Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars (Gluten-Free)

Creamy and fudgy homemade vegan nougat encased in a chocolate shell ready in just a few minutes with 7 ingredients. These chocolate bars are a re-make of the classic British Milky Way bar and are naturally gluten-free and easy to make.

After sharing my ultimate childhood favourite, the Chocolate Covered Honeycomb bar, I asked for your favourite chocolate bars that you’d want to see. There were so many fabulous suggestions that just brought me back to sitting in front of a box of celebrations (or Quality Streets, Heroes, you name it…) and trying to choose which one to eat. I’ve played around with Mini Vegan Snickers and have made the best Biscoff Caramel Bars and now it’s time for the milky way-style of chocolate bar.

These Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars are:

• Creamy and fudgy inside
• Filled with almond and coconutty nougat
• Encased in luscious chocolate
• Melt in your mouth delicious
• No-bake and no fancy equipment
• Ready in 15 minutes (plus chilling time)
• Naturally vegan, gluten-free and easily refined sugar free

I have to say that it’s been a long time since I had a milky way bar, so this is done by word of mouth and a lot of research. I soon found out that a Milk Way bar is different in the UK to the USA, for example. Both have a light nougat base but the American version has a layer of caramel and the British version does not. Both, however, are coated in lots of sweet chocolate. The essential part is the nougat and I set about developing a naturally vegan, whole-foods based nougat recipe, inspired by the British Milky Way, and this one is pretty amazing.

Read on for the full recipe and method to make these Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars and let’s see what goes into them.

• Cashews: this makes for the creamiest filling and there is a regular overnight soak and quicker soak option below, too.
• Coconut cream: you can either use a tin of coconut milk, chilled in the fridge overnight and then scoop out the hard cream or use a tin of coconut cream. This adds to the lovely creamy texture.
• Coconut oil: this helps to hold the nougat bars together.
• Maple syrup: this adds the sticky sweetness to the bars and you could also use another syrup like agave, brown rice or vegan honey.
• Vanilla essence: just a dash for the lovely sweet flavour.
• Ground almonds: this adds such a great texture to these nougat bars! After some research, this seemed like a common ingredient to use in vegan nougat and for good reason. The melt into the mix so they are not grainy but they hold their shape.
• Salt: to bring out all the flavours.

The method is very simple to make the nougat centre for these Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars, simply soak the cashews until soft and then blend all the ingredients together. The mix will be smooth, taste delicious and be comfortingly sweet and sticky. I like to use silicone moulds to make the bars as neat (and as easy) as possible but you can also pour the mix into a lined tin. Pop them in the freezer for a few hours (or overnight) until set. They will feel very hard when straight out of the freezer, but don’t worry, they do turn really lovely and squishy like a classic nougat.

For best results, cover the Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars with chocolate while they are cold from the freezer. The nougat will soften easily and quickly so you can also work in batches, too.

I like to coat the nougat pieces or bars in dark chocolate and then drizzle over some dairy-free white chocolate, too, but you can leave them plain. Store these Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars in the fridge, as you’ll notice after 10 minutes at room temperature, they really do melt in the mouth!

I have to say, I was pretty blown away by how delicious these nougat bars are, and I cannot wait to play around with different flavours, adding some extra layers in there and enjoying even more Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars.

If you are looking for more chocolate bar recipes, how about my:

• Vegan Chocolate Covered Honeycomb
• Mini Homemade Snickers
• Ginger Chocolate Caramel Slices
• Double Biscoff Caramel Bars
• Easy Vegan Chocolate Tiffins

Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars (Gluten-Free)

• Servings: 6 large or 18 smaller bites
• Time: 15 minutes plus 4-6 hours chilling
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Creamy and fudgy homemade vegan nougat encased in a chocolate shell ready in just a few minutes with 7 ingredients. These chocolate bars are a re-make of the classic British Milky Way bar and are naturally gluten-free and easy to make.

Ingredients

For the nougat:
• 150g cashews
• 400ml tin coconut milk, chilled (or 130g coconut cream)
• 50g coconut oil, softened
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 50g ground almonds
• A pinch of salt
For the chocolate:
• 200g dairy-free chocolate
• 30g dairy-free white chocolate

Directions

1. Chill the coconut milk in the fridge overnight. Soak the cashews by covering them in filtered water, covering the bowl and leaving for 6-8 hours or overnight. Or, add them to a saucepan of water, bring to the boil, remove from the heat and leave with a lid on for 15-20 minutes. Rinse and drain the cashews.
2. Scoop out 130g of the coconut cream from the tin of coconut milk (solid part only) and add to a blender with the cashews, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla essence, ground almonds and salt. Blend until really smooth and creamy.
3. Pour into a silicone mould (mine are roughly 10cm x 4cm each bar and it makes 6 bars) or a parchment lined tin. Smooth over the top and place in the freezer for 4-6 hours, or overnight until set.
4. Melt both of the chocolates separately. Remove the nougat from the moulds or tin and slice into your preferred sized pieces. Cover in the milk/dark chocolate and place on a parchment lined tray. Allow to set for 5 minutes then drizzle over the white chocolate. Chill in the fridge for 5 minutes until set.
5. Eat straight away or keep in a sealed container in the fridge for 1 week or in the freezer for 2-4 weeks.

I look forward to hearing what you think of these Vegan Chocolate Nougat Bars so please let me know in the comments below. if you do make these nougat bars, I’d love to see them so please tag me in your chocolates – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With chocolate nougat love x