If you’ve ever had the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake from Chick-fil-A (offered seasonally), you know how delicious this flavor of milkshake can be. And even if you haven’t, you really owe it to yourself to try it. My sister developed this recipe as a homemade, cheaper, and lower fat/calorie/sodium alternative. Yep, sodium! This Christmas my sister taught me to make these delicious peppermint milkshakes, and as a lover of all things mint and chocolate, I thought this was a perfect one to share!
Difficulty: Easy (as long as you have a blender)
Source: My sister, who developed this recipe through trial and error (wish I had been there to taste test the “errors”)
1/4 cup crushed peppermint (Wal-Mart sells crushed peppermint in the winter baking section. It’s worth a trip to Wal-Mart.)
3/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 drops peppermint extract or oil
a drop or two of red food coloring (optional)
Pour crushed peppermint and milk into a jar. Put the lid on the jar and shake until milk is pink.
Put ice cream in blender or tall pitcher if you’re using an immersion blender. We used an immersion blender, but we recommend a regular blender, which does a better job of chopping the chocolate chips. Oh, and my sister says this is one of the few cases where you actually can get too much chocolate. WHAT? I’ll just have to trust her. Pour milk and peppermint mixture into blender along with chocolate chips and blend together.
Taste at this point to see if you want to add peppermint extract or oil. At this step I thought we didn’t need any peppermint flavoring, but my sister turned me into a believer. The peppermint flavoring really took it up a notch. If you’re serving this to guests and want a pinker look, add a drop or two of red food coloring. Blend in peppermint flavoring and food coloring.
Then serve and be ready to be wowed! I topped it with a little homemade whipped cream* that could have stood to be whipped a little more and some crushed peppermint.
Thank you to my sister Susan for developing this recipe and sharing it with me for the blog!
*If you’ve never made homemade whipped cream, you should definitely try it. It is truly easy and is SO much better than canned whipped cream. And it will make gorgeous florets if you use a frosting tip and actually whip it long enough. (see picture of Angel Food Cake – http://notjustanotherfoodblogger.com/angel-food-cake/) To whip your own cream, pour a little whipping cream into a bowl (about half the volume you want of whipped cream). Add a little powdered sugar and a splash or two of vanilla. Then beat with a hand mixer or your whisk attachment in your regular mixer. You’ll want to cover it with a dish towel, because it will splatter a bit. I suggest using a bowl that will not slide around on the counter. Taste before it’s fully whipped to see if you need more powdered sugar or vanilla. It will keep in the refrigerator for a few days, but beware that this may cause it to lose some of its stiffness and look like the topping in the picture above.
I can’t think of homemade whipped cream without remembering the bunco night when the host was serving a dessert with homemade whipped cream. It was sitting out in a bowl, and one of my bunco buddies exclaimed, “Look, Mom, homemade Cool Whip!”
