19 Creative Ways To Use Coffee Creamer

To say that we have a profound appreciation for coffee creamer is an understatement. While the naysayers -- who only drink black coffee -- will only scoff when we mention coffee creamers, we jump for joy when we see the refrigerator aisles brimming with International Delight and Coffeemate. Gone are the days when we have to precisely measure out the perfect amount of sugar and milk for our coffee; rather, we pour enough creamer in to get the perfect shade, and we're off on our next adventure.

The world of coffee creamers has come far and now includes almost every flavor underneath the sun and non-dairy or sugar-free versions to fit all dietary choices. But what do you do with all that leftover coffee creamer that's nearing its expiration date or with the bottle you forgot jammed in the back of your fridge? It's a predicament we've faced more times than we'd like to admit. But fear not, we've collected some of the best ways to use your coffee creamer for things other than making your daily cup of joe.

Read more: 26 Coffee Hacks You Need To Know For A Better Cup

Mix It Into Your Smoothies For A Creamy Boost

Smoothies are a versatile breakfast or snack that allows you to incorporate almost any frozen or fresh fruit you have in your kitchen. If you're looking for a sweet twist of flavor for your smoothies, look no further than coffee creamer. Its thick, creamy consistency can replace some of the liquid in your smoothie and can impart new flavors to your beverage. Since these creamers often come pre-sweetened, you likely won't have to add any more honey, agave, or maple syrup to bring your smoothie up to par.

Because coffee creamer is often so sweet and rich, adding this ingredient incrementally to your smoothie is best. You should also choose a flavor that is complementary to the ones in your smoothie. A vanilla or sweet cream is always a good option, but you could also experiment with chocolates and caramel.

Transform Your Morning Bowl Of Oatmeal

Oatmeal may not win any awards for being the most exciting breakfast food, but it is still a healthy way to get a dose of fiber and protein early in the morning. A splash of coffee creamer will transform homemade oatmeal because it will help thicken the mixture and replace added sweeteners like brown sugar and maple syrup.

To add this ingredient to your oatmeal, pour it in with your other liquids. This hack also works for overnight oats. You may have to play with the ratio of milk and creamer since the creamer tends to overwhelm the consistency and flavor of the cereal. You'll only need to add about two tablespoons of creamer to your oatmeal to taste the flavor and to have a richer bowl of oats waiting for you.

Amp Up Your Favorite Brownie Recipe

It's hard not to love the ooey, gooey, chocolatey bliss of a good brownie. But with this hack, you'll have even creamier brownies in no time. Add a slug of coffee creamer to upgrade your brownies. Not only will this ingredient amp up the fudgy qualities of your brownies, but it will also help them stay moist in the oven.

If you're working with a boxed mix, substitute the water for coffee creamer. For a great batch of homemade brownies, you can add the creamer with your other wet ingredients, like the oil and melted chocolate. The flavor pairings for this recipe are numerous, depending on which kind of creamer you have available. A hazelnut creamer pairs well with chopped nuts, while peppermint mocha creamer can take your peppermint brownies, studded with chopped candy canes, to a new level.

Impart Flavor On Your Homemade Ice Cream

Homemade ice cream won't ever taste the same after you add a splash of coffee creamer. The best part about this recipe is that you won't need many ingredients to make it at home, and it can also be a kid-friendly recipe to get your entire family involved.

Add your liquid creamer to a sealable freezer bag and fill a larger freezer bag with kosher salt and ice. Then, protect your hands with oven mitts or gloves and shake, shake, and shake for a few minutes until the creamer starts to resemble the consistency of ice cream. To ensure your newfound treat has the perfect texture, aim for a coffee creamer that contains milk and cream with a few extra additives (like hydrogenated oil). You can also add in your favorite crunchy additions to complement your creamer after your ice cream has been shaken to perfection.

Make Your Apple Pie Extra Creamy

We're gonna take a guess and say that your grandma's favorite apple pie recipe doesn't contain any traces of coffee creamer. But this unexpected tip will majorly upgrade your apple pie. While some folks will soak their apple filling in cream (or, even better, melted vanilla ice cream), we prefer to add a splash of coffee creamer to our apples before stuffing them inside the crust. Not only will the creamer keep the pie filling moist and cohesive, but it will also thicken it for better slicing.

There are limited options for flavors when it comes to this kitchen hack. Vanilla and plain coffee creamer tend to work best, but you could also experiment with caramel or hazelnut creamers to add a nutty element to your all-American apple pie.

Add A Splash To Your French Toast Custard

Developing the perfect French toast custard is critical to getting the perfect flavor and color on every slice of your French toast. Dairy (most often milk) is an important ingredient in French toast because it prevents the egg proteins from getting too stringy and tough. And with the help of your favorite coffee creamer, making a delicious French toast recipe couldn't be easier (and any more flavorful).

Add a splash of your favorite coffee creamer to the bowl with your eggs, beating the two together until one cohesive custard has formed. You can play with the flavors of your creamer to match your bread and toppings. During the fall, we love a pumpkin-spiced French toast made with pieces of slightly stale pumpkin bread and a dash of cinnamon.

Make Your Hot Chocolate Extra Creamy

Coffee creamer and hot chocolate mix are a match made in heaven. There are several ways you can use the creamer to amp up your hot chocolate. The first would be to make a homemade hot chocolate mix powder with sugar, dry milk, cocoa powder, and powdered coffee creamer. This mixture is perfect for gifting to friends and family during the holiday season and will last a very long time if stored in an airtight container. We recommend using a plain or vanilla powdered coffee creamer to make this recipe at home.

You can also pour in the creamer once your hot chocolate has been made. You'll only need to add a little splash, as the beverage is already likely sweet enough. A French vanilla or Irish cream can help add a boost of flavor to your seasonal beverage.

Add It To Your Favorite Icing Recipe

Lackluster frosting or icing does a major disservice to your homemade cakes. You can make an easy icing to dribble on homemade coffee cake, cookies, and loaf cakes by mixing powdered sugar and liquid coffee creamer until it reaches perfect consistency. You can also add citrus zest or extracts to complement whatever you're dribbling the icing onto.

You can also make a denser, more pipeable buttercream frosting with coffee creamer. Simply swap out the milk in your buttercream frosting with your favorite coffee creamer flavor. You'll only need to add about two tablespoons of the creamer to the mixture, as any more would make the frosting too wet. If you find that the icing is slipping and sliding everywhere, add more powdered sugar until it reaches your desired consistency.

DIY A Dole Whip At Home

Have you ever had a Dole Whip? This popular treat is available everywhere in Hawaii or at Disney parks, but you can also make it in your home kitchen with a couple of ingredients — including coffee creamer. Mix frozen banana (which makes the creamy base) with chopped frozen pineapple. You can also add a splash of pineapple juice to make this dessert more tropical or omit it to balance out the banana and the pineapple more evenly. Then, add equal parts of your creamer and milk to make this dessert soft and scoopable.

One of our favorite parts about this dessert is that it can be made completely dairy-free with the addition of a dairy-free creamer and dairy-free milk. French vanilla and plain creamer are the best options for making this treat at home because they won't distract from the fruit.

Add A Splash To Your Pancake Or Waffle Batter

Coffee creamer is a great addition to your pancake or waffle batter — especially when you find out you're shorter on milk than you had originally thought. You can replace some of the liquid (milk or water) in your baking mix with coffee creamer for a creamy, decadent complement to your breakfast stack. It's important to remember that coffee creamer behaves differently than plain ol' milk because it has emulsifiers and oils. Only add a scant amount to your batter to impart a mild sweetness and thick consistency.

One of our favorite seasonal ways to upgrade pancakes is to add canned pumpkin and a splash of pumpkin spice coffee creamer. You can also toy with the recipe to add extra cinnamon.

Make Your Mashed Potatoes Extra Creamy

It might be a bit strange to think of coffee creamer as a tool for savory applications, but we assure you that you won't even know that the ingredient is swirled around in your mashed potatoes. The trick to this recipe is to use dried, unsweetened coffee creamer. Once your potatoes have been cooked to your liking, add the creamer powder to the mixture with butter, milk, and seasoning.

The trick to making the perfect mashed potatoes is to only add a little bit of the creamer to the mix. It will make the potatoes taste more buttery and creamy, making them denser and stodgier. You can also make a non-dairy recipe by substituting the regular creamer for a non-dairy variety and adding vegan butter or margarine.

Thicken Your Dessert Dips

Savory dips are out, and sweet ones are in. The base of a delicious sweet dessert dip is coffee creamer. Creamer can alter the flavor of your dip slightly, but it's also a critical way to thin out the dense cream cheese and make the dip easier to scoop with fruit, crackers, or cookies.

The exact pairing of creamer and dip is dependent on your flavors. If you're making a basic cream cheese dip for strawberries, you'll want to play it safe with a French vanilla coffee creamer. But if you're going on the dark side with some chocolate, you might want to add a mocha coffee creamer to the mix. There are endless possibilities with a mere couple of tablespoons of your favorite coffee creamer.

Macerate Your Fruit In It

Peaches and cream is one of our favorite light summertime desserts. It's only made with a few ingredients: chopped fruit, whipping cream, sugar, and a hint of vanilla extract. But for a more flavorful fruit dish, we're always inclined to add a spoonful of coffee creamer to the mix. The creamer doesn't weigh down the fruit at all and instead imparts a smoother mouthfeel that doesn't linger on the tongue as long as regular whipping cream would.

Our flavor options for this dessert are relatively subdued because we don't want to upstage the delicate fruit, including blueberries, strawberries, nectarines, peaches, or a fruit medley. French vanilla creamer can replace the extract and the sugar, but it needs to be added with caution to avoid upsetting the precarious balance of flavors.

Use It A Thickener In Your Soups

Creamy soups are a winter staple. We love to make our soups even better with the addition of coffee creamer. It's important to remember here that coffee creamer won't work for all soups; you'll need to use one that has a creamy base, like potato soup, creamy tortellini, or broccoli cheddar. You'll also need to leave your French vanilla and peppermint mocha creamers in the fridge for another time, as only an unsweetened variety will work here.

Add your powdered coffee creamer to the soup after you've added your broth and cooked your ingredients, like crunchy veggies and meat, to perfection. You can tweak the recipe a little bit with other thickeners like cornstarch to change its mouthfeel.

Add Flavor To Your Favorite Cup Of Tea

Despite its name, coffee creamer doesn't have to be exclusively used for flavoring coffee; it can also be used for tea. You can get creative with a splash of creamer and your favorite brew. Black tea and a basic French vanilla or hazelnut coffee creamer are always good options -- chai and Italian sweet cream are a match made in heaven. Alternatively, you can add a splash of chocolate creamer to your orange tea to add another level of complexity to the beverage.

If you notice your coffee creamer curdles when it's added to the hot tea, fear not. Let your water cool down slightly before adding the creamer, or warm up your creamer before adding it to the coffee to prevent a thermal shock.

Make Your Milkshake Extra Thick

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, and darn right ... it's better with coffee creamer. Coffee creamer is a great supplement for your favorite shake because it adds more creaminess to the beverage than milk while also preventing the ice cream from lodging itself in your straw. However, because the creamer is so rich, it should only replace some of the milk.

The options for this milkshake pairing are as wide as can be. You can try more of the niche flavors, like cookies and cream coffee creamer with OREO ice cream. Or, mix a butter pecan, caramel, or amaretto creamer in with the accompanying ice cream flavors. It's an easy way to make your beverage fun, sweet, and the perfect after-dinner or date night treat.

Make A Creamy Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate ganache is a decadent garnish for cakes and other confections. And if you want to make ganache without heavy cream, you can always substitute in a neutral-flavored coffee creamer instead. Mix melted chocolate with your coffee creamer to create the perfect rich texture. Then, you can pour it on your desserts or eat it straight out of the bowl with a spoon. We recommend using a sweet cream or hazelnut coffee creamer for this recipe since the flavor jives well with the chocolate.

Besides cakes, you can also use ganache as a drizzle on your ice cream. It's important to remember that the chocolate will solidify as it cools, so it's best to handle it when the chocolate is still warm.

Thicken Your Pudding Recipe

Do people still make pudding anymore? While this dessert may be relegated to old diners and childhood memories, pudding will always have a special place in our hearts. You can use coffee creamer for many different types of pudding, including rice pudding and traditional milk pudding. For the former, mix your Arborio rice, water, and French vanilla coffee creamer. You can make this rice pudding on a stovetop or even in a slow cooker.

You can also make a more traditional homemade pudding with egg yolks, creamer, sugar, and thickeners like cornstarch. The creamer will impart a subtle flavor to your pudding while also making it much thicker than milk alone. Play with the coffee creamer flavors for the perfect pudding; mocha, pumpkin spice, French vanilla, and hazelnut are all viable options.

Use It In An Italian Soda

The Italian soda is like a twisted version of an American float. This beverage is made from carbonated water and flavored syrup and is often finished with cream or ice cream. The beverage often takes on a fruity element, but amaretto and chocolate are also included.

You can substitute the heavy cream or half-and-half for coffee creamer in your Italian soda recipe. It's important to remember that these creamers are already pre-sweetened, so you may have to tweak the amount of syrup you use in your recipe to dial down on the sugariness. For the layered effect, add the syrup and the club soda to the glass (with the ice) first before pouring the flavored creamer on top.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.