down this post.

Step 3. Serve

Pour into a jug and serve straight away whilst hot. Alternatively, pour into sealed jars and keep in the fridge until needed. If you do this, you’ll need to warm the sauce up before you can pour it. Or just use the set sauce as chocolate spread or to make hot chocolate.

Easy Vegan Hot Chocolate

For one person, warm up 200 ml of plant milk in a pan. Whisk in one tablespoon of my vegan chocolate sauce, then pour into a mug and enjoy.

Easy Vegan Chocolate Sauce: Swaps And Additions

Assuming you’re not using a top notch chocolate where you might not want to mask the natural notes, there are any number of additions you can make to this easy vegan chocolate sauce to enhance its flavour. Here are a few suggestions.

As already stated, you can swap the water in this recipe for any type of sparkling wine that you like. It doesn’t matter if it’s flat as it will lose its bubbles anyway.

• Booze – add a slug of your favourite spirit or liqueur. Amaretto, rum, brandy and whisky all work well. Reduce the water element in proportion to the liquid you add.
• Coffee – make a strong, medium or weak coffee, depending on preference and swap it directly with the water.
• Flavoured Chocolate Bar – use a bar or two of flavoured chocolate, such as mint, coffee, orange or chilli.
• Orange Juice – do a direct swap with the water.
• Plant Milk – for a creamier version of this vegan chocolate sauce, swap the water for your favourite plant milk. Oat milk, hemp milk and cashew milk are my favourites.
• Sea Salt – add a pinch of sea salt when whisking the sauce.
• Vanilla Extract – add half a teaspoon to the sauce when whisking it all together.

What’s The Difference Between Chocolate Sauce and Chocolate Syrup?

Chocolate syrup is generally sweeter, runnier and less rich than chocolate sauce. The former is usually made with less chocolate and copious amounts of sugar. It often contains high fructose corn syrup too. You can make chocolate sauce, on the other hand, with any number of ingredients. It’s usually made with chocolate, sugar and cream.

Chocolate sauce will set when cold, whereas chocolate syrup stays liquid at any temperature.

Other Homemade Sweet Sauces You Might Like

• Apple sauce
• Blackcurrant sauce
• Blood orange caramel sauce
• Healthy salted caramel sauce (vegan)
• Lemon sauce
• Maple tahini sauce (vegan)

Keep in Touch

Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this easy vegan chocolate sauce, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for making chocolate sauce?

I’d very much appreciate it if you could rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, please use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?

If you’d like some pancake recipes to go with the sauce, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Easy Vegan Chocolate Sauce. PIN IT.