Peppermint Bark Milkshake w/ White Chocolate Fudge Sauce – December Mystery Dish

It’s my second month of Mystery Dish, and I’m hosting! Mystery Dish is when a bunch of us blogging foodies get together and post the creative recipes we dreamed up that month, but the twist is that we’re all working from the same list of ingredients. We have to choose at least three and build our recipe from there.

Here’s what I provided the ladies to work with for December:

1) White Chocolate
2) Peppermint Bark
3) Muenster cheese
4) Eggnog
6) Canned biscuits
5) Nutmeg
7) Browned butter
8) Cherry tomatoes
9) Spinach
10) Roasted Garlic
11) Vanilla ice cream
12) cream cheese

I selected vanilla ice cream, peppermint bark, and white chocolate to create my Peppermint Bark Milkshake with White Chocolate Fudge Sauce. This shake is for the dreamers like me who are missing the Christmas season now that it has passed. It’s still entirely appropriate to indulge in the flavors of the season, and best of all, you can find a lot of the stuff you need for this shake on sale now.

I’ll be honest; I’m not crazy about peppermint, but peppermint bark is another story because now we’re talking about adding chocolate AND white chocolate layers. The thing about me – if you haven’t already figured it out – is that I’m pretty much bound to love anything that includes chocolate.

When you combine the integral flavors of peppermint bark with a cool creamy vanilla milkshake, you get a winter treat that’s frosty, sweet and indulgent. I always loved the Christmas song that goes, “It’s a marshmallow world in the winter,” because it captures the sweetness of the season. I imagine this shake is what you would get if you took a mug and scooped up a pile of snow on a sparkling snow day.

Okay, so that would just taste like snow, but I can dream.

I made the decision to use components of peppermint bark rather than actual peppermint bark here so I could control how chocolaty vs. minty it was. I’m a control freak, so this works out well. I like a more subtle mint, but if you want more, you can add more peppermint Kisses or candy canes.

Here’s what the other Mystery Dish-ers came up with this month:

1. Roasted Garlic, Spinach & Tomato Whole Wheat Pizza by Yummy Healthy Easy
2. Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies by I Dig Pinterest
3. Spinach, Tomato & Roasted Garlic Flatbread by Inspiration Kitchen
4. Spiced Biscotti with Eggnog Glaze by The Pajama Chef
5. Brown Butter Eggnog Banana Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze by Flavor the Moment
6. Creamy Chicken Pasta Skillet by Simply Gloria
7. Brown Butter Nutmeg Melted Ice Cream Cupcakes by The Sweet {Tooth} Life
8. White Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Blondies by Culinary Couture
9. Spinach and Tomato Quiche with Whole Wheat Crust By The Well Floured Kitchen

A Few Tips Before You Get Cooking:

1.  There are so many fun ways to decorate these shakes: festive straws, fancy glasses, red sprinkles, crushed candy canes, a piece of peppermint bark – get creative.
2. If you don’t have a blender, you can make milkshakes in the food processor. That’s what I have to do.
3. You could easily use chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla, as well as chocolate fudge sauce instead of my homemade white chocolate sauce.

Peppermint Bark Milkshake with White Fudge Sauce
By The Smart Cookie Cook

Yield – 1 large shake or 2 medium

Ingredients:

For the white fudge sauce:

• 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
• 3 tbsp. heavy cream

For the shakes:

• 15 Candy Cane Hershey Kisses
• 6 Dark Chocolate Lindt Truffles (or any brand will do)
• 6 – 7 generous scoops of vanilla ice cream
• optional for extra mintiness: 2 mini candy canes
• 1/4 cup heavy cream or 2 tbsp. milk
• optional: whipped cream for topping

Directions:

1. Place white chocolate chips in a medium heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
2. Microwave heavy cream for two 30-second intervals then immediately pour over white chocolate. Let sit for two minutes then whisk together until chocolate is completely melted.
3. In a blender or food processor, pulse Kisses, truffles and candy canes (if using) until finely chopped up. Add ice cream and milk and blend just until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour into glasses and drizzle with fudge sauce. Enjoy.