This shake is so good it’s addictive.  It’s a knock-off of Dairy Queen’s® Chocolate Covered Strawberry Blizzard®—which I think is the best strawberry shake on the planet.  It’s made with fresh strawberries with chunks of chocolate.

The following recipe makes two shakes.  So as to not overfill the blender, make a half at a time.

1 1/3 cups sliced ripe, fresh strawberries (you will need three to four cups whole strawberries)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
about 4 cups premium vanilla ice cream
2/3 cup half and half (or a 50:50 mixture of milk and whipping cream)
1/2 teaspoon strawberry flavor

  1. Wash, trim, and slice the berries. Sprinkle the sugar on the berries and set them in the refrigerator.
  2. Place half the ice cream in a blender. Add half of the half and half and 1/4 teaspoon of the flavor and mix.  The shake will be very thick—Blizzard like—so you may need to partially mix it with mixing spoon.  Do not work it until it starts to melt.
  3. Add half the chocolate pieces and half of the strawberries.  (Instructions for the chocolate pieces follow.)   Both the strawberries and the chocolate should be in chunks.  Spoon the strawberry and chocolate through the shake until just barely combined.
  4. Put the shake in a tall, chilled glass while you make the second shake.

There are some tricks to making a very good strawberry shake.  Start with the very best berries.  If they are not fully ripe, they won’t be flavorful but if they are starting to get mushy, they may have an off-taste.

Taste the shake before you serve it.  If it does not have enough strawberry taste, add some strawberry flavor.

Before making the shakes, chill the blender and glasses in the freezer.  It’s hard to make a thick shake in a warm blender; it melts the ice cream.  Your ice cream should be rock hard.  (Use an ice cream spade, not scoop, to pry out hard frozen ice cream.)  Don’t mix the shake any longer than necessary; the friction from the motor causes heat that will melt the ice cream.

For the chocolate pieces

You will need 1/3 cup good quality chocolate chips or wafers.  We use milk chocolate but Dairy Queen uses dark.

  1. Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave, in several short bursts, stirring until the chocolate is melted.
  2. Pour the chocolate onto a sheet of waxed paper nesting in a pan, plate, or bowl.
  3. Let the chocolate harden.  Crumple the wax paper breaking the chocolate into 1/4 to 1/2-inch pieces.

Print This Post Print This Post