Indulgent coconut and salted caramel milkshake

If you like your milkshakes so thick that sucking them through a straw makes your lips numb, then this is one for you! I have a weakness for milkshakes and it’s often the first thing I check out on the menu if I go to a burger bar or American style diner. We don’t get much of a summer round these parts, so the moment the sun starts to shine I don’t need any excuse to pull out the blender and some ice cream. This one is geared slightly more towards the adults, so if this is being shared with children, feel free to replace the salted caramel with ordinary caramel sauce. You can make both at the same time if you like as the sauce is added separately from the other ingredients!

Serves 4 regular or 2 large

Ingredients

• 21 ounces / 600g coconut ice cream
• 7 fluid ounces / 200ml coconut milk
• ½ teaspoon of coconut essence
• 1 jar of salted caramel sauce (or caramel sauce if you prefer)
• ¾ ounce / 25g toasted coconut flakes

Method

Firstly, mix the coconut milk in a jug (if purchased in a tin it will often separate into a clear liquid and a thick soft-cheese like layer so you want to mix these together into a single cream like consistency before using in the recipe).

Blend the ice cream, newly mixed coconut milk and coconut essence together.

Using a spoon, put a large dollop of the caramel sauce of your preference in the bottom of your glasses.

Fill the glasses halfway with your milkshake.

Dollop some more of the caramel sauce on top and drizzle some down the sides of the glass.

Fill the glasses up with the milkshake and drizzle with more caramel before sprinkling with the coconut flakes.

Enjoy!

Tips

For a truly adult version of this milkshake, use plain caramel (not salted) and add 2 shots (50ml in total) of coconut rum (e.g. Malibu) to the ice cream when you blend it.

If your caramel sauce is a little stiff, feel free to heat it slightly in the microwave in 10 second bursts just so that it loosens a little.  You don’t want it hot, so just give a stir and lift up your spoon after each microwave burst to see if it gives a good drizzle!

Trivia

Originally, “milkshakes” described a drink with absolutely no milk in it, made of whisky and eggs, in fact, more of an eggnog type of tonic. And that’s how the first printed reference was understood in 1885. By the 1900s, what were called milkshakes had become closer to what we understand them to be today. They contained milk, were more wholesome, and were flavoured with chocolate or fruit syrups. The often contained ice cream, and had become staple products of the carbonated soda fountains of the early 20th century.

It wasn’t until the invention of the first electric blender by Steven Poplawski in 1922 that the milkshake as we know it today really took off. In fact, the first blender was invented specifically for the milkshake and their history is interconnected.