Brown Butter Coffee Creamer: Easy Homemade Recipe, Taste, and Calories

Brown butter coffee creamer is simple to make: You just have to cook butter a little longer than normal until it turns golden and smells like roasted nuts. After that, just mix it into cream and sugar. That’s it. The smell fills the kitchen fast, and honestly, it’s half the reason to make it.

We make a lot of creamers at home, and this is the one people keep asking us about. It uses the same three parts as our homemade coffee creamer guide: a milk base, something sweet, and a flavor. Here the flavor is browned butter. Below you’ll get the recipe, the taste, the calories, and an answer on whether you should have it every day.

How to Make Brown Butter Coffee Creamer

It only takes around 15 minutes and gives you about 1¼ cups:

You’ll need

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Steps

1. Put the butter in a light-colored pan on medium-low heat
2. Swirl the pan now and then; the butter foams first
3. After 4-5 minutes, it gets golden and brown specks at the bottom 
4. Take it off the heat right away, because it burns quickly after that
5. Add the brown sugar and stir until it melts into a thick, shiny mix
6. Then, heat the half-and-half in a separate pot until it’s warm, and pour it into the butter slowly while you whisk, it might spit a little
7. Keep the heat low and don’t let it boil
8. Stir in the vanilla and salt, and pour it into a jar, let it cool down, then put it in the fridge

A tip from our Barista

Butter turns firm when it’s cold, so the creamer may look split in the fridge. Shake the jar hard, or blend it for about ten seconds with a hand blender. There’s nothing in it to hold it together, so a bit of separation is normal. We finish our brown butter coffee creamer within about 5 days.

Common Mistakes to Avoid for Brown Butter Coffee Creamer

Burnt butter is the biggest one:

1. If you see black specks, throw it out and start over, because it will definitely taste bitter
2. Don’t boil the half-and-half, because it can curdle or grow a skin on top
3. Also, don’t add extra butter to get more flavor, all you’ll get is an oily film floating on your coffee

What Does Brown Butter Coffee Creamer Taste Like?

Honestly, it’s closer to a toasted nut than to butter:

• Think hazelnut, a bit of caramel
• The warm smell you get when cookies are almost done in the oven

We expected something greasy and heavy, and it wasn’t. The French name “beurre noisette”  actually means hazelnut butter. The name makes sense once you taste it. 

One thing we noticed: it gets lost in a dark roast. The smoky taste wins and you barely catch the butter. Medium roast lets both come through.

Is Brown Butter Good in Coffee?

Yes, if you like warm, mellow flavors:

• The fat takes the edge off bitter coffee, the same way cream does
• Browned butter adds a toasted note on top 

You can use it in hot coffee, iced coffee, cold brew, and for iced drinks, you need to shake the jar well first, because cold makes the fat firm up.

Now for the benefits: You choose how much sugar goes in, and a small pour is enough. Butter has some vitamin A, around 11% of your daily value per tablespoon, but a splash in your cup won’t add much. Also, there’s no solid proof that butter in coffee gives you extra energy.

If you want other flavors, try our sweet cream coffee creamer for something lighter, or the cinnamon roll coffee creamer, which also uses brown sugar.

How Many Calories Are in Brown Butter Coffee Creamer?

The exact numbers change with the brands you buy, so take these as close estimates, this is where the calories in one batch come from:

If your batch makes about 20 tbsp, that’s ~31 calories per tbsp. A 2 tbsp pour is about 62.

Most of it is fat, as the butter has ~23 grams of fat and the half-and-half has close to 28 grams. ~32 grams of the total is saturated fat. So, this comes to ~1.6 grams per tbsp. The sugar only adds carbs. Cooking the butter drives off a little water, so your real numbers could be slightly different.

Is the Brown Butter Coffee Creamer Seasonal?

Not if you make it yourself. You can make it in any month using things already in your fridge. Store-bought is another story. 

Coffee mate’s Nestle Toll House Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie creamer came out with its seasonal holiday flavors, so it can be hard to find the rest of the year. It’s also a cookie flavor, so it doesn’t taste like plain brown butter. That’s one more reason we make ours at home.

Is It OK to Drink Butter Coffee Every Day?

It depends on which kind you mean, as the popular bulletproof coffee puts butter and oil in a full cup. Cleveland Clinic says it has  a lot of calories and saturated fat, so it isn’t necessarily safe to drink every day. They say people with heart problems, diabetes, stomach issues should skip it.

A splash of this creamer is much lighter than a full bulletproof cup. 1-2 tbsp gives you ~1.6 to 3.2 grams of saturated fat, even so, the American Heart Association suggests keeping saturated fat near 13 grams a day if you eat 2,000 calories, and the rest of your meals count too.

We have it a few mornings a week, not every day. We’re coffee people, not doctors. If you have high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, stomach problems, always ask your doctor first.