This recipe for dairy-free hot fudge sauce was originally shared with us ten years ago (yes, 10!) by Blue Diamond Growers, the makers of Almond Breeze. In looking through our archives, I noticed that this “must have” recipe needed a little TLC. So I asked Leah to test it out, tweak as needed, and photograph it. I think she did a beautiful job, don’t you?
I was worried that the original dairy-free hot fudge sauce recipe was too sweet. Leah agreed that it looked a little sugary, so she swapped unsweetened chocolate almond milk for the original. She also used brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup, because it tends to be a smidgen less sweet.
Leah said, “It turned out really good! Still very sweet, but tasty. The consistency never got very thick, I’m not sure if that’s because of the changes I made or if that’s how it’s supposed to be. It definitely thickened up more after it sat in the fridge overnight though.”
I’m not sure if the brown rice syrup would affect the thickness or not, but it’s very possible that cutting down the sugars via the almond milk beverage reduced the thickening abilities just a touch. If you do want a thicker dairy-free hot fudge sauce, you can reduce the almond milk beverage by 1/4 cup. If it ends up too thick for your liking, just whisk in a little more liquid, as needed.
Leah loved this dairy-free hot fudge sauce with strawberries, but I’m pretty sure it would be great on dairy-free ice cream sundaes and drizzled into shakes, too. It would even make a great fondue, with banana slices, pretzels, and dairy-free cookies or cake chunks for dipping.
Special Diet Notes: Dairy-Free Hot Fudge Sauce
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, optionally soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.
For nut-free, dairy-free hot fudge sauce, you can swap in the “safe” chocolate milk beverage of your choice. The original recipe actually called for regular chocolate milk beverage, but we preferred unsweetened to cut the sugars and sweetness down a bit.
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ cup water
- Generous pinch salt
- 1 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk beverage
- 1 cup corn syrup or brown rice syrup
- 4 ounces dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, divided
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Whisk the sugar, cocoa, water, and salt together in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Remove from the heat, and whisk in the almond milk beverage, syrup, and half of the chocolate.
- Return the pan to the stove over medium heat and stir frequently until the chocolate becomes thick, sticky and reaches 225ºF on a candy thermometer, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and immediately stir in remaining chocolate and vanilla extract.

8 Comments
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Thanks for posting! Does this stay in liquid pourable form or do you have to reheat it?
The chocolate chips will cause it to set up a little when chilled.
Could I use just regular unsweetened almond milk instead?
Yes, you can. If it isn’t chocolaty enough for you, you can add 1 tablespoon cocoa powder.
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