Homemade Peppermint Mocha Creamer

Today I’m really excited to bring you a recipe for homemade peppermint mocha creamer.  But first a story.

Before I get into the story, I should say, there’s this common theme around the internet where people complain about bloggers writing a little story before their recipe.  “Just give me the recipe already, I don’t want to know what you did yesterday,” they say.

And I get it, I totally do (although, I’m not sure you realize how exciting my life was yesterday.  If you knew, you’d want to hear all about it.  I mean, there was cleaning, and homeschooling, and exercising, and more cleaning, and working, and …and….)

.  But have you thought about how easy it would be for bloggers just to post the recipe and nothing else?  There’s actually a reason we don’t do it that way.  And that reason all comes down to algorithms.

If you don’t know what algorithms are I won’t bore you with all the details.  I will just condense what it is which basically is a formula bloggers need to follow so that the powers that be on the internet (you know, Google, Pinterest, etc) will show your post to readers.

And blogs with just a recipe and nothing else get shown to no one.  It’s why even big bloggers like The Pioneer Woman share stories (of course, her’s are ridiculously funny, so who wouldn’t want to read them?)

So, that’s why we do it.  I’m sorry for boring you and not giving you the recipe right away.

With all that in mind, it’s time for a little story… 😉

Every morning I start the day like most – with a coffee.  Although, mine is decaf.  (don’t judge me, I’d drink the caffeinated kind if I could, my body hates me when I do. 🙁 )  

Yesterday morning I woke up ready to have my coffee with some flavored creamer.  It’s my weakness, flavored creamer.  Sometimes I go to bed thinking about my flavored coffee the next morning.  (I know, I lead a wild life.)

Anyways, guess who was out of creamer today??

That’s when I decided, NOT ON MY WATCH.

It was time to make my own.  

And then I had another moment of brilliance.  I could make it flavoured with peppermint mocha.

You see, before Christmas I got hooked on the “Limited Edition ELF” creamer that they were selling.  That’s right, Buddy the Elf was smack dab on the front of these creamer bottles.  He really DOES make the world’s best cup of coffee.

The flavor was peppermint mocha.  And IT was amazing.  

But, apparently the creamer companies (at least here in Canada) seem to think we can only drink peppermint mocha creamer at Christmas.

Much to my dismay, it disappeared after Christmas.  Actually, it pretty much disappeared before Christmas because every time I went to buy this creamer it was sold out.

I don’t know about you, but that should tell you something, creamer companies.  High demand means sales all year long (because, yes, us Canadians will drink a piping hot cup of coffee in the middle of summer.)

But at this point they have decided to break our hearts and take it off the shelf.

And I thought to myself, “until next Christmas, peppermint mocha.”

That was, until yesterday morning, with my brilliant idea to make my own.  If you love peppermint and chocolate and coffee you will want to make this creamer to enjoy yourself!

HOMEMADE PEPPERMINT MOCHA CREAMER

First, gather your ingredients together.  Milk, condensed milk, unsweetened cocoa, and mint extract.  Ignore the fact that my condensed milk in the picture above is already opened.  I totally forgot to take a picture BEFORE I made the creamer, so this picture was taken after the fact. 😉

In a pot over medium heat pour in your 1 and 1/4 cup of milk, i can of condensed milk, and 1 tablespoon of cocoa.  Whisk over medium heat until it’s simmering.  You don’t want to boil this. 

Just heat it until below boiling and let it simmer until all the cocoa is dissolved in and not powdery anymore.  No one likes chunks of cocoa in their coffee.  Also, whisk it quite frequently because no one likes cleaning burnt milk out of the bottom of a pot either. 🙂

Now remove your pot from the heat and add 1 teaspoon of mint extract.  Whisk the creamer.

Let it cool and then pour it into a mason jar.  Keep it in the fridge.  Or make coffee right away like I did and taste test it. 🙂

 

Guys, I’m just sayin’….flavored coffee has a way of making some of these hard days confined to my house better.  It’s that moment in my day where all feels right with the world.  A moment of calm deliciousness, if you will.

You could very well change some of the ingredients to make this creamer a different flavor.  Instead of adding the chocolate and mint you could add  hazelnut extract, or  vanilla extract.  Or, why not try some orange extract mixed with the cocoa?  I seriously wonder if that would taste like those chocolate oranges you get at Christmas.

Okay, now I’ve decided I need to make that.  So stay tuned, I’ll share with you the results when I do (but I mean, chocolate, orange, and coffee – I don’t think you can go wrong.)

In the meantime, enjoy this amazing coffee creamer recipe.