Vegan Cooking Hack: Sweetened Condensed Milk

I've been ovo-lacto vegetarian for about 13 years now. I'm still ovo-lacto, but in the past couple of years I've started trying to cook exclusively vegan food when I'm responsible for meals (which I succeed at about 95% of the time), but when other people are cooking or I'm at a restaurant or whatever, I just go ovo-lacto.

Until recently, I've just forgone any recipes I used to make that included sweetened condensed milk. However, a few weeks ago I had some fantastic macaroons at Bread & Roses in Toronto (in Bloor West Village), and wanted to try and make a vegan version of them. As it happens, I need sweetened condensed milk for that, but haven't been able to locate a commercially-available version (and certainly not in the city where I live!). I figured "hey, sweetened condensed milk is just basically milk and sugar and thick, and I can do that vegan." After some research on the internets I found a few recipes, but most of them included soy milk powder, which I think is teh gross. This is what I devised instead.

SWEETENED CONDENSED UN-MILK

Ingredients

• 3T corn starch
• 1&1/4c soy milk
• 3/4c coconut milk
• 1&3/4c sugar (white or brown or a combination thereof, depending on what you're making; brown will give it a more caramelly taste, but will also make it, um, brown)

Instructions

• Mix the corn starch with 1/4c of the soy milk in a small bowl, and stir to mix.
• Combine the remaining 1c soy milk, coconut milk, and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until it starts to boil.
• Stir the corn starch mixture again, and add to the saucepan, whisking constantly.
• Reduce the heat to low, and continue to cook until thickened (about 1-2 minutes).
• Cool and use as you would sweetened condensed milk!
  

This yields a little more than 2 cups, which is approximately equal to 2 small cans of sweetened condensed milk.

My first attempt at macaroons are cooling as we speak! If they turn out, I'll post the recipe soon!