I’m a cream-and-sugar girl. On special days, an Irish-Cream-in-the-coffee girl. During Advent (not a day before, regardless of how well the marketing taunts), an eggnog-in-the-coffee girl. Oh, do I love eggnog as creamer. Or maybe coffee in my eggnog.
I’ve been learning about ice-cream, and usually stick to a traditional custard as my base. The custard is so delicious straight off the stove, one day I thought, I’m going to make an extra batch, without the egg yolks, and keep it as a coffee creamer. I stirred equal parts cream and milk in a glass bowl warming atop a simmering pot of water, whisked some turbinado sugar into the cream mixture to dissolve, and removed from the heat. Then I stirred in a spash of vanilla extract and a tiny spash of almond extract. So good! The consistency stayed perfect in the fridge.
A few weeks later, my sister found the recipe below on-line. I like the use of maple syrup. Actually, Carrie of Deliciously Organic offers several variations. See what you think!
Cinnamon Strudel Creamer
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
Whisk together milk, cream, maple syrup and cinnamon in a medium saucepan over medium heat. (I prefer a glass bowl resting just over simmering water in a pot, a.k.a. the double broiler method.) When the mixture begins to steam, remove from the heat. Stir in extracts. Strain through a fine mesh sieve*, pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator.
For reference, these are the ingredients in Nestle’s Coffee-Mate, Original Flavor, taken from their website:
INGREDIENTS: WATER, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN AND/OR COTTONSEED OIL, AND LESS THAN 2% OF SODIUM CASEINATE (A MILK DERIVATIVE)**, DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM ALUMINOSILICATE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CARRAGEENAN.
Be encouraged. Be healthy. Be homey. What’s extra fun is that I enjoy sharing this with visitors, but as my husband drinks his coffee black, it’s otherwise the only thing in the fridge that’s Just For Mama. :)
*If you don’t want to use a sieve, simply omit the cinnamon. The residual cinnamon powder is what the sieve serves to reduce.
This looks delicious! I have noticed the terrible ingredients in most of the creamers- we usually stick to 1/2 and 1/2. Will have to try this, though!
Yea! The cinnamon is yummy, but obviously it’s quite powdery in the sieve (I just made some today). If you want something fast, stick to simply sweetener and extract. I love coffee creamer that I can feel good about!