Do you love coffee?

Do you love a little creamer in your coffee?

If so, I am right there with you!

Before our REAL food journey, I had a tendency to go a little overboard with the sugar or creamer in my coffee.  Not in a crazy way where someone might ask, "do you want some coffee with that creamer?" but my cravings definitely have changed since we started our REAL food journey.

While I no longer add sugar to my coffee, I do still love including some kind of creamer or milk...just a little something to add a hint of creaminess to a favorite part of my morning routine.

So, when an Eat REAL America member asked if we could come up with a homemade coffee creamer, and specifically a pumpkin spice coffee creamer, I thought...

"Absolutely!  Mission accepted!"

We love the idea of a coffee creamer that could include fewer calories, less sugar and, most importantly, knowing EXACTLY what is in it!  As you can imagine, like so many other products, there is a wide variety of unrecognizable or unhealthy ingredients in a lot of the coffee creamers you find at the store!

For example, Nestle Coffee Mate Pumpkin Spice Liquid Coffee Creamer includes:

WATER, SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL (HIGH OLEIC SOYBEAN AND/OR HIGH OLEIC CANOLA), AND LESS THAN 2% OF MICELLAR CASEIN (A MILK DERIVATIVE), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, MONOAND DIGLYCERIDES, DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, CELLULOSE GEL, CELLULOSE GUM, CARRAGEENAN.

It has 35 calories and 5 g of added sugars for 1 Tbsp.

And Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Flavored Liquid Coffee Creamer includes:

NONFAT MILK, SUGAR, HEAVY CREAM, BUTTERMILK, VEGETABLE OIL (HIGH OLEIC SOYBEAN OIL), NATURAL FLAVOR, GELLAN GUM.

It has 40 calories and 5 g of added sugars for 1 Tbsp

And, if you search homemade coffee creamer recipes, many of them use sweetened condensed milk, which has 9 g of added sugar in 1 Tbsp.

We were determined to find an option with much less added sugar while still providing that hint of creaminess and flavor!

Well, it turns out, this homemade coffee creamer mission was more challenging than expected!

If you are a "cream in your coffee" lover, you know what makes a good creamer.  The consistency, texture, flavor and color when you add it to your coffee need to live up to certain expectations.  You have to admit the food companies have come up with combinations of ingredients that provide that sweet, creamy splash that we have become so accustomed to.

After many (oh so many!) failed attempts, we believe we have finally come up with two homemade coffee creamer recipes that are at least really close and we can't wait to see what YOU think!

Here is more about what we discovered:

The milk.

We landed on canned light coconut milk as the winner.  It has the right consistency, even after being refrigerated.  It's not too thick and not too thin.  And, in the morning, if there are some pieces in the coconut milk that have solidified, they quickly melt in your hot coffee.  It also has less than 1 gram of saturated fat compared to half and half which has 1 gram per tablespoon.

Other milks like almond milk, soy milk, or skim milk will also work, although they may seem a little thin.  Adding 1-2 Tbsp of coconut cream will help thicken the creamer.

The sweetness.

Pure maple syrup works really well as the sweetener.  Or, if you are looking to have no added sugar, soaking pitted dates (4 regular dates, or 2 Medjool dates soaked with 1/4 cup of very hot/boiling water) are a good substitute for 1 Tbsp of pure maple syrup.  Of course, this can be adjusted to taste.  I soaked our dates for about four hours to get them nice and soft.  (Date paste can be used as an added convenience, although we thought blending the soaked softened pitted dates worked better and left less behind at the bottom of your coffee mug.)

The pumpkin spice.

Adding pumpkin pie spice and ground cinnamon gave the best results for that fall flavor we love.  Adding pumpkin puree did add extra pumpkin flavor, although it changed the texture and thickness of the creamer.  We decided against including the pumpkin puree because of the residue it left at the bottom of our coffee mugs.

We are happy to take on the failures so you don't have to!

Here are a few other things we learned:

• Adding cornstarch or arrowroot as a thickener DID NOT work for us.  We had a big fail here...imagine creamer looking more like white gravy you would put on mashed potatoes!  Not appetizing at all!
• Keep it simple!  Heating the mixture up in a saucepan is not required to have good results.  We thought the flavors still came together well without this extra step.
• Find a good pourable container for your creamer.  When we used mason jars and other similar containers, there was quite a bit of dripping when adding it to our coffee.  So, finding the right pourable covered container or jar will make it less messy.  We have a syrup container and a homemade salad dressing bottle that both work great, or you could even re-use a store-bought creamer container if desired.

Here are the winners (so far)!

Pumpkin Spice Homemade Coffee Creamer

Per Tablespoon: 15 calories, 1 g added sugars (based on using pure maple syrup), and less than 1 gram of saturated fat

(If using dates, soak them first!)

Vanilla Cream Coffee Creamer

Per Tablespoon: 15 calories, 1 g added sugars (based on using pure maple syrup)

If coffee creamer is part of your routine, please give these a try and share with us!

How can we make them even better?

And what other flavor combinations would you create?