all shook up

Last night, David and I decided to finish off our carton of ice cream in style -- chocolate-banana-peanut-butter-cup milkshakes with homemade whipped cream. They were delicious, but I'll be honest, they would've been worlds better had we been using my Hamilton Beach Classic Drinkmaster. Yes, this is what I'm used to making my milkshakes with:

My mom got me this beauty for my birthday several years ago, and I rediscovered it at our house in NC over the summer and brought it back with me. What an excellent birthday present. It's currently sitting in our kitchen in Saint Paul, hibernating next to Allison's Kitchenaid. I would request that my housemates put it to good use while I'm gone, but I'm afraid you would all freeze your intestines if you drank milkshakes in the current weather. I'll admit, I'm a little worried that I'll be too cold drink milkshakes very often when I go back. I guess I'll just have to bundle up and suffer through it.

Okay, well the point of this post is to talk about the reasons that my wonderful milkshake machine, with its two speeds, 28-oz steel cup, detachable spindle, and timeless design, is far superior to the standard blender (at least when making milkshakes).

First of all, whipped cream. It's PERFECT for making whipped cream. I mean, I love Reddi Wip, but it's so satisfying and delicious to plop a spoonful of thick, sweet, homemade whipped cream on top of your milkshake, or hot chocolate, or strawberries, or tongue. So the first way I ever learned to make my own whipped cream was to pour some cream and sugar in a jar/covered container, drop in a marble and SHAKE. With the Hamilton Beach Classic DrinkMaster, all you have to do is pour your cream and sugar in the 28-oz steel cup, start mixing, and in less than a minute, you've got a cup of whipped cream. It's AWESOME. Well, last night, we resorted to the old-fashioned way:

We shook.
... And shook some more.


... And continued to shake.


It took a while. But eventually, we had ourselves some whipped cream. And maybe slightly stronger arms. Well, then it was time for the shakes themselves. Pre-blend:


That's about 4 scoops of chocolate ice cream, 3/4 of a banana, and 3 mini Reese's cups. I added milk too. And the result:




David was pleased. I was sort of pleased. You just can't make a proper milkshake with a regular blender. I had to blend these long enough to mix in the banana and peanut butter cups, which left the shake itself too liquidy, with chunks of the good stuff at the bottom. My HBCD, on the other hand, gently blends everything together without pureeing the ice cream into liquid. The chunks of good stuff are evenly distributed in a thick, icy shake.
Oh well. Soon I'll be reunited with the DrinkMaster. And the possibility of frozen intestines.