Homemade Coffee Creamer

I’m a coffee-loving woman. I drink it year round. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold outside, I always have a cup of steaming coffee in my hand. My family knows I have to have coffee in the morning or else. My students learn very quickly that Mrs. White needs her coffee and beware if you approach her before she’s had any.

This is what happens when your students know you very well. HA!

However, I cannot stand straight, black coffee. That is too strong for me. Plus, as my hubby would say, I’m more complicated than that. I have to have sugar and cream, but I’m also need flavoring. Vanilla is my favorite, though I have come across some seasonal flavors that have peaked my interest. So, I would head the local grocery story in search of a vanilla coffee creamer for my coffee.

For years, I would pick the least expensive creamer so we could save some money. I didn’t pay much attention to the ingredients. I honestly thought that creamer was made from cream because what else could it be made of. Clearly, I was wrong in my assumptions. Then, I started checking the ingredients before I bought the creamer, which lead to me paying more because the new creamers actually had milk in them.

My hubby started complaining because our grocery bill was going up. I mean, hello, I was using creamer every. single. day! Plus, those containers of pure ingredients are only 16 ounces. I can go through that in 1 week, sometimes less. I needed an alternative that was less expensive but still made with pure ingredients. So, I headed to Pinterest!

Ah… Pinterest, a place where every person can get lost for hours. Luckily, I have my 2 littles to distract me from being sucked into that black hole. I came across so many recipes for DIY coffee creamer. Some were complicated, some required obscure ingredients, some just didn’t make sense. As I perused through the pins, I noticed a common thread. Most recipes had the same base ingredients: sweetened condensed milk, some sort of milk, and some sort of cream. I knew where I had to start!

So I started experimenting with the base ingredients. I mixed, tasted, detested but used, remixed, pawned off on my hubby, reformulated, and finally discovered the perfect blend of ingredients for me! I combined sweetened condensed milk, half & half creamer, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla extract for the perfect vanilla coffee creamer that only contains pure ingredients. Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

~1 can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk

~1 1/2 cups of half & half creamer

~1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

~1-2 Tbsp of pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine all ingredients in a container that has a spout. I’ve been using this handy container that I’ve had for as long as I can remember.

2. Shake! My girls loved this part because they were able to help!

                      

There you have it! Super simple and only pure ingredients!

Now, I decided to do the math, which is not my strong suit so bear with me. If you purchase a creamer with pure ingredients at a nationwide grocery store, it will run you around $2.75 for 16 oz. Per ounce, the cost is $0.17. That’s actually not that bad. However, I prefer my creamer and here’s why: it is less expensive than that! When I go to the store to buy the ingredients for my creamer, I buy enough to make it 2 times. So I buy 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk, 1 quart of half & half, and 1 pint of heavy whipping cream. These items total roughly $8. Now, this is where it gets complicated. Each time I make it, I use the same measurements. However, even after making the creamer twice, I will have left over half & half AND heavy whipping cream for my next bottles. You see, 1 quart of half & half will make roughly 2.5 bottles of creamer. And 1 pint of heavy whipping cream will make 4 bottles of creamer! Therefore, the math was complicated and long but I wanted to comparison to be as accurate as possible. I can make 8 bottles of 30 oz creamers for roughly $24.52. This would use every ounce that I purchased with nothing left over. I would have a total of 240 ounces. After dividing the total cost by the total ounces ($24.52/240), my cost per ounce is $0.10!

That $0.07 doesn’t seem like much until you look at the big picture. The store-bought creamer lasts me roughly 1 week. So for a year of creamer, that is $143. My homemade creamer lasts me 2 weeks, even during the summer when I drink a great deal of coffee. I would have to spend $24.52 every 16 weeks (8 bottles X 2 weeks), which for the year comes to roughly $80!!!! You can save roughly $63 a year by making your own creamer!!!

Now, I know I haven’t mentioned the cost of the vanilla extract. The reason behind this is because I buy it in bulk because I’m always using it for other things, especially baking. However, it wouldn’t make a difference in the cost of the creamer because of the small amount actually used in the creamer.

What are you waiting for? Run to the store and grab these ingredients to make your very own homemade vanilla coffee creamer! Oh and let me know what you think about my recipe in the comments section!