Make your favorite cup of coffee even better with our delicious and simple homemade Paleo Vanilla Coffee Creamer that’s completely vegan and keto-friendly! This might be the best paleo coffee creamer you make, and it’s easy to customize to fit your tastes.
I am picky about my coffee, just like I’m picky about the jeans I wear. It takes me a while to find the right pair of jeans, sometimes I’ll try on 20 pairs before I find the pair that fits me just right.
Coffee and creamers are about the same way for me. I was not a big coffee drinker until recent years, but I have grown to be quite particular about my coffee and dairy free coffee creamer and milk.
Nothing ruins a good cup of joe like icky dairy-free milk that’s too sugary or watery, so I am pretty picky about my milk and creamer. I usually use unsweetened almond milk in my coffee along with a great naturally sugar free creamer.
I love brewing my own high quality low-acid coffee and adding a great sugar free and dairy free Vanilla Coffee Creamer. Give me some homemade cold-brew coffee or fresh roasted Dark Canyon Coffee with dairy free milk and creamer and I’m set!
For me, taste matters when it comes to coffee. It’s not just about the caffeine buzz (I drink decaf these days anyway). It’s about enjoying the flavor, so I make sure that what I add to my coffee is just as high quality as the coffee itself.
Food allergy notes for this creamer:
- Dairy free
- Grain free and paleo
- Peanut free
- No added sugar or cane sugar
Why we love this healthy coffee creamer recipe
A great quality coconut milk can make coffee taste pretty awesome, so I whipped up some homemade Vanilla Coffee Creamer made with just a few ingredients and canned coconut cream.
This coffee creamer is keto friendly, paleo, dairy free, vegan, all natural, has only 4 ingredients, and can be made in 5 minutes.
If you’re looking for something that is okay for Whole30, just use this recipe and leave out the stevia (the vanilla extract should still be fine).
How to make homemade coffee creamer
For this recipe, I used canned coconut cream (not to be confused with cream of coconut, which is sweetened), but if you don’t have access to canned coconut cream, you can use a can of coconut milk that has separated and use the solid cream at the top of the can.
Here are the steps to make this creamer (this is just an overview of steps, the full recipe is at the end of the post):
- Open your can of coconut cream, ideally, it will be unshaken and separated slightly. You want the thickest cream at the top of the can.
- Add your coconut cream, room temperature or warm water, vanilla, and stevia drops to a small blender and pulse until everything is smooth.
- Taste test to see if you want it to be any thicker or sweeter. If you need it thicker, add a little more coconut cream.
- Store in a jar or bottle in the fridge. It may need to be shaken up before each use.
Using room temperature or warm water is best to make sure that everything blends well. Coconut cream has a lot of fat in it that won’t blend well with cold water, so everything will blend together best when the water is warmer.
Use room temperature or warm coconut cream and water to help everything mix together well, cold coconut cream might separate and appear to curdle.
I like blending the cream and water (or non-dairy milk if you choose) because it lets me adjust the thickness of the creamer, but if you’re in a hurry you can just use full-fat canned coconut milk that hasn’t separated and add your vanilla and stevia drops to it. It just might not be as thick as you like.
Why make your own coffee creamer?
Making your own allergy friendly and low carb kitchen staples is great so you don’t have to go searching for them in stores (we live in a smaller town and don’t always have a great variety of allergy friendly products here).
Plus, when you make your own dairy-free coffee creamer, you can control exactly what goes into it! Your own homemade creamer won’t have thickeners or anything artificial unless you choose to add it yourself.
These days I even bring my cold brew coffee and non-dairy creamer with me on trips. I add my cold brew coffee to a big Nalgene water bottle and make sure our hotel has a fridge. Much tastier, more allergy friendly, and less expensive than buying coffee each day!
Variations for our dairy free creamer
The awesome thing about this vegan coffee creamer recipe is that you can make flavor and texture adjustments to this recipe to fit your preferences! You can replace water with other dairy free milks such as almond milk, hemp, oat milk in this instead of water to make it a bit thicker if you like as well (just be aware that adding things like oat milk will make this recipe no longer paleo).
You can also play around with flavor variations, too, besides vanilla. Try adding cinnamon, or different flavored extracts instead of vanilla, such as chocolate, orange, maple, or rum flavor.
We also made a delicious pumpkin spice version of this paleo creamer recipe, too, if you’re looking for a fall variation, it’s still sugar free!
Options for brands of coconut cream
I typically use the Thai Kitchen canned coconut cream for my creamer, but there are other options available. The Thai Kitchen brand has guar gum added to it that acts as a stabilizer, which I don’t usually avoid.
But there are several other brands available that don’t use any thickeners or stabilizers if you’re avoiding those or are looking for different brand options if you don’t have access to some brands.
One thing to keep in mind when choosing a coconut cream is to look for brands that taste good and don’t have any odd flavors. Some brands of coconut milk or cream do tend to have different aftertastes, so do a taste test to make sure the one you pick for your creamer is going to enhance your coffee, not make it taste weird.
I’ll include some of the brands that seemed more popular, have better ratings, or are from reputable brands. Many of these are brands I have not tried personally, so I can’t vouch for their taste.
- Thai Kitchen canned coconut cream (what we usually use, it does have guar gum)
- Nature’s Greatest Foods organic coconut cream (only contains coconut and water, no stabilizers)
- Let’s Do Organic heavy coconut cream (no stabilizers/thickeners)
- Native Forest organic coconut cream
- Native Forest Simple organic coconut cream (no stabilizers or thickeners)
- Trader Joe’s organic coconut cream
- CocoGoods organic coconut cream
- Thai Coco organic coconut cream
- Natural Value pure coconut cream (no stabilizers or thickeners)
- Mike’s Biodynamic organic coconut cream (no stabilizers)
Vanilla Coffee Creamer (Dairy Free)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup thick coconut cream* room temperature
- ¾ cup room temperature water* more or less depending on how thick you want the creamer
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon liquid Stevia with vanilla to taste (I used NOW Better Stevia liquid)
Instructions
- In a small blender or NutriBullet, blend together the solid coconut cream, water, vanilla, and stevia until well blended.
- Add more or less stevia to taste, and add more or less cream for thickness
- Store this in a sealed container or jar in the fridge and stir as needed to address any separation
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
I recently re-did the photos on this blog post from May 2015, here’s one of the old photos:
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie which she founded in 2011. Sarah is based in Wyoming and has been managing food allergies for herself and her 2 children for over 20 years. Sarah was also a certified personal trainer for 12 years, as well as a group fitness instructor, health coach, running coach, and fitness nutrition specialist.
Not sure why this is getting rave reviews. Even with 1/2 the water suggested, this came out tasting very watered down and did little to cream my coffee. I found another recipe online calling for coconut milk blended with maple syrup and much more vanilla. That one ended up much tastier and creamier.
Hi Cheryl, sorry you didn’t like this one! For the best results, I’d make sure to use the coconut cream that is from a full fat separated can of coconut milk. Otherwise there won’t be enough fat in the recipe for thick creamer.
What is “solid” coconut cream?
When you have a can of full fat coconut milk that hasn’t been shaken up, it usually is separated into a solid layer of cream on top and watery liquid at the bottom of the can. The solid coconut cream is the separated coconut cream on top of the can that’s usually hard/solid because it has a lot of coconut oil in it.
If you don’t want to try to find a can of coconut milk that is separated, they now have canned coconut cream that will work in this recipe.
It helps to refrigerate it so the cream rises to the top and solidifies, then scoop out.
That helps with separating the cream, but you do want the ingredients to all be warm-ish or room temperature when you are blending it together or it will separate or “curdle” as some of the other commenters have mentioned.
I used room temp coconut cream & water & other ingredients, and this curdled within about 20 seconds of blending . Not sure what I did wrong, the water and coconut cream are completely separated. Wondering if there’s something I missed?
Hi Sam, I wonder if your coconut cream or coconut milk was outdated or had too much oil/fat in it to blend well? Your water may have still been too cool, I’d try this again with warmer water and see if that helps, or try a different brand of coconut cream maybe (we’ve had good luck with Thai Kitchen).
It says Vanilla creamer Not coconut. I would like just vanilla not coconut.
Hi Charice, this is a vanilla flavored creamer made with coconut milk. It’s not coconut flavored. If you don’t want to use coconut milk, you might look online for some other creamer recipes that don’t use coconut milk.
How long does this store for?? I would love to know! Thanks!
Hi ZoeAnn! I’d store this for about a week or 1-1/2 weeks.
I have been making a version of this creamer for several years and I love it. The difference is I heat the full can of Thai Kitchen coconut milk on the stove with 2 Tbsp of unsweetened almond milk and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Once it’s heated to right before boiling, remove from heat and add 1 Tbsp vanilla extract and 1 Tbsp maple syrup, which I will be omitting to follow Paleo. Let it cool, store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to one week. I add different spices like pumpkin pie spice to change things up. Would it be okay to use the entire can of coconut milk, heat it like I normally do and omit the water altogether?
Hi Jeri, I bet that would work in this recipe! Let me know if you try it and how it turns out for you 🙂
Mine curdled as I was blending! 🙁 really bummed. All ingredients were chilled. What am I doing wrong? Any tips?
Hi Kayla! I think it could be that the fat in the coconut milk is trying to separate because it’s cold and coconut milk separates easily when it’s cold. So it’s probably best to blend this together at room temperature and once it’s all blended, then store it in the fridge. I’ll add a note to that in the recipe card since I think a few other people had that problem as well.
Love this recipe!! Curious on if I could substitute the coconut cream for anything? I am not a huge fan of the flavor, so just wondering if there would be anything else I could use? Thanks!!
Hi Gabby! You could try using the Silk heavy whipping cream instead of the coconut cream. It’s not quite as thick, so you’d probably end up using less almond milk. It has coconut milk in it, but it doesn’t have the taste of coconut cream, it has a pretty neutral taste.
Good morning! I can’t wait to try this recipe. Can I use swerve sweetener in place of the stevia drops? It’s all I have in the house currently. Thanks!
Hi Megan! You should be able to use Swerve in this recipe fine, you’ll probably want to use the powdered Swerve to make sure it dissolves completely in this recipe. You can start with a Tablespoon, taste test, then add more if needed.
So easy and delicious!
Thank you Courtney!
Hey there! Great recipe! Wondering what you do with the rest of the coconut cream, watery part? Didn’t want to just throw it out if there is something else I can try! Thanks!!
Hi Libby! You can use it in place of water in some recipes, like you can add it to smoothies 🙂
I am looking forward to trying this, new to keto and don’t want to give up creamer! How long does this keep? Thanks 🙂
When I’ve made this, I’d say this keeps for about 4-7 days. If you don’t think you’ll use it all up within a week, I’d cut the recipe in half. Hope that helps! 🙂
I just tried this recipe in my nutribullet & it curdled/separates. Did I overblend or have to keep blending? Thanks!
Hi Grace, did it separate right after you blended it or did it separate later (like a day or so) after you made it? If it separated right after you blended it, it probably needs to be blended more, and make sure that your ingredients are either cold or room temperature and not hot. If it separated after a day or so, this is normal, so you’ll just want to shake it or blend it again to keep it smooth.
Is there a certain brand of canned coconut milk or coconut cream that you recommend? My creamer always has a “gritty” texture to it when I make it.
Hi Allison! I usually use Thai Kitchen canned coconut milk and cream. Another good option is the new Silk heavy whipping cream that would work good, along with the Silk half-and-half, both are dairy free.
I’m so excited to try this recipe. I’ve recently switched to non diary but I’ve noticed store bought is a little bit watery. I did not know Silk made a half and half!! Wow!!
SIlk also makes a dairy free heavy whipping cream that’s also great in coffee!
I’m so excited to try this recipe. I love my coffee and usually use sugar free vanilla creamer. I’m trying to go keto and didn’t want to give up my creamer. Do you have a recipe for a keto friendly vanilla chai spice creamer? Thank you in advance!
Definitely come back and let me know what you think of it! I don’t have one that’s a chai spice creamer yet, but that’s a great idea. I’ll have to add that to my list of recipes to make!
I just made this for the first time and I love it! I had my fresh cup of coffee waiting. I made pumpkin with pumpkin pie spice spice blend extract and it was perfect. I also bought maple extract and can’t wait to try that one. We do not like any type of sugar substitute but I didn’t want the grainy sugar so I put in a half teaspoon of a natural vanilla coffee syrup that we have and that did the trick. Just enough sweet and the vanilla balanced out the pumpkin spices perfectly. This one is a little runny so I’ll use less water for the next batch. It really is trial by error until you see what you like. I’m going to have to buy stock in Cream of Coconut now. Thank you! Wonderful recipe.
Thank you for your kind words Christine, I’m so glad this worked great for you! I love your idea of maple flavoring I’ll have to try that one for sure 🙂
This was honestly what a just got online to find! I’m over store-bought creamer and want to make my own! LOVE this recipe!
Thanks so much Jules! I made a pumpkin spice version of this, and I want to add other flavors of creamer, like chocolate 🙂
I honestly would have never thought to make my own coffee creamer! (I have no idea why; it never crossed my mind.) I love swapping certain store-bought things for from-scratch. I can’t wait to try this. Sounds so delicious!
Thank you Dana! Homemade creamer is the best 🙂
I can’t do diary, and I miss creamer terribly, so I’m delighted to see this recipe. It’s so easy too! It’s hard to find coconut cream where I live, but I will give it a try with the thick cream that forms on top of the canned coconut milk I usually buy.
HI Daniela! You can definitely use the thick cream from the top of canned coconut milk, that’s what I used to do as well. I also order it online from Amazon or Vitacost as well.
This was exactly what I was looking for! I love a vanilla creamer but have been trying to go dairy free but also wanted to make my own. This is perfect. Thank you!
Awesome, thanks Tracy!
You are so very clever. I simply love the idea of making our own creamer. I have to admit we’ve been buying our creamer but I imagine homemade would be so much better and tastier. We love our coffee with creamer so I’m pinning this recipe and getting the necessary ingredients.
Thanks Marisa! Homemade creamer is definitely a healthier option 🙂
Coconut cream is the perfect choice for coffee creamer because it gives that great creamy mouthfeel and blends up well with coffee. I also totally agree that nothing ruins a good cup of joe like a bad creamer that has way too much sweetener, so I like that this recipe lets the coconut milk to all the heavy lifting and the additional sweetener can be adjusted for preference. Great coffee creamer recipe!
Thank you Jenni!
I feel ya girl! It may take you 20 pairs of jeans to find the right one and sometimes it takes me 20 years, seriously. While I drink my coffee black, my hubby loves a good flavor cream. Your recipe sounds delicious and I am going to try this out on hubby. I have found coconut cream in Mexican markets, it’s pretty common. Looking forward to this:)
Thank you Tina!
After looking at the list of ingredients of coffee creamer, I stopped buying it. I usually use heavy cream, but love coconut, so I’m excited to give this a try!
Thanks Sandra! Let me know how you like it 🙂
I’m always happier when I make my own creamer! Thanks for the reminder!
You’re welcome Jules! 🙂
I have not tried to make coffee creamer. After reading this post, I think that needs to change. I know I would totally enjoy this in my coffee morning, afternoon and after dinner too.
It’s definitely a fun way to get healthier coffee creamer, you can customize the flavors easily!
I love to drink homemade coffee which made by my husband. i will definitely tell him about your recipe. Hope we will enjoy this coffee together.
Yum! I am definitely going to try this!! I actually was just thinking the other day about making some sort of homemade coffee creamer; I usually just buy the vanilla one at the store, but I was thinking it would be a healthier option to try and make my own (since I am not a fan of drinking coffee with no creamer or anything!) Can’t wait to try it! Thanks for sharing!
That recipe looks really simple! I hadn’t thought about making my own creamer. I’m also a really picky person, but I’ll give this a shot!
Thanks Veronika! Let me know what you think of it 🙂
I love making homemade coffee creamer, but have never used coconut cream! mmm 🙂
xoxo Sarah Grace, Fresh Fit N Healthy.
I have never made my own creamer before this! I usually use unsweetened almond milk. What do you use to make your creamers?
yum yum yum!! I didn’t know you were a Recipe ReDuxer too!! Love this recipe!! 🙂 Good coffee creamer is SO important and this looks amazing!
Thanks Tara! I have been doing the Recipe Redux for about a year I think, it’s fun! Definitely gets me a bit more creative with my recipes 🙂
I remember jeans shopping with you once 😉
If I used the canned full fat coconut milk, would you not add the extra water in the recipe? At which point it would be one can of coconut milk with the vanilla and stevia? How long will this last in the fridge?
If your coconut milk is not separated but is homogenous, then you wouldn’t want to add any water to it. I like using the separated cream so I can adjust the thickness of the creamer by adding more or less water to it. I think this would last 1 to 1-1/2 weeks. I have noticed that canned coconut milk can get moldy in the fridge so you probably would want to write the date you made it on the container
Thanks! I have had bad luck with canned coconut milk going moldy too. I’ll give this a try after vacation 🙂