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This recipe should come in handy this holiday season. Or, really anytime you want to make something totally decadent.
Homemade sweetened condensed coconut milk!
Traditional sweetened condensed milk is made by heating milk until most of the water is removed, then adding sugar, leaving you with a thick and sticky substance that tastes downright decadent in desserts and coffee drinks.
This homemade version is naturally dairy-free, and can be used in nearly any recipe calling for traditional sweetened condensed milk, adding a hint of rich, coconut flavor to the final result. Since you’re making it yourself, you get to control the sweetness! I prefer using honey as my natural sweetener, but agave nectar, pure maple syrup, coconut nectar, coconut sugar, or stevia should work just fine.
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Homemade Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk
makes about 12 ounces
inspired by this recipe
Ingredients:
1 14 oz. can full-fat coconut milk*
1/4 cup honey, or equivalent sweetener of choice
Directions:
Pour the coconut milk into a small saucepan, and heat over medium-high heat until boiling, about 5 minutes.
Watch this pot closely! Once the coconut milk starts to boil, it can bubble over quickly. Whisk regularly to prevent burning.
Reduce the heat, bringing the coconut milk to a simmer, then add the sweetener, whisking until it’s completely dissolved.
Allow to simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half.
*Note: I don’t recommend using low-fat or light coconut milk, since those versions are usually just coconut milk that’s diluted with water to lower the fat content. You’ll have to boil the coconut milk longer, and will have less condensed milk as a result– wasting your time and money. Use the full-fat stuff for best results!
Remove from the heat, and allow to cool completely before using in recipes.
This sweetened condensed coconut milk should last for at least a week when stored in a sealed container in the fridge.
How to Make Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk
Ingredients
- 1 14 oz . can full-fat coconut milk
- 1/4 cup honey , or equivalent sweetener of choice
Instructions
- Pour the coconut milk into a small saucepan, and heat over medium-high heat until boiling, about 5 minutes. Watch this pot closely! Once the coconut milk starts to boil, it can bubble over quickly. Whisk regularly to prevent burning.
- Reduce the heat, bringing the coconut milk to a simmer, then add the sweetener, whisking until it's completely dissolved.
- Allow to simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half.
- Remove from the heat, and allow to cool completely before using in recipes. This sweetened condensed coconut milk should last for at least a week when stored in a sealed container in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
Calories per ounce: 91, Fat: 7g, Carbohydrates: 6g
I hope you’ll enjoy this non-dairy alternative as much I do! It’s a decadent addition to your weekend coffee, and makes a mean macaroon–> a recipe which I’ll be sharing later this week!
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Reader Feedback: Do you ever use sweetened condensed milk? If so, what are your favorite recipes that call for it? I remember using it to make a classic fudge recipe years ago, and I tried it once in my coffee, which made it taste more like a dessert! It’s a little too labor-intensive for me to want to use it all that often, but it’s definitely a fun treat!
So i was cooking mine and it looked wonderful and tasted great. It was about 25 minutes but was nice and thick…i was about to take it off the stove then suddenly it separated and became watery. Did it curdle? i don’t know what happened. i’m so disappointed after standing there for a half an hour!
I’m sorry to hear that! I’ve heard that coconut milk can curdle if the heat is too high, but I’ve never experienced it myself. Keeping the heat at a simmer, and not a boil, is important, so hopefully you’ll have better luck next time!
it was so strange. I don’t know what happened. It was on a low heat and just simmering nicely. I ended up using it anyway…i just put it in the blender for a second then threw it in the recipe quickly before it separated again. It still tasted good and seemed to work fine in the recipe. I’ll try again. thanks!
Hi there,
Ive been wanting to veganize a two ingredient recipe for ice cream that calls for sweetened condensed milk and heavy whipping cream. Ive made it with regular cream and condensed milk before and it was DELICIOUS and the condensed milk was paramount to the success (probably because of the thickness). Is your version as thick as the traditional kind and can a natural sugar (i.e turbanado, coconut) work as well in stead of honey?
Thank you for your help and your recipe!!
God Bless,
Kie
I’m going to make this for the same thing! I’m going to try with a mix of maple syrup and coconut sugar, the sugar to hopefully tint it a bit brown lol. Now I just need to find a dairy free whipped cream…
You can make whipped cream using coconut milk too 😉
I used whole fat. Humph… Ill give it another shot…. Thanks for the speedy reply! Have a good valentines day
Made this last night. I cooked it for about 45 and it didn’t change much. I looked up a video and it said to cook for two hours and there finished product didn’t look at all like mine. can it be heated again? I don’t really have time to go buy more coconut milk.
It can definitely be heated again! Did you happen to use low-fat coconut milk? That would double the cooking time. Otherwise, I’d just recommend keeping the temperature higher, so that it cooks down faster!
Thank you so much for the recipe! I’m just discovering coconut milk as a dairy-free alternative in cooking/baking. Good to know coconut milk makes Sweetened Condensed Milk, too. 🙂
this is amazing I can say that this is an answered prayer for my condensed milk substitute. Thank you very much and to you cindy sampey thank you you gave me an idea for honey substitute for my diabetic guest. they love it!! thanks a lot Megan and God Bless….
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks! Condensed milk is a hard one with a dairy free diet. I’ve had it with soy milk before but its very hit and miss, someitmes it comes out awesome but other timse terrible. This one worked well and I was able to make chocolate coconut truffles yay (dairy and gluten free) and they are like the real thing! I will need to try how this goes in caramel slice and cooked things
This is great, being allergic to dairy there is alot I miss out on, this opens alot of recipes to me.
Would this work as evaporated milk if I leave out the sweetener? If not do you have a recipe for evaporated milk using coconut milk?
Yes, I’ve made it without the honey, too. It works great!
Megan,
Thanks for posting this- I ran across it while trying to determine how to make a good dairy-free sweetened condensed milk using honey instead of table sugar.
I ended up going a different direction with my recipe, though: it’s not labor-intensive AT ALL. I use coconut butter, honey, and water, and it takes just a couple minutes to stir together. My recipe is at http://theprovidenthomemaker.com/1/post/2012/11/dairy-free-no-cook-sweetened-condensed-milk.html
A Brazilian friend taught me to make a pineapple filling for cakes and cookies, by boiling a can of drained, crushed pineapple with a can of sweetened condensed milk. It’s delicious, but has to simmer for a long time. If you use the coconut butter-honey recipe, you could leave the water out of it, add the crushed pineapple, and not have to simmer much at all.
Could u send me the exact instructions for making the pineapple filling for cakes and cookies??
Thanks Leanne
I’ve made this with both maple syrup and honey and used in a recipe for “Better than *Soccer*” cake… 🙂 So yummy. THANKS!