The great thing about making milkshakes at home is that you have full control of the type and quality of ice cream you use. Sounds silly, but the star ingredient in milkshakes is ice cream, and your choice of ice cream makes a huge difference. And by “choice,” I mean your favorite ice cream brand…unless you’re using homemade vanilla ice cream, of course.

This easy vanilla milkshake requires only 3 ingredients: vanilla ice cream, milk, and vanilla extract.

1. How to Make Vanilla Milkshakes

You’ll need a blender to make this.

Add the ingredients into the blender: ice cream, milk, vanilla extract. For 2 servings, this recipe calls for 4 cups of ice cream and 1 cup milk, along with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Blend everything: the consistency should be smooth and should look a bit frothy at the top. If you want a creamier and richer shake, add more ice cream and blend until desired consistency.

That’s all! So easy to make. Creamy, rich, and delicious.

2. Start with good-quality ice cream. I’m usually team cheap ice cream for milkshakes, but since we’re not adding other flavors here, you really want a good base.

That chemically artificial vanilla taste you get with some cheap vanilla ice creams is not the foundation we want to build our shake upon.

3. Ramp up the vanilla flavor. This is the secret for the best vanilla shake: adding the seeds scraped from half a vanilla bean or a couple drops of vanilla extract can really put that vanilla flavor over the top. If you don’t have vanilla beans/extract, you can totally skip this step, but if you have them, use them!