The convenience of refrigerated coffee creamer (sans the additives and preservatives of store bought) can be yours with this 4-ingredient, 5-minute, natural Vanilla Coffee Creamer, flavored with vanilla extract and sweetened with maple syrup!
If you enjoy delicious, all-natural coffee treats, you'll also love Caramel Coffee Creamer!
Who out there enjoys a cup (or five) of coffee in the morning? {*Raises hand.*} Growing up, my parents always drank their coffee black. I didn't understand it then and I can't tolerate it now. My hubby drinks his with a splash of milk but no sugar, which honestly, I don't find much better. Me? I need plenty of cream/milk, sweetener, and ideally some sort of flavoring.
But several years back when I started paying attention to food labels and incorporating more "real foods" into my family's diet, I was appalled at the ingredients found in my favorite flavored coffee creamers. How could something so tasty incorporate so many unpronounceable additives?
Alas, in the years since that revelation, I've been forgoing all of the fun, flavored coffee creamers and making due with milk and sugar, and sometimes a splash of flavored coffee syrup (which isn't ideal either with its preservatives and occasional food coloring, but at least it contains less junk than the store bought creamers). Recently, however, I've been on a make-my-own kitchen staples kick, and it occurred to me that surely it wouldn't be too hard to whip up my very own batch of flavored coffee creamer to store in the refrigerator and enjoy all week long.
Ingredients
Sure enough, it was beyond easy. In a matter if minutes I had rich, delicious coffee creamer, made with real milk and cream, flavored with my most beloved brand of vanilla extract, and sweetened with pure maple syrup (instead of the sweetened condensed milk found in some versions of homemade coffee creamer).
You might be wondering if the resulting coffee tastes maple-y and the answer is no. I know that I'd be better off learning to drink my coffee unsweetened altogether, but if I'm going to ingest breakfast-time sugar on a daily basis, at least maple syrup is natural and unrefined.
If you've followed this blog for awhile, you've probably noticed that I use maple syrup to sweeten recipes quite regularly. I get a great deal on big jugs of pure maple syrup ordered from Amazon (Coomb's Family Farms 100% Pure Organic Grade B Maple Syrup is my favorite, just in case you're wondering), and you'd better believe I put those jugs to good use.
Tweaking to Your Liking
I'm very pleased with this recipe as a starting point, but know that you can easily adjust the richness of your creamer by tweaking the ratio of milk to heavy cream, and you can make it more or less sweet by fine-tuning the maple syrup to your liking.
But the very best part of this coffee creamer? For at least the next few days (or until the novelty wears off), this chronically sleep-deprived mama is actually looking forward to waking up...just so I can enjoy another mug of creamy, vanilla-laced coffee, thanks to this quick and easy recipe. 😉
More Make-Your-Own Kitchen Staples
- Homemade Cinnamon Syrup
- {5-Minute, 5-Ingredient} Homemade Caramel Sauce
- Homemade Cornbread Mix
- Homemade Chili Seasoning Mix
All-Natural Homemade Vanilla Coffee Creamer
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine cream, milk, and maple syrup in a small pot set over medium heat. Stir together until bubbles start forming around the edges of the pot and mixture is very warm. Remove pot from heat and blend in vanilla. Allow to cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes before transferring to a jar or bottle and storing in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days.
Notes
- Feel free to adjust the milk-to-cream ratio if you prefer your creamer lighter or richer, and you may also tweak the amount of maple syrup depending on how sweet you like your coffee.
- If you are bothered by the skin that forms on top of the creamer while it sits at room temperature, you may strain the creamer through a fine mesh sieve before storing.
Slightly adapted from Deliciously Organic
Mehek
OMG!!! I just made this creamer, but I made a few tweaks . I added powdered sugar instead of maple syrup ... It’s the best creamer ever!! Thanks for the recipe 💜
Christine Jackson
Ongosh... best coffee creamer ever. I don’t do dairy so i used oatmilk and silk heavy cream, 1/4 tap ground vanilla bean and the tbsp of vanilla extract with half of the maple syrup....oh my!! Soooo good! Thank you for sharing.
LeCase
Thank you so much for this one!
Vera
What do you use to store it in?
And is there anything else you could use to substitute for the maple syrup?
Joni
Hi Samantha,
Just found your recipe for vanilla coffee creamer. I'm a morning coffee drinker and prefer it "creamed with a little sweetener." Found what I thought was a great creamer but all the extra 'garbage' just puts me off.
A question ... what happens if you eliminate the heavy cream -- trying to cut down on fat calories! I also want to use vanilla to help with the flavor of "plain, no-fat Greek yogurt. Waddya think? Joni
Samantha at Five Heart Home
Hi Joni! You should be able to replace the heavy cream in this recipe with a lighter option -- such as half-and-half -- or simply make the recipe with all milk (using 2 1/4 cups total). Your coffee creamer just won't turn out quite as rich. You mentioned Greek yogurt in your comment but I'm not positive if you were asking if this could be used instead of the heavy cream? I've never tried stirring yogurt into coffee so I'm not sure how that would turn out, if it would curdle, etc. And you mentioned vanilla, but that's already in the creamer recipe. You could definitely boost the amount of vanilla a bit but I'd be careful about using too much. Hope that helps and hope you have a great weekend! 🙂
Mama Bear 1980
Personally I'd go for the 2% milk or you could use '' evaporated lowfat 2%milk'' the kind that I have right now is the carnation which is also ''gluten free'' .. I like mine extra sweet so I just use the 2% milk to feel better about putting in the can of sweetened condensed milk in for the sweetner..
Gina
I love that this doesn't use sweetened condensed milk. We can always taste the "can" flavor when making it with that! 🙁 Definitely trying this one.
Samantha at Five Heart Home
I agree, Gina...I can't do the sweetened condensed milk creamer recipes. This one ends up tasting so much better! Hope you enjoy it if you have a chance to try it! 🙂
Crystal
I am so glad I found your recipe! I have tried homemade creamers that use sweetened condensed milk and I just do not like them. I had to tweek a little based on what I had but it was delicious! I used 1% milk instead of whole milk and splenda instead of pure cane maple syrup. I also made an amaretto flavor using 1 tsp of vanilla 1 tsp of almond extract and 1 tsp ground cinnamon in the recipe. Yummy. Thanks!
Samantha at Five Heart Home
So glad you enjoyed it, Crystal! Your amaretto variation sounds delicious! I don't know if you saw it, but I recently shared a new Chocolate Almond Coffee Creamer recipe as well, in case you like those flavors. 🙂 Hope you're having a great weekend!
Bill Cady
Thank you for this awesome write-up Samantha! This morning when I was making my usual vanilla iced-coffee I looked at the creamer and noticed that is was 35 calories...... per tbsp!!!! Definitely going to be making a change. Thanks for sharing, and I love your photos 🙂 Great job!
Samantha at Five Heart Home
Thanks so much, Bill...hope you enjoy this creamer if you have a chance to try it! 🙂
Nancy
Hi
I just found your site and wanted the recipe for caramel sauce but when I touched on the title the page said not available. Could you send it to my email? Or post it here.
Thanks, Nancy
Samantha at Five Heart Home
Hi Nancy! I'm so sorry about that! If you remember, could you please let me know where you tried to click on that? If there's a broken link, I'd like to fix it. 🙂 In the meantime, I think this is the recipe you were looking for... https://www.fivehearthome.com/2013/11/15/5-minute-5-ingredient-homemade-caramel-sauce/ Enjoy!
trissina
Hi! I got so excited to make this that I accidentally added in the vanilla extract with all the ingredients before I realized that it was supposed to be added later. Will this affect the quality or flavor at all?
LOVE your site-I never knew how much junk was in my coffee creamer-turns out I'm allergic to about all of it thanks for making it an easy adjustment!
Samantha at Five Heart Home
Hi Trissina! I think your creamer will be just fine if you added the vanilla at the beginning of the recipe. 🙂 Vanilla is typically added after heating the ingredients in a recipe like this because it has an alcohol base which evaporates quickly, and some of the vanilla flavor can dissipate at the same time. So if you feel like your creamer didn't turn out vanilla-y enough, just stir in a tiny splash more now that it's done and all will be well. 🙂
I'm so glad that you're enjoying the site! Hopefully you find some other recipes that you'd like to try. 😉 Thanks for the question, and I hope you enjoy your creamer!
Jen and Emily @ Layers of Happiness
I just made this and and my whole family LOVED it!! 🙂 The maple syrup gave the creamer just the right amount of sweetness. It may sound crazy but we use coffee creamer in our fruit smoothies instead of milk or yogurt and it's awesome! Thanks for a great recipe 🙂
Samantha at Five Heart Home
Yay...I'm so glad to hear that this recipe was a hit with your family! And what a great idea to use creamer in smoothies...thanks for the tip! I'm going to have to try that soon. 🙂
Marisa
As a fellow coffee lover, I am also interested in trying to make my own coffee creamer. Although I'm lactose intolerant, I'll have to sub the heavy cream. Thanks for the inspiration-your pictures are beautiful!
Samantha at Five Heart Home
Thanks, Marisa! I'm sure this would still turn out great with your favorite non-dairy substitute. My son is lactose intolerant and, while he obviously doesn't drink coffee yet at the ripe old age of 6, I generally have luck substituting coconut milk or almond milk for regular milk in most recipes that he's going to be enjoying. Please let me know how this creamer turns out if you attempt a dairy-free version! 🙂 Happy Friday!