This Coffee Cream Might Be Lurking in Your Pantry
If you don’t drink black coffee, you may be struggling a little right now, especially if you are not a fan of non-dairy powders. After all, not only are you stuck at home, but you can also be stuck at home with another person, and that person can use all half and half.
Trying to limit grocery shopping combined with perishable dairy products can aggravate this condition, so it’s nice to know all the creamy options your pantry may have lurking.
The obvious choice
If you can use regular 4% milk in your coffee, you can always use boxed milk, but I prefer the boxed whipped cream that Trader Joe’s sells in eight-ounce boxes for a little over a dollar. If you don’t live near TJ or don’t like luxury, a humble can of condensed milk is also a very good option.
Condensed milk (obviously) hasn’t completely evaporated, but it is richer and fatter than the usual chilled milk, although not as rich and fatty as half & half. And that’s exactly what it tastes like – somewhere between milk and half and half. After you open it, you will need to store leftovers in the refrigerator. (An old jam jar is fine.)
Then we have condensed and sweetened milk, which is an absolute treat. This is nothing new – this is what makes Thai coffee and tea so good and you don’t need much of that to make a very creamy, very sweet cup of coffee. It also keeps well in a recycled jam jar and has a very long shelf life.
Coconuts
There is a coconut counterpart for every can of dairy, and coconut cream and milk are great for a hot cup of coffee (they will harden in the cold). I found coconut milk a little more flavorful – almost like a Samoan cookie – than coconut cream, and the latter was too fat for my taste. (Both produce a slight oil slick, but a quick beating with a fork will re-emulsify any fat separated.) This and fluidity are two advantages dairy products have over coconut. All coconut products are at least slightly – if not completely – solid at room temperature, so shaking a little is necessary. Sweetened coconut cream is my favorite creamy coconut product because of all the sugar, and like its milk counterpart, you can make caramel , which is also very good in coffee.
Maybe it’s time to bite the bullet (proof)
Adding a tablespoon of unsalted butter to coffee will in no way lengthen your life or make you smarter, but it will give your morning drink a nice, creamy mouthfeel (sorry!) That. Any blender will do, but the immersion blender is the most elegant. True Bulletproof coffee contains Dave Asprey’s special brain oil, but coconut oil works great . Just be careful, while hot coffee will be whipped and frothy, it will harden when your coffee cools down, so drink it quickly.