Healthy Homemade Coffee Creamer
Posted Mar 17, 2019, Updated May 12, 2024
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This Healthy Homemade Coffee Creamer Recipe is easy to make with 4 ingredients, and it’s even more delicious than store-bought creamers!
A good friend once said to me, “drinking tea is like getting a friendly handshake, but drinking coffee is like getting a warm hug.” It’s so so true.
I look forward to the warm embrace of a good cup ‘o joe every morning with my breakfast. I do like a touch of sweetness and creaminess in my coffee, which is why I created this homemade coffee creamer recipe.
It tastes amazing but has no artificial ingredients, preservatives, etc.
If you’re a creamer user like me, you will love that this Paleo Vanilla Coffee Creamer is just slightly sweet but adds a wonderful, deep, complex, vanilla flavor to your coffee!
Healthy Coffee Creamer: Ingredients & Substitutions
As always, I recommend making this recipe exactly as written! But here are a few substitutions that are possible.
- Coconut milk: lite works well, but full-fat is best.
- Almond milk. The almond milk is added to this recipe to ensure that it doesn’t solidify when stored. In this case, any other nondairy milk can be used in place of almond milk.
- Coconut sugar: Maple syrup or honey may be used in place of some (or all) of the coconut sugar.
- Vanilla beans: If you want to make this quicker and easier, substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla extract for the vanilla bean. Add the extract once the sugar is dissolved and you remove the mixture from the heat.
How to Make Coffee Creamer
Let’s walk through the steps in making this healthy vanilla coffee creamer and don’t forget to watch the video.
Begin by putting the ingredients (except for vanilla beans) into a small saucepan and whisking to combine.
Next, warm the mixture until it just begins to boil then remove the pan from the heat. Be very careful not to actually let it boil, because it will result in a big mess!
Next, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and stir them into the warm paleo coffee creamer mixture. Then add the whole vanilla bean pods.
After the vanilla beans and pods are added, cover the pot, and let it sit for 30 minutes for the vanilla bean flavor to really infuse into the healthy coffee creamer.
Choose a large glass jar and place a fine mesh metal sieve over it. Strain the vanilla coffee creamer into the jar and discard the vanilla bean pods.
How to Deseed a Vanilla Bean
To remove the seeds from a vanilla bean, follow these instructions:
- Cut the bean in half (as pictured below).
2. Carefully slice each piece of the vanilla bean lengthwise with a very sharp knife. Make shallow cuts that do not go all the way through the pod.
3. Use a small spoon and scrape out the seeds on the inside of the bean.
4. Stir the spoon with the vanilla seeds into the coffee creamer mixture and repeat with the remaining pod pieces!
Using Vanilla Extract
If you use vanilla extract instead of vanilla beans, I still recommend gently warming the ingredients on the stovetop and whisking them until the mixture is smooth.
However, if you use vanilla extract you do not need to use a strainer or let the mixture sit on the stovetop for 30 minutes to infuse! Simply whisk it in!
Store
Store the homemade creamer in a glass jar with a lid in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Freeze
Pour the healthy coffee creamer into an ice cube tray and freeze until hardened.
Transfer the frozen cubes of creamer to an airtight container or bag. Remove one or two cubes at a time to use in your morning coffee. I do recommend warming the frozen homemade coffee creamer in the microwave in your coffee mug before adding the coffee so that it doesn’t cool it off.
Homemade Coffee Creamer Recipe FAQs
If you’re curious about the benefits of making your own coffee creamer, check out this article from Prevention Magazine, where this very recipe was featured, “5 Worst Things in your Coffee Creamer – And What You Should Use Instead.”
While some store bought varieties are not good (at all), this homemade paleo coffee creamer IS totally healthy! It’s dairy-free, refined-sugar free, vegan and paleo! It adds the perfect flavor and creaminess to your coffee without sacrificing health or taste! PLUS it is only 4 ingredients and is crazy easy!
Absolutely! We use coconut milk or coconut cream in this recipe and it turns out amazingly creamy and ultra delicious! Coconut milk is my favorite base for coffee creamer!
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Homemade Healthy Coffee Creamer Recipe
Ingredients
- 13.5 ounces coconut milk
- 2 Tablespoons Almond Milk (unsweetened, vanilla)
- 3 Tablespoons coconut sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ vanilla bean
Instructions
- Shake up a can of coconut milk then pour it into a small saucepan.
- Add almond milk and stir to combine.
- Add the coconut sugar & a pinch of salt, whisk to combine.
- Cook over medium-low heat until the mixture just starts bubbling and sugar is dissolved (don’t let it boil or you’ll have a coconutty mess all over your stove)!
- Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add seeds to the milk mixture and stir.
- Put the whole vanilla bean into the pot and cover with a lid.
- Let the mixture sit for at least 30 minutes, or until cooled to room temperature.
- Using a fine mesh strainer, strain your creamer as you pour it into a glass jar. Discard beans.
- Store in a glass jar with a lid in the refrigerator! Give it a shake before adding it to your favorite coffee!
Video
Notes
- Coconut milk: lite works well, but full-fat is best.
- Almond milk. The almond milk is added to this recipe to ensure that it doesn’t solidify when stored. In this case, any other nondairy milk can be used in place of almond milk.
- Coconut sugar: Maple syrup or honey may be used in place of some (or all) of the coconut sugar.
- Vanilla beans: If you want to make this quicker and easier, substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla extract for the vanilla bean. Add the extract once the sugar is dissolved and you remove the mixture from the heat.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I am unable to have sugar (even coconut sugar), honey should work well with this…you think?
Hey Amy! Honey could definitely work instead of coconut sugar! You could use maple syrup as well to keep it vegan!
Great! Thank you. I can’t have maple syrup either. Only sweetener I’m allowed is honey soooo honey it is! I might try making it without honey since I love vanilla flavor and usually drink my coffee black. Thanks! 🙂
Absolutely delicious. I have try this and enjoy lot. I think every body should try this.
I want to try this for my hubby who drink so much coffe with creamer. However, I don’t have any coconut sugar, can I use any other kind, until I know if he likes it or not?
Yes! you absolutely can use a different kind of sugar! You can try honey or maple syrup, or another granulated sugar!
Perhaps Stevia can be used instead of sugar? Have you tried making a hazelnut version?
Hello Tony!! I am honestly not a huge fan of sweeteners…even natural varieties like Stevia…so I couldn’t vouch for the result! However, if you do want to give Stevia a whirl, I would definitely recommend a variety that is made to be a 1:1 substitute for sugar (please report back and let me know if you do)! I haven’t made a hazelnut version but I LOVE that challenge! 🙂
Coconut sugar still has sugar in it, so it’s not sugar free! Sorry
Hello Polina! It is refined sugar free…meaning it does not have any processed sugars.
It was definitely coconut milk. But my coconut milk always has that cream later on the top, even when it’s not cooked, if you don’t shake it up. So I shook it before putting into the pot but when I put it in the fridge it separated again. I may try the carton kind. Thank you for responding! 🙂
I just pulled my creamer out of the fridge after making it yesterday and it has that coconut cream ‘layer’ on the top. Is that normal? I can’t even shake it up to use it 🙁 lol
Hey Blythe! I have never had that happen to me before! Did you use coconut cream or coconut milk? The only thing I can think of is that you either used cream instead of milk…which would make it much thicker. Or maybe you let the mixture get to a boil and a lot of the water evaporated out? Did you keep the creamer covered while the vanilla beans were infusing? I am so sorry! I wish I could be in your kitchen and help you figure out what went wrong!
Maybe one of you used a reg an of coconut milk and one used the lite version? The reg will have the thick layer while the lite doesn’t.
I use regular coconut milk without the thick layer! Make sure the mixture does not come to a boil!
How long will this keep in refrigerator? Sounds good.
I have had it keep for up to 1 week (that’s the longest it’s lasted before I used it all)! 😉 I’ve recently cut back on my coffee intake (sad, I know) so I made some, poured it into this pan (you could just use an ice cube tray), and popped it into the freezer! Once they were frozen into cubes, I removed them from the tray and transferred to a plastic bag! Now whenever I drink coffee, I take a cube out of the freezer and put it in my mug while the coffee brews (to thaw)!
I enjoy my coffee the temperature of the sun. Will the coconut curdle?
LOL Piper! I have never had this creamer curdle….but you might want to pour it into your cup while your brewing the coffee so it can come to room temperature if you don’t want the cold creamer to interfere with your sun-hott coffee! 🙂
Can you use Steveia instead of coconut sugar? or will it make the coconut flavor go away?
Hey Kalin! I do not recommend using sweeteners like stevia. Sine this is made with coconut milk changing the sweetener will not take away from the coconut flavor! If you do choose to use stevia…I recommend using a variety that is made to be a 1:1 replacement for sugar.