Nutella Caramel Coffee

Today was Peyton's two-month checkup and she had 3 shots and a liquid vaccine. Talk about a tough morning. Peyton is the most mellow baby, doesn't fuss much, but today she shrieked through most of her appointment. That was before the vaccines. After, she cried all of two minutes. It a gloomy looking morning and I was excited to make this fancy coffee when I saw the recipe yesterday. Right before we went to the doctor, a friend invited me to meet her for coffee, so I decided to have Starbucks over making my coffee drink. My Caramel Brule Latte was delicious, but not delicious enough that is satisfied me and let me put this recipe on hold. As I prepped some ingredients for tonight's dinner, I couldn't stop thinking of making this coffee. I was motivated because it was a gloomy day (it was sleeting when I left Starbucks....), but I had all the ingredients! If you regularly read my blog, you know how excited I get when I find a recipe that requires what is already contained in my pantry.

It's the little things in life...

I love flavored coffees. I'll drink a plain old coffee if the coffee is really good. I haven't found anything to compare to the coffee we had in Costa Rica. The coffee we brought home came close, but I could drink the coffee we had when we were there black. I'm a milk and sugar or flavored creamer girl. I like my coffee sweet. Not Dunkin Donuts sweet however. When I order coffee now,  get Pumpkin Spice (yes!) with half the amount of pumpkin and skim milk. Have you had their pumpkin coffee....it's disgustingly sweet if you get the full amount, which I learned is 3 pumps. So I get 1 and a half pump and no added sugar. It's perfect. When pumpkin isn't in season, I'll get another flavor with skim milk and 1 sugar.

Fancy coffee drinks are great when I can afford them. However, (and why did I never think of this before?) I have everything I need for this coffee at home all the time. Well, okay not exactly. I only have Nutella from a recent recipe I made, it's not a household staple. The whipped cream and caramel sauce is however, because ever since I became pregnant I have been an ice cream sundae fiend. Seriously. Almost every night, still (this is where the ashamed emoticon would be if this were my phone), I have a bowl of ice cream with strawberries, marshmallow, caramel and whipped cream. Yeah, I'm really concerned with losing that baby weight...

Back to coffee. I used hazelnut coffee because why not? I buy flavored coffee variety packs on Amazon. We just received a shipment of 80 coffees for our Keurig, so I can have a different type each day. I will definitely be playing around with more coffee drinks in my last month of maternity leave freedom. Why did I not discover this sooner??? You can use hazelnut, plain, or any flavor you'd like. If you use a Keurig, I use the smallest ounce button (6 oz on mine) twice to make the 12 oz of coffee. This gives you two drinks worth, so if you just want one, I'd choose the middle or largest ounce setting ( 8 and 10 oz. on mine).

This is so simple. If you want to make it even quicker, say in the morning before work, you can even heat the milk and Nutella together in the microwave and stir together and then stir it into your coffee. For the fully blended effect, I used my bullet blender and heated my milk and Nutella on the stove top.

Brew some coffee. I used some Hawaiian Hazelnut from my selection.

Gather your milk, Nutella and caramel sauce.

Brew some coffee. While it's brewing, heat some milk and Nutella together and mix.

Then, add your milk mix and coffee to a blender if you choose and add a big squirt of caramel.



See that delicious caramel at the bottom??

Then pour back into a coffee mug and top with whipped cream and a caramel drizzle.

Starbucks baristas have nothing on me!

Enjoy it while your baby and two dogs sleep and you watch the gloomy day from the warmth of your home. And while you tackle a new baking project (to be revealed soon!).

Nutella Caramel Coffee
adapted from Around My Family Table

12 oz. brewed coffee
1/2 cup milk (any kind)
2 tbsp. Nutella
Caramel sauce
Whipped cream

1. Brew some coffee.
2. In a small saucepan heat the milk until scalding, but not boiling. Whisk in the Nutella.
3. Add the coffee and milk mixture to a blender and add some caramel sauce. Blend.
4. Pour into a coffee mug and top with whipped cream and caramel sauce.