Baked Sunday Mornings: Bourbon, Vanilla, and Chocolate Milk Shakes

One of the things I like about being part of the Baked Sunday Mornings group is that it pushes me to try recipes that I would otherwise ignore. Milk shakes are not part of my normal dessert repertoire, but Bourbon, Vanilla, and Chocolate Milk Shakes were on the schedule for this week, so I was happy to dig out the blender.

This recipe is simple: put ice cream, milk, chocolate syrup, ice cubes, and bourbon in a blender. I did have to make the chocolate syrup, which is a cooked mixture of water, cocoa, and sugar. The problem is, my syrup turned into a dry, grainy, crystallized mess as it cooled. Looking at my dry pile of grainy disaster triggered a memory that I have made this chocolate syrup recipe before (to accompany the Banana Mousse Parfaits from Baked Elements), with the exact same failed result. Fool me twice, and shame on me -- I'm never making this chocolate syrup again!

However, the dry grainy chocolate non-syrup actually tasted fine, and since it was going into a mixture that was going to be blended, I decided to use it anyway. Since I don't drink alcohol, I blended just the ice cream, milk, ice, and chocolate non-syrup to make my own milk shake, and after I served myself, I added some bourbon to rest for my husband.

Being completely clueless about bourbon, I asked my husband what bourbon I should use. He was watching a World Cup game on TV and said I could use any bourbon bottle in the liquor cabinet. I grabbed the first bottle I saw and added some to his milk shake.
A chocolate milk shake in a frosted glass on a rainy day is difficult to photograph. So it doesn't look like much, but it was delicious. My non-alcoholic version was a flavorful chocolate milkshake -- the grainy non-syrup was just fine after it was blended. My husband loved his bourbon milkshake. And Tom was a good sport about it when he realized that the random bottle of bourbon that I had grabbed out of the liquor cabinet was some Old Rip Van Winkle 10 year. At least I followed the recipe's instructions to use a good-quality bourbon!

Recipe: "Bourbon, Vanilla, and Chocolate Milk Shakes" from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.

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Comments

Unknown said…
We have the exact same feelings about milkshakes - I honestly can't remember the last time I made one. I'm glad I'm not the only one who had issues with the chocolate syrup! I think we have another recipe coming up that uses it, so at least now we know to stay away from it!
Chelly said…
It has been years since I have had a honest to goodness milkshake! Looks great!
Susan said…
LOL! I've done something similar! I'm glad I used ready-made chocolate sauce with all the trouble everyone had with it.
I think your pic looks great...can see the frosty sides. I will have to try this recipe another day.
Anonymous said…
I had to skip this one, as I was traveling at the time, but it sounds yummy. Sorry to hear about the syrup, but I'm glad it worked okay once it was blended. I was going to try it for this week's semifreddi, but I think I'll use a ready-made syrup instead...