Homemade Vanilla Spice Non-Dairy Creamer

I realized as I was writing up my admissions the other day that I was a bit embarrassed to say I use chemical-filled non-dairy creamer in my oatmeal each morning.  I was inspired to find a replacement for it and I remembered seeing recipes using coconut milk to make a non-dairy creamer, so I did some research to see what I could find.  Most use dates to sweeten it, but I didn't have dates in the kitchen other than chopped sugared dates, which I think I want to get rid of since dates don't need extra sugar (didn't know what I was buying).  I found one recipe that uses honey as a sweetener, so I used that one.

Inspiration

Shrinking Kitchen All Natural Vanilla Spice Coffee Creamer

My only substitution was to use cinnamon and baking spice instead of pumpkin pie spice.

Ingredients

• 1 14-oz can light coconut milk
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking spice (can use cinnamon instead)

Directions

The original directions call for blending everything with a blender, but I figured I would skip that step since I didn't want to make a mess with my immersion blender.

Measuring out the honey

This was really simple, just put everything together (I used my 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup), stir it well to make sure there's no honey stuck in the bottom, and put it into a container for storage.

Adding the honey to the rest of the ingredients.

The spices don't really incorporate well, but keep going. Once you get it into a sealed container, you can shake it and it will mix better. 

Ready to pour it into an old International Delights bottle. 

Luckily I had the last bottle of International Delights coffee creamer that I washed out and refilled.

My vanilla spice non-dairy creamer!

Verdict 

I threw this together in the morning before work but I didn't have time to try it then.  So at lunch time I had a mug of coffee with it so I would know what it was like since I was going grocery shopping that night and needed to know if I should go back to the nasty creamer or buy more ingredients to make this.

Flavor/Taste

It’s thick and sweet enough when you taste it plain, but not sweet enough when mixed into coffee, but I’m a total coffee wuss.  And it’s not creamy enough to "soften" my coffee to the level I like, I'm usually a 2-sugars and 2-creams sort of gal.
And it separates with the coconut cream on the top and coconut water on the bottom, so you have to shake it up before using it, but that's ok because I would do that with any creamer.

Any changes?

I've already added a second tablespoon of honey to it, but this morning was a total trial with my toddler and I didn't get to try it.

Maybe next time I wouldn’t add the almond milk.  I didn't see the point of using it when I don’t think it needs it, but I might find it actually does something.

So it's only "ok" but I will make it again to see if I can refine it to something I like a bit more.