The QOVO Q-Gelato was never built for ice cream alone. Two of its eight presets exist for one purpose only: what comes out of a straw rather than off a spoon. With the Milkshake mode, you can get thick diner-style drinks whilst the Sorbet & Frappé preset doubles as the machine's cold-coffee setting for a great start to the day. Use the recipes below to make a classic coffee frappé, a salted caramel frappé, a chocolate milkshake and a very popular cookies-and-cream drink.
The method behind all four is the same one behind every other Q-Gelato recipe, with one deliberate departure: where the filling stops. That distinction is worth understanding before the recipes, since it is the entire reason a milkshake pours and a scoop of ice cream never could. Keep reading to pour to perfection.
Spoonable or Drinkable: How the Milkshake and Frappé Presets Work
Every Freezing Cup for the QOVO Q-Gelato carries two marked fill lines, not one. 'Spoonable' is the line used for anything meant to come out thick enough to eat with a spoon: ice creams, frozen yogurts, gelato and sorbets. 'Drinkable' sits lower on the same cup and it's the one used for anything meant to come out of a straw instead: milkshakes, and frappés. Fill to the Drinkable line and freeze. Then top up with milk to the Spoonable line just before blending.
| Fill line | Spoonable | Drinkable |
|---|---|---|
| Used for | Ice creams, frozen yogurts, gelato, sorbets | Milkshakes, frappés |
| Fill the cup to | The MAX line, straight from the start | The lower MAX line, leaving deliberate headroom |
| Liquid before blending? | No, load the cup into Q-Gelato as is | Yes, topped up with fresh milk or oat milk, right up to the Spoonable line |
Worth knowing: Sorbet and Frappé is a single preset that does two jobs.
- Make a fruit sorbet on it and the fruit mix is frozen all the way to the Spoonable line, like any other spoonable dessert.
- Make a frappé on it, and the coffee base is frozen only to the Drinkable line and topped up with milk, exactly like a milkshake.
The preset doesn't decide the fill line, the recipe does.
Allergen note: the cookies and cream milkshake contains milk and wheat and may contain soy. The other recipes may contain milk, gluten, nuts or soy depending on the coffee, chocolate, caramel sauce and oat milk used. Check ingredient labels.
1. Classic Coffee Frappé
"Frappé" has meant a few different things in a few different places, but the one most people search for was launched by a famous coffee shop chain in 1995. And yes, that's Starbucks. Cold coffee, blended until frothy and thick. No syrup, no drama, just coffee done properly cold.
Cook Time: 24 hours to freeze, then 2 - 4 minutes to blend
Ingredients
- 200ml strong brewed coffee, cooled
- 90ml whole milk
- 60g sugar
- 150ml whole milk, to top up before blending
Method
- Stir the coffee, milk and sugar together until the sugar has fully dissolved, then allow to cool to room temperature.
- Pour into a Freezing Cup to the 'Drinkable' MAX fill line, then freeze upright and level for at least 24 hours.
- Just before blending, pour the extra 150ml whole milk into the cup, topping it up to the 'Spoonable' MAX line.
- Load the cup into the machine and select the Sorbet & Frappé preset.
- Once the machine stops, pour and serve immediately, frothy and ice-cold.
2. Cookies & Cream Milkshake
Ask around for the one milkshake flavour almost nobody turns down, and cookies and cream is a likely answer. The method here simply freezes crushed chocolate sandwich biscuits into the base itself, so the machine blends them through for a shake that's properly speckled rather than just vanilla with a biscuit on the side.
Cook Time: 24 hours to freeze, then 2 - 4 minutes to blend
Ingredients
- 280ml whole milk
- 40g sugar
- 50g chocolate sandwich biscuits, crushed
- 150ml whole milk, to top up before blending
Method
- Stir the milk and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved, then stir through the crushed biscuits and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Pour into a Freezing Cup to the 'Drinkable' MAX fill line, then freeze upright and level for at least 24 hours.
- Just before blending, pour the extra 150ml whole milk into the cup, topping it up to the 'Spoonable' MAX line.
- Load the cup into the machine and select the Milkshake preset.
- Once the machine stops, serve immediately, thick and ice-cold.
3. Salted Caramel Frappé
Caramel has sat on the iced-coffee menu for about as long as the frappé has been a category at all, and it's stayed there: survey after survey of coffee-shop drinks still ranks a caramel-flavoured frappé among the most ordered, seasonal specials notwithstanding. A pinch of salt is the only update this version needs, enough to stop all that caramel turning cloying.
Cook Time: 24 hours to freeze, then 2 - 4 minutes to blend
Ingredients
- 170ml strong brewed coffee, cooled
- 90ml oat milk
- 90g caramel sauce
- 25g sugar
- A pinch of sea salt
- 150ml oat milk, to top up before blending
Method
- Whisk the coffee, oat milk, caramel sauce, sugar and salt together until fully combined, then allow to cool to room temperature.
- Pour into a Freezing Cup to the 'Drinkable' MAX fill line, then freeze upright and level for at least 24 hours.
- Just before blending, pour the extra 150ml oat milk into the cup, topping it up to the 'Spoonable' MAX line.
- Load the cup into the machine and select the Sorbet & Frappé preset.
- Once the machine stops, pour and finish with an extra drizzle of caramel sauce and a pinch of sea salt flakes.
4. Dairy-Free Chocolate Milkshake
A chocolate milkshake is a milkshake made with melted chocolate. Chocolate is the flavour everybody thinks of when they hear milkshake and there is no real trick to it beyond using melted chocolate rather than cocoa powder. That keeps the result tasting like a chocolate bar rather than a glass of flavoured milk. The base is made with oat milk and dairy-free milk chocolate.
Cook Time: 24 hours to freeze, then 2 - 4 minutes to blend
Ingredients
- 280ml oat milk
- 70g dairy-free milk chocolate, melted and cooled
- 40g sugar
- 150ml oat milk, to top up before blending
Method
- Whisk the melted chocolate gradually into the oat milk and sugar until completely smooth, then allow to cool to room temperature.
- Pour into a Freezing Cup to the 'Drinkable' MAX fill line, then freeze upright and level for at least 24 hours.
- Just before blending, pour the extra 150ml oat milk into the cup, topping it up to the 'Spoonable' MAX line.
- Load the cup into the machine and select the Milkshake preset.
- Once the machine stops, serve immediately, thick and ice-cold.
Whole Milk or Oat Milk: Making Frappés and Milkshakes Your Way
From scoop to straw, the Q-Gelato makes every drink the same way. Milkshakes and frappés are very versatile drinks. Swap whole milk for oat throughout, in the base and in the top-up alike, and both the frappés and the milkshakes freeze, blend and pour the same way - oat being the rare alternative that's dairy-free and nut-free at once. That's the beauty of Q-Gelato: everyone can create a treat with their own preferences, from drinks to scoopable delights. For more ideas see these ice cream recipes for the Q-Gelato and dairy-free Q-Gelato recipes. Browse the Q-Gelato ice cream maker and make every drink at home.
FAQs About Frappé and Milkshake
What's the difference between a frappé and a milkshake?
A frappé is a coffee-based blended drink and a milkshake is a milk-based one flavoured with ingredients such as chocolate or biscuits. In the Q-Gelato both are frozen to the Drinkable line and topped up with 150ml of milk before blending. The frappé uses the Sorbet and Frappé preset and the milkshake uses the Milkshake preset.
What is the best milk for a milkshake?
Whole milk gives the richest milkshake because the fat in the milk gives it body. Semi-skimmed and skimmed milk make a thinner and less creamy shake. For a dairy-free milkshake oat milk is the closest plant-based option because it is richer-bodied than most other plant milks.
Why is my milkshake too thin?
The culprit is almost always too much milk added to the mix. Most homemade milkshakes are made by splashing milk into soft-scoop ice cream until it looks about right, which is a hard ratio to repeat twice. Q-Gelato measures it instead: the frozen base fills to the Drinkable line and exactly 150ml of milk brings it up to the Spoonable line, so the ratio is fixed before the blend ever starts. Want it thicker next time, use a touch less milk; thinner, a touch more.
Can you make a frappé without instant coffee?
Yes. Most non-Greek versions of a frappé, including the one in this article, are built that way already: strong brewed coffee or a shot of espresso, cooled, rather than instant granules whisked into foam. Swap in espresso if that's what's on hand, just keep the overall liquid volume the same before freezing.
Can I make a dairy-free milkshake?
Yes. Swap the whole milk for oat milk, in the frozen base and the top-up alike, and the Dairy-Free Chocolate Milkshake freezes, blends and pours exactly the same way. Oat milk is also nut-free, which makes it the safer swap over a cashew or almond milk if nut allergies are a concern too, and dairy-free milk chocolate is now common enough on supermarket shelves that the flavour doesn't suffer either. The same swap works for either frappé in this article, should coffee rather than milkshake be the order of the day.
