These Halloween milkshakes are made with vanilla ice cream and an easy, homemade blueberry sauce, which creates a colorful, delicious base. Top it off with whipped cream and fun garnishes like meringue ghosts for a naturally-colored Halloween-themed drink. They’re naturally gluten-free, and you can easily adapt the recipe to be vegan.
Something like this Black Milkshake is more typical for Halloween with its black color and Oreo flavor, but I wanted something with a vibrant purple color. And a natural one at that!
So, I adapted my Blueberry Milkshake. It’s great as is, but I wanted the color to be more concentrated. So, for this recipe, you make a quick blueberry sauce, which only requires a few basic ingredients.
It only takes 3-5 minutes to simmer, meaning this extra step really doesn’t add much time to the full recipe. It’s so worth it for the stronger blueberry flavor and vibrant color.
Ingredients
Here’s an overview of what you’ll need. The full recipe is down below.
- Blueberries – either fresh or frozen blueberries work here. If you’re out of blueberries, raspberries or blackberries make a great alternative. Raspberries are great for a blood-red color for a Halloween vampire theme!
- Maple syrup – I used maple syrup, which works wonderfully because it dissolves easily and doesn’t affect the flavor of the milkshake (even when I used Grade C!). I’d avoid using honey unless you’re okay with a noticeable honey taste. Agave syrup or brown rice syrup are also excellent alternatives since they’re liquid and have a neutral flavor. If you prefer granulated sugar, keep in mind that it might not dissolve well in a cold milkshake, which could result in a slightly grainy texture. To prevent this, you could dissolve the sugar in a small amount of warm milk before adding it to the shake. I also used maple syrup for the rim of the glass, but you could use agave or simple syrup.
- Milk – you can use any type of milk you’d like, except for coconut milk, unless you want some coconut flavor in your milkshake. Whether or not you’ll need milk depends on the ice cream you’re using, and most likely, you will. When I first made this recipe with a lower-quality store-bought vegan ice cream, I didn’t need any milk. However, when I used homemade ice cream and then my paleo ice cream recipe, I did need to add milk since it wouldn’t blend properly without it. I’ll explain more about this further below.
- Vanilla ice cream – store-bought is great, but if you have some of this French Vanilla Ice Cream left over, you definitely won’t regret using it on the milkshake. 🙂 You’ll want to use dairy-free or vegan vanilla ice cream if you can’t have dairy.
- Heavy cream – for topping the shakes with whipped cream. Use a vegan cream sub for a dairy-free version. Coconut whipped cream works if you don’t mind the coconut flavor.
- Black sanding sugar – to decorate the rim of the glass. Any color of sanding sugar works here, so feel free to get creative. Or just omit it. For a more natural option, you could use the chocolate sauce in my Iced Mocha Latte. If you like chocolate together with blueberries, that is! I do not.
- Meringue ghosts – if you don’t have time to make these, then you could also use candy eyeballs! This is the homemade recipe I use. I like the ingredients, and they’re also vegan.
Milk amount
The ideal ratio for regular milkshakes is typically around 3 parts ice cream to 1 part milk. Adding too much milk can make the shake too thin, while too little may make it difficult to blend.
But this recipe has 1 1/2 cups of blueberries, which add a lot of liquid. So you’ll only need about 3/4 cup to 1 cup of milk (90-120 ml) for 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) of ice cream.
I used the lower amount once with some store-bought vegan ice cream. The milkshake was SUPER runny.
The issue was that I used some very light and airy, rather than dense, ice cream. It was in a pint-sized container, but I could have easily fit the whole container all into a 1-cup measuring cup if I had just pressed it in there.
So if all you have is that kind of light ice cream, you might want to omit the milk and add it after blending and only if needed.
How to make Halloween milkshakes
This is just a visual overview of the process. Please scroll down the page for the full recipe. 🙂
If you don’t feel like making your own sauce, you can use store-bought blueberry sauce. I think jam would also work!
Or, if you don’t see the point of making such a small batch of sauce, you could make this Blueberry Maple Sauce to use on pancakes, Greek Yogurt Cheesecake, or Cheesecake Mousse and set a little aside for the milkshakes.
How to prepare in advance
You can prepare most of the elements in advance, making it easy to serve these milkshakes during your party. But do people ever serve milkshakes at parties? 😆
I think these are probably better for a family Halloween movie night!
Maybe have some Monster Burgers or Halloween Mac and Cheese with a Skeleton Veggie Tray on the side. Or these Halloween Meatballs!
For parties, I think smaller desserts like these Frankenstein Cupcakes or Eyeball Cupcakes for Halloween are more practical than these milkshakes.
- Blueberry sauce – the blueberry sauce can be made up to 3 days in advance. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
- Whipped cream – whip the cream ahead of time and keep it refrigerated. Store it in a sealed container for up to 24 hours.
- Decorate the glass rims – rim the glasses with sanding sugar ahead of time, then place them in the freezer until you’re ready to serve the milkshakes. This will help the sugar stick better to the glass.
You’ll want to prepare the milkshake just before serving since it contains ice cream. But it only takes a minute to add everything to the blender and blend!
Yield
This recipe yields 1.5 cups (355 ml) of milkshake, which is the size of a standard 12-ounce milkshake glass.
If you want to make 3 large milkshakes like the ones in the photos, you’ll need to triple the recipe. Personally, I find that a bit much, so when I make these, I usually share one with my husband.
For Halloween, I’ll be making a single recipe and splitting it between 3 small skull glasses, topping with whipped cream, and omitting the ghosts. My kid has never gotten to eat a single piece of candy he’s gotten from trick-or-treating due to his intolerances (he trades it in for other stuff, and we donate the candy), so this will be his post trick-or-treating treat. 💀
I can’t find the exact skull glasses I have, but they look exactly like these 6-ounce glasses, which would be the perfect size if splitting the milkshake with someone. Mine are just smaller.
Dairy-free and vegan options
This Halloween shake is already naturally gluten-free. Just double-check packaged items like ice cream and candy decorations to ensure they don’t contain gluten.
As I said above, if you can’t have dairy, use dairy-free/vegan milk, ice cream, and cream.
For the ice cream, I’ve tested this recipe with store-bought vegan vanilla ice cream as well as this vanilla Paleo Ice Cream for a paleo version. I was surprised that it came out so well.
That ice cream is amazing, but it does have a slight salted caramel flavor to it that I thought wouldn’t work well with a blueberry milkshake. I was so wrong!
The ghost meringues are dairy-free, but they’re not vegan. For that, you’ll need to make Vegan Meringue Ghosts.
Troubleshooting tips
Sometimes, even the most straightforward recipes come with a few bumps in the road. Here are a few common issues and how to fix them:
- Milkshake too thick – if the milkshake is too thick, add a splash of extra milk and blend again.
- Milkshake too runny – if the milkshake is too thin, add more ice cream.
- Whipped cream too soft – if your whipped cream isn’t thickening, make sure your heavy cream is chilled before whipping. You can also place your mixing bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes before starting.
- Blueberry sauce too runny – if the blueberry sauce is too thin, simmer it for a few extra minutes until it thickens up. If it’s still too thin, you can add a small amount of cornstarch mixed with water to thicken it quickly.
Other Halloween drinks
These Non-alcoholic Halloween Punch and Witches’ Brew Drink recipes are perfect for the little ones!
For the adults, this Witches’ Brew Cocktail and Vampire’s Kiss Cocktail are super fun and easy to make.
I hope you’ll enjoy these fun and tasty milkshakes for Halloween! Let me know how they turned out for you in the comments below. Thanks! 🙂
Halloween Milkshakes
Ingredients
Milkshake:
- 1 1/2 cups (213 grams) fresh or frozen and defrosted blueberries
- 1 tablespoon water
- 3 tablespoons (60 grams) maple syrup
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 to 1 cup (90-120 ml) milk
- 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) vanilla ice cream
- meringue ghosts
Rim:
- black sanding sugar
- maple syrup
Topping:
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
- meringue ghosts or other edible Halloween decorations
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, stir together the blueberries, water, maple syrup and salt.
- Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes or until it’s thickened quite a bit like blueberry sauce.
- Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Transfer to the blender (or place on a plate or whatever with a large surface area if you want it to cool quickly and place in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes) and let cool for about 15 minutes. You don’t want it to melt the ice cream.
- While it’s cooling, prepare the rim of the milkshake glasses and the whipped cream. Pour sanding sugar into a shallow bowl. Brush some maple syrup on the rim of your glass with a small pastry brush, or dip the rim into a shallow dish of maple syrup. Immediately dip the rim of the glass into the sanding sugar. Tap to remove excess sugar and place in the freezer for a few minutes to help the sugar adhere better.
- Add the heavy cream to a bowl. Begin by whipping the cream at medium speed. Once it starts to thicken, increase the speed to high. Continue whipping until the peaks stand up straight. Place in the fridge while you continue with the milkshake.
- Once the blueberries have cooled enough, add 3/4 cup (90 ml) milk and the ice cream to the blender.
- Blend until totally smooth and only tiny blueberry skin flecks remain. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of milk, if needed.
- Top with whipped cream and a meringue ghost.
Notes
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