Coffee -- I never used to like it. Then....I had my first child and I started drinking it a little.
Then...twelve months later, I had my second child and I started drinking it a LOT!
So I went from hating coffee, to drinking it with lots of flavored cream and sugar, to just drinking it with flavored cream. Mmmm, flavored cream! All those different flavors to pick from! And then one day I read a blog post about how store bought flavored cream actually doesn't have any cream in it.
That's right, none.
It did bother me to know it was not real cream, but I couldn't drink coffee with just plain cream yet, so I still bought and used flavored creamer for months (cringing often when I thought about what was in it). And then I found this recipe for Homemade Pumpkin Spice Creamer and HAD to give it a try. Who doesn't love pumpkin spice? And just in time for Fall?!
Move over, Starbucks, Mama's making coffee at home!
Pumpkin Spice Creamer:
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk together milk, cream, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When mixture begins to steam, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator up to 10 days.
Yields 2 cups.
It's not quite as sweet as the store-bought flavored cream, so I do add sugar or some type of sweetener. I would also recommend straining the creamer more then once to remove all the spices from the cream.
Delicious! Amazing! Real Cream!
So go make some homemade creamer, brew a pot of coffee, get a good book and enjoy.
Or at least try to drink ONE cup while it's still HOT and the kids are distracted.
Recipe found at Deliciously Organic. Check out their post for other yummy flavored creamer options including: Cinnamon Strudel, Chocolate Almond, French Vanilla and Peppermint Mocha!
Honest Mama Disclaimer: I will buy and use store bought flavored creamer again, but as much as possible, I'm going to try and make the real thing!