Last Updated on September 7, 2024

This homemade vegan 5-Minute Vegan Hot Fudge Sauce is smooth and creamy, thick, and perfectly decadent! It only takes 5 minutes to make, uses only 6 ingredients: sunflower seed butter, vegan butter, raw cacao powder, date syrup, coconut milk, and pure vanilla extract.

If you’re looking for a creamy, decadent homemade hot fudge sauce that happens to be vegan and gluten-free, you’ve landed in the right place! This homemade chocolate condiment is so yummy, you can do so many things with it, or even eat it by the spoonful 🥄 .

What Is Hot Fudge?

Typically, hot fudge is a creamy chocolate sauce made with chocolate, butter, granulated or brown sugar, cream, and cream or milk for a silky smooth topping on your ice cream or desserts. It’s thicker and creamier than chocolate syrup. With just a few ingredients, you can have a yummy semi-sweet chocolate condiment for drizzling, dunking, spreading , and even frosting over your favorite sweet treats.

The 6 Ingredients

Vegan butter. Using plant-based butter gives this chocolate fudge sauce a rich buttery flavor, but without the dairy.

Sunflower seed butter. My go-to sunflower seed butter is from SunButter.

Date syrup. I used D’vash Date Syrup in this hot fudge recipe. It gives this hot fudge sauce a rich, robust flavor, while also proving some natural sweetness so we don’t need to add any refined sugars.

Raw unsweetened cacao powder. I used this cacao powder.

Coconut milk. You only want to use the solid part of a can of full fat coconut milk to keep this hot fudge sauce thick. You could also use coconut cream.

Note: It helps to store the can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight prior to making this hot fudge sauce to help separate the solid from the liquid part of the coconut milk.

Pure vanilla extract. I like this one. Make sure it’s pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla (not gluten-free!).

Why This Hot Fudge Sauce Might Be A Healthier Option

My 5-Minute Vegan Hot Fudge Sauce doesn’t contain any dairy at all, making it a great option for those who are lactose or dairy intolerant or have milk allergies.

This hot fudge uses raw unsweetened cacao powder, which is less processed allowing it to keep more of its nutritional value!

It’s naturally sweetened with date syrup which has some great benefits while adding the perfect amount of sweetness. There’s no corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup, or any refined sugars for that matter.

I include unsweetened sunflower seed butter to not only thicken this dessert sauce up, but also provide some good healthy fats, protein, and nutrients!

How To Make Vegan Hot Fudge Sauce

It’s super easy to make homemade hot fudge sauce. Simply combine everything in a small saucepan and heat the pan on the stove over medium heat. Whisk the mixture constantly and melt everything together until it bubbles (not quite a boil) and thickens. Remove from heat and use right away or pour into a glass jar and allow it to sit on your countertop to cool to room temperature or use it right away like traditional hot fudge sauce.

What Can I Use Instead Of Vegan Butter?

If you don’t want to use vegan butter, you could try using additional coconut cream, coconut butter, or coconut oil instead, though I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t guarantee the results will be the same, but it should work.

What Can I Use Instead Of Sunflower Seed Butter?

I like sunflower seed butter because it has a pretty neutral flavor, and also it’s nut free, but you may use any nut/seed butter you’d like. Cashew butter would be another good option. Peanut butter would be yummy too, but the hot fudge will definitely taste like peanut butter.

Substitutions For Date Syrup

You may use maple syrup instead of date syrup, but the date syrup is a bit thicker and more robust which helps give the fudge that nice rich flavor and color. Agave syrup could also work.

Can I Use Chocolate Chips Instead Of Cacao Powder?

I haven’t tried to make this hot fudge with melted chocolate chips instead of cacao powder, but it should work. I don’t know what the consistency and texture of the hot fudge sauce would be if using bitter-sweet, dark, or semi-sweet chocolate chips, but it should work. I don’t have an exact measurement for this replacement either.

What Can I Use Instead of Coconut Milk?

Coconut milk is magical in that when it cools, it thickens- which is why I love using coconut milk in this hot fudge sauce recipe. You could use another plant-based milk, but the hot fudge sauce will be thinner than if you use coconut milk.

How To Store This Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

Keep the jar of hot fudge sauce covered and stored in a cool, dry place for up to a week. If you want to refrigerate it and keep it stored in the fridge for a longer period of time you may do so, but it will harden so you will need to reheat it to soften it.

How To Use This Hot Fudge Sauce

There are a ton of ways you can use this easy-to-make great chocolatey recipe. Here are some ideas:

– The obvious one- drizzle this over vanilla bean ice cream or use this hot fudge sauce on your ice cream hot fudge sundae 🍨.

– Use this 5-Minute Healthy Hot Fudge Sauce as a topping on your banana split 🍌.

– Replace maple syrup drizzled over your morning pancakes with this healthy hot fudge sauce 🥞.

– Stir a spoonful or two into your oatmeal 🥣.

– Spread a layer over top of brownies for extra fudgy brownies.

– Serve as a dip with some fresh fruit, such as strawberries 🍓.

– Frost cupcakes or cakes with the hot fudge instead of frosting 🧁.

– Drizzle over vegan cheesecake 🍰 or over a pecan tart (yum!).

– You can serve this hot fudge sauce alongside a lot of desserts really!

You might also want to try these homemade recipes!

Let me know how you like this 5-Minute Vegan Hot Fudge Sauce below in the comments section, as well as giving it a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others can discover this homemade healthy alternative hot fudge recipe! Tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!