4 Levels of Milkshakes: Amateur to Food Scientist

[machine whirring] [knife chopping]

[upbeat drum music]

I'm Onika, and I'm a level one chef.

Hi I'm Daniel,

and I'm a level two chef.

Hi, I'm Lani Halliday,

and I've been a professional baker for about 20 years.

[upbeat drum music]

Today, I'm gonna be making a milkshake

with chocolate chip ice cream with a vanilla base.

It's gonna be like a cookies and cream

with a marshmallow twist.

My milkshake is going to be an ode

to the classic banana split:

bananas, whipped cream made of coconut, and some chocolate,

and of course, a cherry on top.

I love milkshakes

because they are the ultimate classic

American decadent dessert.

This one is my take on a PB and J milkshake.

[dramatic whooshing]

[bells chiming]

[dramatic whooshing]

So today I'm using a chocolate chip ice cream,

vanilla ice cream, Oreo cookies,

and then this is my little secret ingredient,

which is marshmallow syrup.

To start the milkshake, I'm going to make

ice cream out of bananas.

The more ripe, the better, just 'cause I think it's sweeter,

and they're softer.

I'm gonna be making my strawberry ice cream from scratch,

because I really get control

over what my final product tastes like.

The first thing we're gonna do

is pulverize these freeze-dried strawberries

in this food processor.

This is the best way to pack a strawberry punch

into my ice cream base.

So now we're gonna start with our ice cream.

So I'm gonna scoop about four scoops of ice cream.

I would use this whole thing, actually.

I'm literally just cutting them into slices.

It's a milkshake, a lot of people use ice cream.

You got to get in there and get that ice cream.

I don't know, sometimes you feel a little better

eating fruit.

This is an easy way to sneak some fruit into your diet.

This strawberry powder is lovely and fine,

and is gonna pack such a beautiful strawberry punch.

I'm actually gonna use it twice.

I'm gonna put it into the ice cream base,

into the jammy swirl.

Our bananas are cut and ready,

and now they're going into the freezer.

You think that this is enough? Let me see.

Let's start the ice cream base.

First things first, I'm gonna mix this cream,

and the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl

and set it aside.

I want this base mixture to actually heat really gently.

I want things to be really well incorporated

before we get started with the heat.

Now I'm gonna add my whole milk.

Whole milk has all the fat and all the flavor.

So I'm just being cautious here,

keeping it low while I get my vanilla bean going.

We're just gonna split this bean right down the middle,

and we want all those luscious,

teeny little baby, beautiful vanilla beans inside.

I like using vanilla beans as opposed to vanilla extract,

just because it's so decadent.

You really get that punch of vanilla flavor.

You get the beautiful speckles in your final product.

Here's my bananas.

They're all nice and frozen and ready to be blended.

And when I say blended, I mean put in a food processor,

which is actually a key component of this

because it makes it a lot creamier.

It's a lot more surface area

that gets hit with a food processor.

A milkshake is like a hug in a cup.

If someone makes you a milkshake,

chances are, they love you.

So we're just bringing this milk up

to a little slight simmer.

The top of this is quite foamy.

I can see it sort of wobbling under this cap of foam.

So I think now's a good time to take it off the heat,

add the rest of our ingredients,

and then return everything to the pot, and get it going.

Basically, this is going into the food processor

for like six to eight minutes until it gets nice and creamy.

Look at that, there's no movement on that.

I'm just adding my cream, cornstarch, and sugar mixture

to the rest of the milk mixture.

Adding it slowly, whisking as I'm going,

just to sort of equalize the temperatures.

You'd think you'd need like, some sort of liquid,

like a milk.

What's a milkshake without milk?

Or you can really get this like creamy,

ice cream with just bananas.

Mmm.

Now that everything's nice and mixed.

I'm just gonna turn it on a low heat

and it's just gonna thicken ever so slightly.

She's about as high maintenance as they come,

but she's definitely gonna be worth it.

I'm gonna pack in all my strawberry flavor.

We're gonna let it hydrate.

Literally whisking the flavor into the base.

I think we're ready to strain.

Now the thing about this is that you want to keep it cold.

So after I scoop it in here,

as I work on getting the other ingredients

and prepping up more things,

this is going back into the freezer to stay cold.

Now that this bad girl is all strained and ready to go,

we're gonna cover her up, put her in the fridge,

and let her chill overnight.

Let's say you're not making a milkshake.

This will keep in your freezer for a long time.

So something you can prep way in advance

and then just eat it as you want.

This is a self-care item.

One of the reasons I really love making my own ice cream

is getting to play with the liquid nitrogen.

This stuff is dangerous, and it is going to make

the most beautiful strawberry ice cream you've ever had

in about an instant.

I'm gonna put our luscious strawberry base

right into our mixing bowl.

We're gonna start on a really low speed.

There is no need to rush.

[machine whirring]

I just wanna stop intermittently,

and see what's going on with this ice cream.

It's a real smoke show.

The liquid nitrogen

doesn't impact the flavor of this ice cream in any way.

This is a really fun activation to do at events.

People love the drama of the liquid nitrogen.

Okay, so we have the ice cream.

Next is the milk.

Get your milk in there.

Oreo cookies.

Remember when you were a little kid,

you would just open up the Oreos,

and then lick all the cream out the middle

and then put it back together?

I would put them back in the pack

because I was bad like that.

First things first, the nice cream.

Look at how great it scoops in there.

Look, it's so thick.

There we go, bam.

You don't want to use too many cookies

because you wanna have the cookie to milk ice cream ratio

just right.

If I used about four scoops of ice cream,

so then I will use two cookies, okay?

And a half a cup of milk. In here.

Now I'm gonna get to work on my strawberry jammy swirl.

I'm gonna zest this lemon.

I'm just gonna use this microplane

and eyeball about half.

And it's all about eyeballing.

All the salted almond butter that I have.

I love almond butter.

And does it taste great?

Yes, but also, it contrasts the sweetness of the bananas

quite nicely.

So it's not like too sweet.

So for anyone looking for

a little bit more of a flavor profile,

this is the answer.

Some people use ice in their milkshakes.

Some people don't.

I use ice because I feel like

it makes it hold better, longer.

So put in ice.

Next, I'm gonna add my pulverized

freeze-dried strawberries.

I'm gonna add some water just to get this hydrated.

Pinch of salt, my sugar,

and about a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Now, one last ingredient,

a little bit of this marshmallow syrup.

Look at that.

That's the extra love.

That's the, what else is in here?

And you just sit there and don't say a word, just, shh.

Add a little bit of vanilla extract.

And away we go. [machine whirring]

We want it to be just so.

Not too thick and not too thin.

You get your top.

Make sure it's secure

'cause you don't want a whole mess in your kitchen,

'cause we don't want to clean up.

We just want a treat.

Start the blender. [blender whirring]

About one minute. [blender whirring]

Look at her whirling. [blender whirring]

This is like a whirlpool.

This is what I meant when I said she's high maintenance.

This jammy swirl is gonna be luscious in the milkshake,

but it is difficult to get to this bottle.

Now, it's time for our toppings.

I feel like the toppings play a huge part

in the milkshake.

Not only for how it looks, but for how it tastes.

You want to have like more stuff to pile on top

and play around with or else, what's the point?

I love Oreos.

It just brings the kid out of you.

So we're gonna use a lot of them,

and we're gonna make them like if you were using...

[Unison] Sprinkles.

From scratch.

I'm gonna start with my powdered sugar,

which I'm gonna sift into this mixing pool.

Pinch of salt, a couple tablespoons of water,

corn syrup, vanilla extract.

What we're looking for is

something that's flowing, but also thick.

Now, I am about to start my chocolate drizzle.

Now, one of the things I like to do

with the coconut milk

is keep it in the refrigerator

because if you keep it in the fridge,

you offer the opportunity for this to happen.

So this sits on top,

and this is gonna be basically the base

of the chocolate drizzle.

So I'm gonna put this off to the side for now,

and roughly chop my semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Thing is, I just want a nice coarse chop on these

so that it increases the surface area a little bit

and they melt quicker.

I'm gonna take a small little bit of this coconut fat,

and toss that into my pan.

You want to punch those Oreos.

Oh, nice.

Now comes the fun part.

We just want to divide the sprinkle mixture

into however many colors we want to end up with,

and get to dyeing it.

In my opinion, the coconut fat allows the chocolate,

not only to melt down and create like, a rich drizzle,

but also create a shell as it cools down.

Coconut fat is starting to melt,

so I'm going to add my chocolate chunks.

I want this to be able to be something

that I can pour over the top of the milkshake.

This is looking good, look at that.

So I'm gonna prep all my garnishes,

and then bring it all together,

and assemble it at the same time.

So I have some almonds I'm gonna chop up

because who doesn't like some nuts

sprinkled on top of a banana split?

My sprinkles are now ready to pipe,

and I'm actually just rocking from foot to foot

to get a nice steady line of this sprinkle mixture.

It's like dancing.

Now, all I need to do is set these sprinkles aside

to dry overnight.

And I have a banana.

This is solely for garnish,

but this is gonna look really nice

sticking out of the top of the milkshake,

and really send it home.

[Unison] That's it.

You don't have to be precise here.

Sort of this mixture of organic and intentional.

All right, I think this is what I'm looking for.

You want it fine, perfect for sprinkling.

[bag shaking]

Look at that.

Yummy.

And there you have it, my homemade sprinkles.

Now I'm gonna make a peanut butter cream chanti.

Peanut butter whipped cream

that's sweetened with confectioner's sugar.

So next, I'm going to make my coconut whipped cream,

and it's super easy.

Coconut milk for the whipped cream, that is the base.

I'm looking for that nice fatty top part.

I'm just gonna scoop that fat into a bowl.

Heavy cream.

Little confectioner sugar.

Vanilla extract.

Pinch of salt, and peanut butter powder.

Actually just gonna give this a quick stir

with my whisk attachment,

and I'm gonna use this machine to whip it into stiff peaks.

As you get going,

it actually whisks together quite nicely,

and starts to resemble whipped cream.

I'm gonna start on lower. Lower speed,

and then slowly working your way up.

Then move up. [machine whirring]

The peanut butter powder is great for this

because it packs a lot of peanut butter flavor

into our whipped cream.

You know what?

Try to keep the bowl that you're whisking it in cold,

or else it'll start to get more watery,

and we don't want that.

The bowl is still nice and cold.

Pretty thick now.

I'm gonna start adding powdered sugar as I go.

Some vanilla extract.

Perfect.

The whipped cream is done.

I think we're there.

And now I'm gonna let this chill.

I'm just gonna finish this by hand,

and see, we've got nice firm peaks there.

And with this peanut butter powder,

it's gonna be much more stable than say,

a coconut whipped cream.

It's light.

It's fluffy, airy, but it also holds up.

See?

Look at that.

Great.

All right, we're ready to get this thing together.

Well, the time has come.

It's finally here to assemble the milkshake.

The way I'm gonna do this is,

I'm gonna give it extra love.

Remember all the heart emojis?

So before I start anything,

I'mma put a little treat at the bottom, right?

I'm going to take

some of the chocolate drizzle that I made before,

and kind of just like margarita style,

give the glass a nice chocolate rim.

Bam.

We're starting off on the right foot here.

And we'll do the same with the banana.

Because you really can't have

too much chocolate in a milkshake.

So that is gonna sit right on the inside there.

Talk about drama.

We've got the Cadillac of all blenders here.

I've got my liquid nitrogen ice cream.

Take couple of scoops here,

straight into the blender.

A little bit of milk.

And we blend.

Whew.

It's been a lot leading up to this moment.

I'm just including some of that

beautiful strawberry jammy swirl,

just to get an extra kick of beautiful strawberry flavor.

I'm gonna add it in layers,

so I get a sip here and a sip there.

Put a little bit of my marshmallow syrup

just to like, wet up the Oreo.

Just a little bit.

Look at the bottom of that, yes!

And then I'm gonna take my milkshake,

who is whipped to perfection.

Look at that.

Look at the cookie.

[upbeat music]

Yes, yup.

Yes.

I'm gonna take a little bit of that crunch right there.

Now I'm putting a little bit of the marshmallow syrup.

The coconut whipped cream, which has been cold.

So you see, it's still maintaining its consistency.

Now you got to shake this up.

Shaky, shaky, shaky, 'cause you want it to show up big.

So we're gonna put our whipped cream, circle it around.

Sure.

Reddi-wip is easy, Reddi-wip's convenient,

but this has got wow factor.

And if it starts to drip down the sides,

I'm okay with that.

I like that.

Oh, you thought I stopped? No.

Keep on going.

I think that's pretty.

Right?

So I'm gonna take my cookie,

put it one in the front, one in the back.

[laughs]

'Cause I'm fancy like that! [chuckles]

Chopped almonds are next on my list.

Just a light dusting.

Take a little bit of this.

Look at that, just a tiny bit of a sprinkle.

I want it to match my lipstick.

And what milkshake would be complete without sprinkles?

What else does banana split have

that this milkshake does not yet?

Maraschino cherry.

Bing! [calm music]

And the only thing left.

And the straw. Straw.

[Lani] Is the straw.

So good.

Bam! Look at that.

And this is my milkshake.

And this is my milkshake.

And this is my milkshake.

[calm music]

Boys, are you there in the yard?

And now, it's time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Cheers.

Mmm, these look great too.

Mmm, girl.

Girl.

The ice cream is nice and thick.

I have the chocolate chips.

They're so mashed up, and it's not overpowering.

It's a perfect milkshake.

Nice and thick.

It doesn't feel like crazy heavy,

'cause sometimes, you know,

if you have like a milkshake, it's like, Oh.

Sits inside you.

This is a little bit lighter.

And honestly, it's a great way

to get your fruit servings in for the day.

The dreamy creamy strawberry base

we've got that strawberry jammy swirl,

giving me that extra punch of strawberry flavor,

and there's a luscious, rich, deep

peanut butter cream chanti on top.

Gorgeous.

I am charmed to death by my own homemade sprinkles.

And I think I'm gonna finish this.

Milkshakes are a perfect indulgence

during summer or any time of the year.

Let's see how each of our creative chefs made theirs.

[dramatic music]

Ice cream is essential for a milkshake,

and a real balancing act.

Onika used store bought ice cream.

In it, liquid fat globules are interspersed

and spread throughout a mixture of water, sugar, and ice,

along with air.

And each of these components is essential

for a good quality ice cream.

Fat makes up to about 20% of premium ice creams,

which adds to the creamy, smooth,

and shiny quality of the ice cream.

It's also a great flavor carrier and acts as a stabilizer

because fats form a membrane around air bubbles

that are added during the churning process.

Lani really went all out and made her ice cream

with the help of liquid nitrogen.

Woo! [machine whirring]

Nitrogen is a gas at standard atmospheric pressure.

In order to make it a liquid,

it's held under extremely low temperatures under pressure,

around negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's dangerously cold,

and can cause some serious damage to skin and tissues,

which is why Lonnie wore special gloves.

It's able to quickly cool and freeze

the liquid ice cream mixture.

It looks like it's smoking,

because any remaining nitrogen leaves as a gas.

I don't actually know who came up with the idea

to start using liquid nitrogen in culinary applications.

But I bet Rose can tell us.

Chemist and chef Herve This

is credited with coming up with using liquid nitrogen

to make ice cream sometime in the 1990s.

He's known as the father of molecular gastronomy.

Daniel used frozen bananas to make his ice cream

and these have much more starch and sugar than fat.

Starches also have some capacity

to form membranes around air bubbles,

but far less so than fats.

The starches in the bananas can add a thick quality,

and slow down the melting process

because starches don't melt, but fats do.

They definitely add that distinctive banana flavor

and lower the overall calorie content too.

[dramatic music]

Lani used a vanilla bean in her ice cream.

Vanilla is the most popular flavor in the world.

'Cause vanilla in baking is like,

the secret ingredient to anything tasting good.

And one of the most expensive, second only to saffron.

True vanilla is from a species of climbing orchid

native to Central and South America.

It's so expensive because each year,

demand exceeds crop yield, and crop yield is generally low.

It takes between three to five pounds of green vanilla pods

to produce one pound of fermented pods.

Because there's only one rare type of bee

that pollinates these orchids in the wild,

the Melipona bee, each orchid must be hand-pollinated.

So it's also an extremely labor intensive process.

Add those factors to the occasional weather event,

blight, or other natural disaster

that can ruin agricultural crops,

and it's easy to see why it's so expensive.

Onika used a marshmallow syrup

to add more flavor to her milkshake.

Marshmallow is a solid foam made from the protein gelatin

and a cooked sugar syrup.

When you add some boiling water,

the marshmallow deflates a bit and becomes pourable,

but still has that pillowy sweet

marshmallow texture and flavor.

It's a great choice for a milkshake.

[dramatic music]

Daniel and Lani made their own whipped creams from scratch.

Whipped cream is an air and water foam

in which air cells are surrounded by a network

containing milk fat droplets

stabilized by a film of protein.

The droplets have to be very cold and solid

in order for the whipping or agitation of the cream

to take on air and become fluffy.

Any food that's more than approximately 22% fat

will take on some air when it's agitated,

and coconut oil falls into this category.

Milk fat has many different fatty acids

that melt completely at body temperature in the mouth.

So they're especially creamy and luscious.

Onika used Reddi-wip.

This whipped topping is made with

a tightly regulated formulation.

So you get the same voluminous every product, every time.

It makes Onika's milkshake hard to resist.

Boys, are you there in the yard?

Oh, there's definitely chemistry involved there,

but I don't think it's food chemistry exactly.

The next time you whip up a milkshake to treat yourself,

make someone feel special,

or if you want to bring some delicious drama

to this beloved classic,

we hope you'll take some tips

from our three inventive chefs.