Homemade Bacon Milkshake

Now that temperatures are warming up, we can resume ice cream eating with gusto. And because bacon makes everything taste better, a bacon milkshake makes perfect sense.

A bacon milkshake, you may have heard by now, is not a bacon-fueled hoax but an actual drink. It’s kind of an “in the know” thing, because you have to ask for it by name at Jack in the Box restaurants since they don’t feature it on their menus.

It turns out the Jack in the Box “bacon milkshake” actually contains no bacon. Big surprise.

You may have missed this latest fast food trend completely because the closest Jack in the Box to Jamaica Plain is more than 900 miles away. I got to thinking, if Jack in the Box was using fake syrup flavoring, what would the real thing taste like?

So I conducted a few experiments and tested them out on my friends. To our surprise, a homemade bacon milkshake is actually quite delicious!

If you can get past the initial – ew – factor when you imagine bacon swimming around in ice cream, you really can’t lose with the flavors of salty bacon, sweet maple syrup, smokey toasted walnuts, and rich vanilla bean ice cream.

For lazy cooks who don't feel like frying up their own bacon, sells Maple Valley bacon ice cream.

Bottoms up!

Homemade bacon milkshake
Serves 2

4-6 pieces of bacon (depending on your bacon threshold), cooked
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
6-7 scoops of vanilla bean ice cream
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup milk

Cook bacon in a frying pan on the stove top until good and crispy. Drain on a paper-towel covered plate and allow to cool. In a clean pan or a toaster oven, toast the walnuts.

In a food processor, grind the bacon and walnuts together until fine.

In a blender, combine bacon, walnuts, ice cream, maple syrup, and milk and blend until smooth. You may want to adjust the milk and/or ice cream to satisfy your shake-thickness preference.

Divide into two tall glasses, insert a straw into each glass, and serve immediately.

Kendra Nordin blogs at www.kitchenreport.wordpress.com

Related posts: Bacon and Blue Cheese Tartine