What Really Differentiates Frozen Hot Chocolate From Chocolate Milkshakes?

Frothy, sweet, and frozen dessert drinks are often synonymous with hot summer days. If homemade chocolate milkshakes are usually your go-to blender dessert of choice, you might want to consider frozen hot chocolate — especially if the consistency and sugar content of your favorite frozen desserts are variables you wish you had control over.

To make a creamy homemade milkshake, all you really need is chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, and milk. Alternatively, some recipes suggest using vanilla ice cream, milk, and a decent amount of chocolate syrup. Yet besides getting fancy by adding whipped cream and chocolate shavings, most milkshake recipes follow the same outline of ingredients and instructions.

Frozen hot chocolate, on the other hand, is made with a small amount of melted chocolate, sugar, milk, ice, and your favorite hot chocolate mix. Since there are more ingredients in this unique treat, there's ultimately more room for variation. So, how can you cater homemade frozen hot chocolate to your own individual tastes?

First off, if you want a confection that's not as sweet as a traditional chocolate milkshake, frozen hot chocolate may be the dessert for you. You typically can't control how sweet a chocolate milkshake tastes; when you make one, you typically use one of the ultimate ice cream brand varieties which have already been sweetened with added flavors and sugar. While you can use less ice cream and more milk, that will affect the consistency of your milkshake, resulting in a runnier texture.

On the contrary, a standard frozen hot chocolate recipe suggests 3 teaspoons of sugar for every serving, but you can always add less. As a matter of fact, you don't even have to use cane sugar: Feel free to use honey or maple syrup instead of white sugar. Frozen hot chocolate is also usually made with your favorite hot cocoa mix, but the average serving of any standard pre-made mix has nearly 8 grams of sugar. If your goal is to make your resulting frozen treat less sweet, opt for cocoa powder instead. Swapping out sweeteners and adjusting your hot chocolate mix are just a few of the many ways you can alter this one-of-a-kind frozen treat to your liking.

Among the best chocolate dessert recipes, when the weather is warm, nothing beats an icy cream-based confection. While milkshakes are delicious, frozen hot chocolate has more room for alternative ingredients and culinary creativity. There isn't one all-encompassing recipe you have to follow when making this frozen delight. While some frozen hot chocolate recipes contain 4 ounces of melted chocolate and an added sweetener of your choice, you can also leave the sweetener out and simply blend ice, hot chocolate mix, and milk. If you prefer a thicker treat, all you need to do is add more ice.

If you want to go the opposite route and make this unique confection more creamy and delicious, use a small amount of half-and-half in addition to the milk. For an adults-only treat, add a shot of espresso or a coffee-based liquor such as Baileys or Kahlúa. You can easily make frozen hot chocolate dairy-free as well by using plant-based milk. Both frozen hot chocolate and creamy milkshakes have plenty of room for variability. Yet you can't really alter milkshake ingredients too much without changing the end result. With frozen hot chocolate, you can make a mildly sweet or exceedingly rich frozen dessert simply by adjusting the ingredients.