‘Tis the season for adding a little something special to the conventional.

So here’s a twist on a chocolate shake: a Chocolate Fruitcake Shake.

It was created by American Heritage Chocolate, which focuses on historical chocolate products and recipes.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE FRUITCAKE SHAKE

Prep time is 45 minutes, cook time is 10 minutes. However, you can save most of that time by purchasing chocolate syrup—although it won’t be as good, and it will likely have high fructose corn syrup.

If you make the syrup from scratch, refrigerate the extra for another use.
 
Ingredients For 2 Shakes

For The Chocolate Syrup

 
For The Fruitcake Shake

 
Preparation

See Step 7 for the optional chocolate rim.

1. MAKE the syrup. Combine the water and ¼ cup sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Add the chocolate to saucepan stirring constantly until chocolate dissolves.

2. ADD the remaining ¼ cup of sugar, continuing to stir until sugar dissolves.

3. COVER the pan and refrigerate 30-40 minutes, until chilled.

4. PREPARE the shake. Place the dried fruit in a small bowl with the vanilla and rum extracts, and pour boiling water over the fruit just just to cover. Chill in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes. When the fruit is chilled…

5. DRAIN the water and place the rehydrated fruit into a blender. Add the milk, 3 tablespoons of chocolate syrup, and the spices. Blend until the fruit is puréed and the ingredients are well blended.

6. ADD the ice cream and blend until smooth and frothy. Pour into glasses and serve immediately.

7. PRIOR to making the shake (Step 4)—up to 2 days in advance—melt your chocolate of choice (dark, milk, white) in the microwave at 30 second intervals, watching until it bubbles. Remove from the microwave and dip the rims of the glasses in the melted chocolate. Wait until semi-hard, then sprinkle with chopped coconut. If you have larger coconut flakes, chop them.
 
 
> CHOCOLATE GLOSSARY: TERMINOLOGY & TYPES
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

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*This American heritage product is crafted to go with its recipes. Their Finely Grated Baking Chocolate is not sugar-free, but is 57% semisweet chocolate with sugar, anise, cinnamon and nutmeg, red pepper and other flavors. You can buy it online.

[1] ‘Tis the season for a Chocolate Fruitcake Shake (photos #1 and #3 © American Heritage Chocolate).

[2] American Heritage Chocolate’s Fine Grating Chocolate (photo © Shops At Mount Vernon).

[3] Grated cinnamon (actually, it’s cassia—here’s the difference).

[4] Just as with pepper, freshly-grated nutmeg is so much flavorful than the pre-ground variety (photo © McCormick).