The Bergen Record

How to make your own copycat Shamrock Shake at home

Love mint, but don’t love 25+ ingredient­s including high fructose corn syrup and “liquid sugar”?

AKA, have you always wanted to crush McDonald’s iconic Shamrock Shake, but are afraid your teeth may fall out, your kids might shrink or — if it ends up in the wrong bowl — you could kill the cat?

We have good news!

This year, we’ve got a trusty recipe to help you DIY your own Shamrock Shake from the comforts of your home (shoutout to our parent paper, USA Today). So, while the golden arches might be pumping their florescent drink with we don’t really know what, you can keep full tabs on what’s going into yours.

Here’s how to make your own Shamrock Shake from scratch.

PS: It’s, like, ridiculous­ly easy.

How to make a Shamrock Shake at home

This recipe only involves four ingredient­s (which, TBH, really makes us wonder how McD’s racks up so many). They include:

• 21⁄2 cups vanilla ice cream (this makes a thick shake)

• 3⁄4 cup milk

• 1⁄2 teaspoon mint extract

• Several drops green food coloring (if you want that bright, classic color)

Mix these ingredient­s in a bowl with an electric mixer, and you’re set.

The recipe yields two portions.

The perfect copycat recipe for McDonald’s Shamrock Shake

The reason that this recipe works so well is that the Shamrock Shake is not really a mint shake at all but rather a vanilla mint shake. Using vanilla ice cream as the base, then, is the key to creating a perfect copycat version.

Also, mixing in a bowl — versus a blender — allows the ice cream to melt down a bit further, giving it a smoother, more liquid McDonald’s texture.

**NOTE: If commercial food dyes give you the creeps? No problem. You can use a natural dye, but just be warned that the color might come out closer to blue-green.

Kara VanDooijew­eert is a food writer for NorthJerse­y.com and The Record. If you can’t find her in Jersey’s best restaurant­s, she’s probably off running a race course in the mountains. Catch her on Instagram: @karanicole­v & @northjerse­yeats , and sign up for her North Jersey Eats newsletter .