The 4 Easy Steps How to Make Shaved Ice With A Blender

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What treat do you usually reach out for when you need something chilled & refreshing at the same time? A frozen dessert like a snow cone, bingsu, kakigori, or raspa is no doubt the perfect choice in this situation. And if you know how to make shaved ice with a blender, there’s no time you can’t enjoy the chilled and refreshing treat.

In this part, I’m using “shaved ice” to refer to the plain pulverized ice before adding the flavorings. But other times, I may use the term to refer to the finished treat (snow cones, Raspa, et cetera) from it.

What’s the Best Blender To Make Shaved Ice?

A dedicated ice-shaving machine is usually the best way how to make shaved ice at home or in commercial enterprise.

Some of these machines even have the option to shave different textures of the ice, including thin, wide flakes. Thus, having one can be fun if you love the frozen treat.

If you don’t have a budget or space to use a dedicated ice-shaving machine, crushing ice falls under “food processing”. And considering you can use a blender as a food processor, making shaved ice will be a breeze too.

Nonetheless, you’ll need a nice blender for ice and frozen fruit to achieve the desired snowy texture without leaving any chunks. It necessarily doesn’t have to be a $500-value blender as basic brands like Oster and Ninja perform the task pretty decently.

But again, your homemade shaved ice will come from ice blocks/ cubes, which are usually very firm and tough to break. So, a high-power blender like Blendtec, as well as Breville Super Q and Vitamix, will be the best for long-term use.

Important Note:

A homemade shaved ice dessert is a hundred times better than those products from ice cream bars. The syrups these stores use to flavor the treat comprise artificial additives that are usually not very healthy.

But when you finally know how to make shaved ice with a blender, you can prepare the syrup with all-natural ingredients. And in the next section, I’m going to show you how to perfectly do that using your favorite fruits.

An Easy Way How to Make Shaved ice with a Blender & Homemade Fruit Syrup

I recently showed you how to make a slushie with a blender where you blend the ice and flavoring agent until slurry.

In our route with shaved ice, we’re going to pulverize the frozen cubes separately, then drizzle some flavoring over them.

I’d recommend you have the syrup a little thicker so it can spread down over the ice gradually and more evenly. If the flavoring is thin, it will fall too fast to the bottom of the cup without giving part of the shaved ice intended taste.

How to Make Shaved Ice With A Blender

Step 1: Prepare the Syrup Flavoring for Your Frozen Treat

Our first step to making shaved ice dessert will be to prepare the flavoring syrup. I’ve opted to do it first as I’m going to make fruit syrup, which can take up to twenty minutes to prepare in some types of fruits.

In this recipe, I’ll be using fresh strawberries to make the fruit syrup. But blueberries, cherries, Kumquats, or any other strongly-flavored fruit you can get will work too.

Now, to prepare our classic syrup:

  1. Put a couple of fresh strawberries into a medium saucepan. No need to pit (or peel if using something like cherries)
  2. Add a little water into the saucepan with the fruits. The purpose of the water is to help the fruits make the puree without them burning on the bottom of the pan. So, no need to put too much of it.
  3. Put the loaded saucepan on the cooker or grill and heat on the highest. After the water starts to boil, strawberries should start to mash in only about six minutes from the soft skin.
  4. When the fruits have started to fall apart, grab your potato masher and mash them. If the mixture is too thick ( or too dry after the water has evaporated), you can add a little more water before the fruits start to burn.
  5. Once you have mashed the fruits well enough to juice, remove the saucepan from the heat source. Then, pour the puree over a fine sieve and extract the juice into a clean medium bowl. Use your (clean) wooden spoon to press the fruity pulp and extract as much juice as possible
  6. Next, transfer the collected juice into a clean saucepan. You could use another pan from the cabinet. But it will be better to clean the pan you were using earlier.
  7. Now, pour a good amount of sugar into the fruit juice and heat the mixture on high again.
  8. Once the mixture boils and everything dissolves, the water will start to evaporate, leaving behind the fruit syrup. You’ll know all the water has evaporated when the mixture starts to bubble, with the bubbles stacked over each other.
  9. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the syrup cool down

Step 2: Shave The Ice Cubes Until Snowy Texture

The next step to make our shaved ice dessert will be to make crushed ice. Pour a handful of ice cubes into the blender jar and process on high speed until everything is pulverized and snowy. The pulse button is the best to work with so you can stop immediately you have the desired consistency.

The Shaved Ice Into A Cup

Step 3: Pour The Shaved Ice Into A Cup

Once all the ice cubes have been pulverized into snow, transfer into a clean serving bowl. Then scoop some nice amount into a serving cup/s. You can use those small disposable paper cones for an indoor summer fair experience. But the regular mug, paper cup, or plastic cups will work too.

Step 4: Drizzle Your Favorite Flavoring Over The Shaved Ice

Finally, pours some of the homemade fruit syrup over your snow ice in the cup/s. If the syrup is thick well, it will fall slowly, thereby spreading over all the shaved ice gradually and evenly.

Then grab your hammock or deck chair and enjoy your icy treat with some love.

FYI: to have a slightly thicker homemade syrup, you can leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Don’t leave it too long as not a frozen fruit syrup we’re making.

Try the Kool-Aid Syrup on the Road!

Well, that’s how to make shaved ice desserts with a blender at home. It’s a pretty straightforward process that takes only a couple of minutes if you have a nice blender for frozen stuff.

The only step I’m sure some will feel like it’s a hassle is where you make the natural fruit syrup. But then, a Kool-Aid mix still makes a great syrup- and a very durable one. You might find it more convenient during a road trip or when camping.

However, Kool-Aid is still not very healthy as some products can have controversial preservatives (like sodium benzoate) and artificial colors.

So, always make your favorite fruit syrup whenever you have time. You can even prepare more of it. Then after making your snow cone dessert, transfer whatever syrup remains into airtight jars and refrigerate (lasts up to ten days).