10 Homemade & Healthy Coffee Creamers

Forget the artificial stuff, make your own tasty coffee creamers!

I love coffee, and a good coffee creamer that enhances the flavor of the coffee is an elevation of the morning beverage. Coffee creamers can, depending on the flavor, also be used in other hot or cold beverages, like hot cocoa and tea (think chai!)

But store-bought creamers are kinda gross, as a general rule. They contain artificial ingredients and the flavors tend to reflect this fakeness, not to mention ingredients like corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils. I prefer my food real and whole, and the wide variety of 10 coffee creamer flavors presented here call for nothing but natural and organic ingredients. No fake extracts are even used! But if you’re looking for exact taste replacements for mass produced creamers with flavors made in a lab, you won’t find it here. What you will find are real, depth-filled flavors that you can feel comfortable drinking every day. And they taste fantastic!

THE BASE

There are several options for your creamer milk base, and you can decide which one you’d like to use. Other bloggers for homemade creamer use sweetened condensed milk for part of the base, but I prefer not to use this as an ingredient (though I do provide this as an option if you want to go that route). Sweeten condensed milk is made from sugar and milk and has a thick consistency, but I feel it is too sweet for my tastes. And, I prefer to have more control over my milk and sugar sources.

Fake creamers do have a chemically induced creamy richness that many people say they can’t live without. Sweeten condensed milk does provide some of this, but I think it is cloyingly sweet and overpowers any real flavor. But if creaminess is your own personal Nirvana, check out the nut-based creamer recipes; the nuts in those recipes give the creamer a natural thick, richness that surpasses any store-bought creamer.

So, the choice for your base is really up to you! The 10 creamer recipes are made using about two cups of liquid; you can increase the quantity of ingredients proportionally if you want to make more than two cups of creamer at once.

Here are your base options:

Plain and simple:

If you just want flavoring for your coffee and aren’t picky about things like creaminess, this is the option for you. This also works if you are lactose-intolerant or vegan, and want to avoid milk products:

2 cups whole milk, half-and-half, or nut milk

Sweeten condensed milk option:

Here is the option for sweeten condensed milk, if you decide you want to go that route:

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (7 ounces)
1 1/2 cups whole milk or half-and-half

Heavy whipping cream and half-n-half:

This is what I use as my base; I stick with a combination of heavy whipping cream and half-and-half or whole milk. The heavy whipping cream delivers thick creaminess while adding half-and-half/whole milk prevents the thickness from being too overpowering:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk or half and half

THE RECIPES

A note on sugar: for these recipes I err on the side of “light” sweetness. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth, and I like my creamers to be a bit more versatile; when I want more sweetness I can just add it after I add my flavored creamer to my coffee. So if these recipes don’t seem sweet enough to you, simply add more of whatever sweetener is called for in the recipe after you’ve tasted the end result.

For all of these recipes, I use a high-speed blender to incorporate my ingredients into my base. This is a quick and easy way to get everything incorporated, especially for the nut-based recipes. But beware! Make sure you don’t process too long or at too high a speed, or else you’ll end up making flavored whipped cream! I speak from experience! With my high-powered blender I limit my whizzing to about 15 seconds or so.

Hazelnut

HAZELNUT

This is the real deal, and it tastes like real, honest-to-goodness hazelnuts! Toasting the nuts is a necessity; don’t skip this step. If you do, you’ll be disappointed in the taste of your creamer.

2 cups base
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted
1 tbls sugar (I use organic sugar for this recipe, you can use honey or maple syrup, but that will affect the taste.)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Take your hazelnuts and toast them over medium heat in a skillet, stirring constantly, until they begin to brown and start giving off a lovely aroma. (You can also place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally). They are done toasting when the nuts are fragrant.

Pour your toasted nuts into a kitchen towel and let them cool completely. After the nuts are cool, fold your towel up and give the nuts a good shake and rub; this will remove the papery husks from the nuts (this won’t work well until the nuts have cooled). If there are a few stuck hulls, don’t worry. You just want most of them gone.

Place all ingredients into a blender and whizz for about 15 seconds or so, until the nuts are broken apart into small pieces (but don’t turn your base to whipped cream…while the end result of over-blending is great as a pudding-like dessert, not so much for a creamer). Pour into a saucepan and heat over low heat until warm. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes, then strain and pour into a container to store in the refrigerator. Shake well before using.

Pecan Pie

PECAN PIE

2 cups base
1 cup pecans, toasted
2 tbls maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp bourbon (optional)

To toast your pecans, you can either place them on a cookie sheet in a 350F oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, or toast them in a skillet over low heat, stirring constantly. With either method, stop toasting when the pecans start giving off their tasty aroma.

Place all ingredients in a blender and whizz until the nuts are chopped fine. Warm in a saucepan over low heat, then let steep for at least 30 minutes. Strain, and pour into your container for the refrigerator. Shake well before using.

Coconut

COCONUT

2 cups base
1 cup coconut flakes
2 tbls sugar (I use organic)

Place all ingredients in your blender and whizz until incorporated and the coconut flakes are chopped fine. Strain your creamer to remove the larger bits of coconut flake, and store in the refrigerator.

Rosewater and Honey

ROSEWATER AND HONEY

When I first created this creamer, I fell in love with it! The scent and taste are perfect for afternoon cups of coffee, and I like it in tea, too. If you like more unconventional tastes, give this a shot!

2 cups base
2 tsp pure rosewater
3 tbls honey
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Place your ingredients in your blender and whizz for about 15 seconds until incorporated. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use, and shake well.

Cardamom Cream

CARDAMOM CREAM

This is probably my favorite of the creamer flavors I developed. Cardamom goes great with sweet dishes, like cinnamon does, and is a great option for a coffee creamer because of this.

2 cups base
3 tsp ground cardamom
6 cardamom pods, split open and seeds added to base
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbls sugar

Place all ingredients in your blender and whizz until combined! Pour into a container and store in the refrigerator, shaking well before use.

Mayan Mocha

MAYAN MOCHA

.If you like spicy food, give this creamer a try! You might find it to be a bit addicting! But I did make this spicy, so be prepared for a kick!

2 cups base
4 tbls cocoa powder
5 tbls honey
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients in your blender and whizz until combined. Pour into a container and store in the refrigerator, shaking well before use.

French Vanilla

FRENCH VANILLA

You can’t beat the taste of real vanilla! While you can use all pure vanilla extract for this, using beans will just make it that much better (but be sure to shake before use; as you can see from the photo, the beans will float to the top).Since vanilla is the star here, elevate it with real beans!

2 cups base
1 tsp fresh vanilla beans, scraped from about 10 vanilla pods (or you can use vanilla paste)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (double if you’re not using the real beans)
1 tbls sugar

Place all ingredients in your blender and whizz until combined. Pour into a container and store in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin Spice

PUMPKIN SPICE

A Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte costs an arm and a leg, yet all it is is pumpkin pie spice mix and milk. Make your own:

2 cups base
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 tbls maple syrup
1 tbls pumpkin puree (optional but a nice addition)

Place all ingredients in your blender and whizz until combined. Pour into a container and store in the refrigerator. And shake well before use, of course!