How To Make a Perfect Strawberry Milkshake
Creamy, thick, pale pink, just strawberry-strawberry-strawberry — all as it should be. Here's how to make your own.
Serves2 to 4
Makesabout 32 ounces
Prep10 minutes
It’s hot out, so let’s get down to basics: a good old-fashioned strawberry milkshake. Why eat dinner when you can drink a shake? This is a serious strawberry milkshake, too; it isn’t messing around. It doesn’t involve anything fancy or difficult — nothing “gourmet.” This tastes like pure strawberry; not too sweet, but not too milky either. Creamy, thick, pale pink, just strawberry-strawberry-strawberry — all as it should be. Here’s how to make your own. Don’t you want a sip?
I adore a good strawberry milkshake, but I almost never drink them. They tend to be extremely disappointing. Fast-food milkshakes are fake-flavored, dyed pink, worse than bad. No, no, no. And yet homemade shakes often let me down as well. In ill-inconceived attempts to make them “healthier” people water them down with milk, or up the quotient of strawberries, until they are just sharp and icy. Now, smoothies are well and good, but when I want a milkshake, it needs to be a milkshake, OK? It’s an occasional indulgence, and therefore it needs to indulge. Got it?
I feel like I finally figured it out, my perfect strawberry shake. It’s not groundbreaking; there’s no gastronomic secrets here. But it delivers the goods. This is no fake-flavored strawberry, but it doesn’t have icy chunks of strawberry in it either. It is just totally all strawberry, all the way.
The Best Ingredients for the Perfect Strawberry Milkshake
The key, as all milkshake devotees know, is the ice cream. I like to use ice cream that doesn’t have any eggs in it; I find that the custard taste distracts from the purity of the other flavors. For this shake, I prefer the simplest Breyer’s formulation — just milk, cream, strawberries, sugar. And for the berries, you hardly need me to tell you: Get them ripe, get them fresh, make sure they are sweet as can be.
Lastly, I like to add malted milk powder, which adds just a bit of extra depth and a hint of malty flavor without turning the shake into a true malt. If you opt to use regular powdered milk, it will also add a bit of richness and creaminess. But the powders are not necessary.
Happy slurping; if you love strawberry milkshakes I hope you get to try this one soon.
More Milkshake Recipes We Love
How To Make a Perfect Strawberry Milkshake
Creamy, thick, pale pink, just strawberry-strawberry-strawberry — all as it should be. Here's how to make your own.
Prep time 10 minutes
Makes about 32 ounces
Serves 2 to 4
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 8 ounces
fresh strawberries, plus more for garnish
- 2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon
vanilla extract
- 3/4 to 1 cup
whole milk
- 1 tablespoon
malted milk powder or regular powdered milk (optional)
- 1 pint
high-quality strawberry ice cream (no fake flavors or dye)
Equipment
Blender
Measuring cups and spoons
Medium bowl
Knife and cutting board
Instructions
Prepare and freeze the strawberries. Hull 8 ounces strawberries, then thinly slice them. Place in a medium bowl, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and toss to combine. Place in the freezer for about 1 hour.
Freeze the glasses. Meanwhile, place 2 pint glasses or 4 smaller glasses in the freezer to chill.
Blend the strawberries and milk. Place the strawberries in a blender, and scrape in all the syrupy juice that has accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. Add 3/4 cup whole milk and blend until the strawberries are pulverized. There should be no big chunks left at all.
Add the malted milk powder, if using. Add 1 tablespoons malted milk powder or powdered milk if desired and blend. (Note: The malted milk powder gives just a bit of extra depth and a hint of malty flavor without turning the shake into a true malt. If you opt to use regular powdered milk this also will just add a bit of richness and creaminess. But the powders are not necessary.)
Add the ice cream. Take the blender jar off the base, and add 1 pint strawberry ice cream. Stir it into the milk and strawberries by hand. Blend thoroughly. If it won’t blend very well or gets stuck, carefully add up to 1/4 cup more milk. Stir or shake if necessary.
Pour into glasses. Pour the milkshake out into the chilled glasses and garnish with strawberries. Slurp immediately!