It’s Dairy Queen’s most successful product ever. Over 175 million Blizzards were sold in the year following the product’s debut in 1985. The new creation was such a sales phenomenon that other fast food chains created their own soft-serve ice cream treats with mixed in chunks of cookies and candies and fruit. McDonald’s McFlurry is one popular example. Today there are over a dozen varieties of Blizzards to choose from at Dairy Queen. 

The biggest challenge when making Blizzard replicas at home is keeping the ice cream from getting soft when the other ingredients are stirred in. To solve that problem, we’ll use a special technique inspired by marble slab ice cream stores. Servers mix your choice of chunky ingredients with your choice of ice cream on a slab of frozen stone. This method keeps the ice cream cold and firm while mixing, until it’s served to a drooling you.

To incorporate this technique at home you need to put a glass or ceramic bowl in the freezer for at least 30 minutes (while you’re at it you may also want to freeze the glass you’re going to serve the thing in). An hour or more is even better. We mix our ingredients in the icy bowl, while the ice cream stays frosty cold. Just be sure to use plain vanilla ice cream (not French vanilla), if you have a choice.

Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.