While the weather is finally starting to cool down for the year, I occasionally still find myself craving a scoop of ice cream or ordering a milkshake while out to eat. In case you’re anything like me, here’s a recipe for a dairy-based dessert that’s still on theme with popular fall flavors.
To make it, you’ll need milk, vanilla ice cream, a slice of pumpkin pie and any additional toppings like whipped cream, caramel sauce or pumpkin pie spice. You’ll also need a blender to mix all of the ingredients together.
You can find milk and ice cream year-round at both the Marketplace and Jay’s Nest, and pumpkin pie is sometimes available by the slice in the Marketplace. However, if you don’t want to wait around until it’s available on the dessert shelf, you can find pies in the bakery section of Giant.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to purchase an entire pie, you can use a mix of graham crackers, pumpkin pie spice, maple syrup and canned pumpkin puree.
Once you have all of the ingredients, add one cup of ice cream and one cup of milk to the blender. Drop in a slice of pie. If you need to cut the pie yourself, I recommend cutting it into eighths.
For the alternative method, add two cups of ice cream, one cup of milk, two-thirds of a cup of pumpkin puree, two tablespoons of maple syrup, a quarter teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and one graham cracker sheet, which you may have to break to fit into the blender.
If your blender has a “pulse” setting, tap it a few times until the pie crust or graham cracker has broken down enough to run smoothly. Then, switch it to the lowest setting and let it run for about a minute.
I recommend tasting the milkshake with a spoon before calling it done. I found that using only one cup of ice cream with a slice of pie resulted in the milkshake being a little runny, so you may have to add more ice cream or some ice cubes to help thicken it. The flavor of the pumpkin pie is still pretty strong after the additional ice cream, so you shouldn’t have to worry about adding more of the other ingredients to balance it out.
Once it’s thoroughly blended, pour the milkshake into a glass. Top it with a layer of whipped cream or other toppings, stick a straw in it and enjoy!
When having a milkshake, I typically go for the standard chocolate or vanilla, so I personally found the pumpkin spice and cinnamon flavors to be a little overpowering for my taste. Additionally, the pie crust left some small chunks behind, which could potentially be remedied by blending the mixture longer. Even so, I did enjoy it (as well as my dad, who also gave it a try), and it definitely seemed to be an appropriate dessert for the fall season.
