A vegan diet eschews all foods from animals, including common ingredients like eggs, cheese, milk, cream, and honey. Luckily, there are plenty of vegan desserts that come together without the use of these ingredients and taste just as good (if not better) than their non-vegan counterparts. You won’t even miss dairy and eggs in these delectable treats. Read on for ten vegan desserts, along with some tips on how to bake all things vegan, for the next time a craving hits.
How to Make Vegan Desserts
Stock your pantry with a few simple ingredients to create your own vegan desserts quickly and easily. For instance, you can use coconut oil in the place of butter. As a substitute for eggs, mix together a tablespoon of ground flaxseed meal with three tablespoons of water. Use non-dairy milk, such as almond milk, coconut milk, or oat milk, in the place of regular milk. Also, keep an eye on your sugar. Surprisingly, certain types of sugar are made using bone char. Raw sugar, beet sugar, and coconut sugar are always vegan. Or, opt for pure maple syrup for an even healthier sugar alternative.
To make a cream base for your desserts, many vegan recipes call for soaked cashews blended in a blender with some filtered water until smooth. If you’re not a fan of cashews, you can use a combination of silken tofu and soy milk to thin to the perfect consistency. Or, make your own coconut cream. Place a can of full-fat coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. Then, open the can and use a spoon to remove the coconut cream at the top, leaving the water behind.
With a little practice, making vegan desserts will become second nature and you won’t even miss the old ingredients. You’ll find out what works best for you through a little trial and error. Then, you can always keep your favorites on hand.
Top 10 Vegan Desserts
When a craving hits, be prepared with some really great vegan dessert options. We’ve gathered up some amazing vegan desserts that are sure to hit the spot:
You can always enjoy fresh fruit on a vegan diet. Packed with an abundance of freshly-picked fruit, this arrangement makes a perfect choice for a vegan dessert. It’s filled to the brim with some tempting fruit, including pineapple hearts and fresh, juicy strawberries.
2. Fresh Fruit Favorites Platter
Treat your vegan friends to this delicious fruit platter made to share. It includes all of your favorite fruit choices, such as strawberries, oranges, pineapple flowers, cantaloupe, and grapes.
3. Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
This ice cream is so good no one will even guess it’s completely dairy-free. It’s rich and creamy thanks to the coconut milk and coconut cream, while peppermint extract and vegan chocolate chips add the perfect mint chocolate flavoring.
4. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
These no-bake peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars come together in under 20 minutes. They’re made with a decadent peanut butter chocolate chip layer topped with a rich chocolate layer with cocao powder, dates, and walnuts.
A lot of vegan brownie recipes are made with black beans, but this recipe skips the beans and instead opts for dairy-free butter, sugar, flax eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla, and sea salt. The result is a decadent brownie that’s chocolatey, rich, and totally crave-able.
6. Vegan Brown Butter Peach Cobbler
This cobbler swirls together peaches and blueberries with vegan brown butter for a cake that’s caramelized on the outside and perfectly tender on the inside. Top with some vegan ice cream for the ideal treat.
7. “Bliss Bites” Healthy No-Bake Cookies
Made with chocolate, peanut butter, and rich maple syrup, these cookies really are like bliss in a bite. They combine coconut oil, peanut butter, maple syrup, cocoa powder, vanilla, and oats.
8. Easy Vegan Strawberry Shortcake
In less than an hour, you can whip up this strawberry shortcake made with homemade biscuits, fresh strawberries, and fluffy coconut whipped cream. Made with 100% vegan ingredients, it’s decadently sweet, delicious, and creamy.
Most vegan cheesecakes are made with cashews, nuts, or tofu, but this thick and creamy version skips them all. Instead, it opts for vegan cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, non-dairy milk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.
Whip up these bars with soaked cashews, lime juice, lime zest, maple syrup, coconut oil, coconut milk, and vanilla poured on a delicious cookie crust. They’re so creamy and rich, you won’t even believe they’re not made with dairy.
These vegan desserts prove that you don’t need cream, dairy, or eggs to create delicious desserts. With just a few simple ingredients, you can make some desserts that turn out so yummy, you won’t even miss the eggs and dairy.
