Are you ready for a serious confession?
I don’t like pumpkin pie.
That may come as a surprise since I’m obsessed with things like this and this and this. Also a surprise when considering that this time of year, I spend about 85% of my available brain power trying to discover new ways to incorporate pumpkin flavor into everyday foods. See, while there’s something about mushy orange pie that kick starts my gag reflex, there’s also something entirely intoxicating about the combination of warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, all strung together with sweet brown sugar and delicate pumpkin in just about anything else.
So the other day when my 4 year old and I were looking for a pre-bedtime treat, I reached in to grab the vanilla ice cream and knocked my frozen pumpkin puree off the shelf. One look at my kiddo and his cute little mouth covered in graham cracker crumbs and I knew exactly what we were about to create. That was a week ago. We’ve had these shakes about 6 times since. So yeah, just about every day. Go ahead, call the diet police. I dare you.
I purposely made this to serve 2 generous servings. I also made it to fit perfectly into my Blendtec Twister jar (which is smaller than a normal size blender jar) so you could certainly double it in a larger, high-powered blender. If you have a Blendtec, the Twister Jar works exceptionally well for things like this!
(If you’re wondering about my specific Blender, it’s the Blendec Designer Series 625, which comes in that awesome sea foam color)
In the jar of your blender, combine a little milk with some pumpkin puree, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Whip that up and then add in the vanilla ice cream. Now. It’s important to use good ice cream here. I’m not talking about expensive ice cream, just good ice cream. I call for Vanilla Bean ice cream because that tends to be the closest to a good quality homemade vanilla without a lot of extra fake-y flavors. My go-to is Breyers Vanilla Bean. Try to stay away from any vanilla ice creams that are that bright yellow-ish color. Breyers is one of the few with only a few ingredients and that’s always a good sign! I actually bought Walmart’s Great Value brand for this batch and I couldn’t believe how close it was to Breyers. Sure enough, when I looked at the ingredient list there were only a few ingredients (mostly milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla) and it was only a few bucks. So those are both great choices.
I also get my ice cream out a few minutes ahead of time so it’s just a little bit soft. That tends to lead to the perfect consistency.
Whip it up and it morphs into the most amazing smooth, soft serve consistency.
A note about blenders: Here’s the problem with making thick, diner style milkshakes at home: A lot of times you have to add so much milk to the thing to get the blender to process that it turns into a milk-slushie instead. Or you have to blend and plunge, blend and plunge, etc. You know the drill, right? So if you have any trouble with your blender, I would recommend blending everything but the ice cream first and then mashing it into the ice cream by hand (well, with a hand. Holding a fork or spoon 🙂 If your scooped ice cream sits out at room temp while you measure the other things and get them all ready, then by the time you mash it all together it should be a good consistency and it will turn out like a nice soft-serve at the end. If you want it thinner, to drink with a big straw, just add a little milk or cream until you reach the right consistency.
Sprinkle with crushed graham cracker crumbs before serving. It tastes just like DQ’s Pumkin Pie Blizzard!
PrintPumpkin Pie Milkshake
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10
Description
Quick and easy frozen treat using real pumpkin and warm spices. The perfect autumn dessert!
Ingredients
- 1/3 C pumpkin puree, canned or homemade
- 2–4 tablespoons milk or cream (more if needed), divided
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/16 teaspoon cloves (just use a 1/8 t measure and fill it half way, or do a large pinch)
- 1/16 t nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 C vanilla bean ice cream (I like Breyers)
- 1–2 graham crackers
Instructions
- Set ice cream out at room temperature.
- In the jar of a blender, or bowl, combine pumpkin, 2 tablespoons milk or cream, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Blend or whisk to combine. Add ice cream and process (or smash by hand) to combine. Pour into glasses and top with crumbled graham crackers.
Notes
- Optional: after blending milkshake, stir in by hand chunks of graham crackers, baked pie crust, or chunks of shortbread cookies.
- Tip on Blending: Here’s the problem with making thick, diner style milkshakes at home: A lot of times you have to add so much milk to the thing to get the blender to process that it turns into a milk-slushie instead. Or you have to blend and plunge, blend and plunge, etc. You know the drill, right? So if you have any trouble with your blender, I would recommend blending everything but the ice cream first and then mashing it into the ice cream by hand (well, with a hand. Holding a fork or spoon 🙂 If your scooped ice cream sits out at room temp while you measure the other things and get them all ready, then by the time you mash it all together it should be a good consistency and it will turn out like a nice soft-serve at the end. If you want it thinner, to drink with a big straw, just add a little milk or cream until you reach the right consistency.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2
I love this with ginger snaps on top 🙂
Curse you! I am supposed to be eating healthy and this looks so good.
I just made a “healthy” version based on what I had on hand. You will laugh because the ingredients were off the wall yet it still tasted like pumpkin pie:
1 cup frozen passionfruit…I think. It was something cubed and orange that I probably got from Bountiful Baskets and forgot to label.
1 frozen banana
1 chopped apple, skin on
1 tbs fresh ginger
2 cups milk
cinnamon, cloves and allspice
1 cup oats since it was still too runny
Your version has got to be much much better but I was able to at least get rid of my craving 😉
it looks yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yum! I just drank this milkshake in 2.4 seconds. DELISH! Thank you so much for this recipe! I topped mine with Sweetzels Spiced Wafers (a gingersnap, basically…) It’s a Philadelphia thing… 😉
SSOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOODD
well hello abby wats up it so happens im on this site too
Ummm, yeah. Extremely delish and very, very dangerous. So, thank you!!! 😉
Wow! these taste like DQ’s and Iceburgs milkshakes. it is no secret i LOVE pumpkin, and this was no exception.
Delicious! I just made these for Thanksgiving breakfast and they are so great. Thanks!
I am eating this right now and it is delicious, however I feel like I did something wrong because this didnt really even make enough for two regular sized milkshakes, let alone with a bit extra! I will have to double the recipe next time I guess!
I just made this a little while ago and finished it, and I am surprised! I expected it to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be THIS good! I’m so glad I found this recipe..I like the fact that you list out the individual spices, rather than just list “pumpkin pie” spice like I’ve seen on some other blogs (I don’t keep pumpkin pie spice on hand since I usually just make the spice blend as I need it). Thanks for the recipe, it was a great afternoon treat for me! 🙂
Wow! This was amazing! We will be making this again soon!
sounds wonderful. they have these at sonic and they do put the graham crackers
in the shake as well as on the top and it it super yummy that way. Can’t wait to try. You saved me from coming up with a recipe myself this coming weekend.
Super delicious. My pumpkiny dreams come true!
This. Is. Amazing. The perfect size to share with the husband. We topped ours with alcohol infused caramel whipped cream. Thank you so much, I’m in heaven!
I made this today and it was fantastic! First I made a bunch of pumpkin puree using a recipe I found on the Pioneer Woman’s page.. I froze at least 8 bags of puree and have a ton more little pumpkins still to do.. and to think i used to pay 1.69 for 1 can.. and the fresh is so much better!
Can’t wait to try it out on the kids later.
Just made this with my husband…FANTASTIC!
I tried this and it was delicious!!! Thank you so much! 🙂
yeah # 100 this recipe looks fun and great and i can really use this for my catering this saturday thank you
We are in the process of trying your shake and let us just say… WE LOVE IT! By golly, it is just so dang good. Kudos on this spectacular shake. I would totally go on the pumpkin diet and receive the soap dispenser! Thanks again! 🙂
I just made these tonight. While it was delicious, I still have to play around with the recipe. My first batch was too liquidy, then my second batch was too pumpkiny. I’m greatly satisfied though. I’ll keep you updated on my next batch. 🙂
I made this today and it was AMAZING! I loved it so much I posted it on my blog with a link to you! Hope you check it out! http://keepingupwithkitchenmom.blogspot.com/2011/10/pumpkin-pie-milkshake.html
These are delicious! I loved it, my husband loved it, and our 15 month old loved it so much that he cried when his little glass was empty! Thanks for the recipe!
best ever i love these!!!!!
OMG…. My best friend and I just made these… they are SOOOOOO good! Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks so much for this recipe. I have steered clear of Dairy Queen this fall because I have this recipe now thanks to you. I love it more than any of the pumpkin shakes I have bought and it can be made at the convenience of my own home. My new favorite treat!
Simply put…..AMAZING!! Thanks for such a great, simple recipe!
Thank you for yet more pumpkin-y goodness and for keeping this on your sidebar this time of year. Wanted to let you know your first two links in the post where the sentence reads ‘…obsessed with things like this and this and this…’ are broken. So curious what they were, is it fixable?
You know, they were all things from our “Thanksgiving and Fall Flavors” section; most of which are in our side bar right now, so just check those out!