Make a Papaya Milkshake

Papaya milkshakes make a sweet, refreshing treat, especially if you have access to fresh papayas. You can adjust the sweetness, consistency, and portion size of your milkshake to taste. The following ingredients will guide you, but they are by no means the only way to make a papaya milkshake. Once you've procured your ingredients, you can make the shake in about ten minutes.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup ripe papaya, cut into small chunks
  • 1 cup cold milk
  • 3-4 ice cubes
  • 1 tablespoon honey or sugar (or to taste)
  • 1 pinch of black pepper (optional)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)
  • 2 scoops vanilla ice cream (optional)

Steps

Choosing Ingredients

  1. Use a ripe papaya. Taste the papaya before you use it in your milkshake, just to be sure, even if it was ripe when you bought it. There are three easy ways to tell whether a papaya is ripe without slicing it open:
    • Look at the color. Unripe papaya is green on the outside. The skin of ripe papaya will be splashed with rich red, orange, and yellow hues. Some types of papaya grow yellow when ripe, and some grow red—the important thing is that the fruit is not completely green.
    • Squeeze the papaya gently. If it is ripe, the skin will give a little bit. If it is unripe, the fruit will feel hard and firm. If it is overripe, the skin will sag and the fruit may begin to feel squishy.
    • Smell the papaya where the fruit grew from the stem. You should smell a sweet, pleasant scent—nothing rotten or overly-sweet. This method may be most effective once you are familiar with the natural smell of papaya.[1]
  2. Try to use local papaya. Papaya is freshest and tastiest when it is locally grown and picked. Papayas grow in Hawaii, Costa Rica, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, Ghana, India, and Peru, among other places. If the fruit grows in your area, pick it fresh or be sure to buy a ripe papaya. If it doesn't grow near you, try to choose fruit that's been imported from as close as possible to your location:
    • Try Hawaiian Sunrise and Sunset papayas. These small-to-medium-sized red-orange varieties are known for being some of the sweetest papayas on the market. The Sunrise has notably shallow seed cavities, making seed removal much easier than with other types.
    • Try kapaho papaya. This papaya grows in Hawaii and Costa Rica, and is known for a small-to-medium-sized fruit with sweet, yellow flesh.
    • Try a Mexican papaya. Mexican papayas are much larger than kapaho papayas, and they can have either red or yellow flesh on the inside. The Mexican varieties are not as sweet as the Hawaiian papayas, and some say that they have a bland or bitter flavor. Mexican yellows are sweeter than Mexican reds, but still not as sweet as the Hawaiian breeds.
    • Try an Australian variety. The Bettina and Pearson cultivars grow in Queensland—the fruit are large with sweet flesh. Sunnybank and Guinea Gold papayas both grow in Western Australia, and they are characterized by their yellow flesh.
  3. Use honey or sugar to sweeten the shake. The sweetener helps liven up the taste of the milkshake if you are using a bitter or bland papaya. Use one tablespoon of honey/sugar, or more, or less, depending on how sweet you want the shake to be. When in doubt, err on the conservative side so that you don't wind up with a milkshake that's too sweet. Bear in mind that some varieties of papaya are already very sweet.
    • You don't need to limit yourself to honey and sugar. Use your favorite sweetener—agave nectar, Stevia extract, etc.
  4. Use cold milk. You can use dairy milk, almond milk, soy milk, or any other type—but keep in mind that the thickness of your milk will directly impact the consistency of the milkshake. If you use a rich whole milk, you will have a thick milkshake. If you use skim milk, or a thin non-lactose milk like rice milk, your shake will be proportionally thin. You can balance out the consistency with a scoop of ice cream or yogurt, extra ice cubes, or more papaya. Try several ingredients and find the combination that works for you.
  5. Use ice cubes for a blended-ice shake. This will thicken the consistency of thin shakes—say, if you use a thin milk—and it will add a bit of crunch to the finished product. Use 3-4 ice cubes to start out. Add more cubes if you like the crunch, or add fewer cubes if you're just trying to thicken the shake a bit. The blender should have no trouble breaking up the ice cubes.
  6. Consider adding a pinch of black pepper powder. Black pepper can lend an aromatic punch to the milkshake, and some people love how the bitter bite of the spice complements the sweet scent of papaya.[2] Be careful not to overdo it, unless you particularly love pepper. You can blend the pepper into the mix, or you can sprinkle it onto the surface of the blended shake.

Preparing the Papaya

  1. Wash the papaya. The skin of the fruit is not edible, but it is still important to wash the surface before you eat it. If the outside of the fruit is contaminated with bacteria or chemicals, you might infect the inside of the fruit when you slice it before washing.
  2. Refrigerate a ripe papaya until it is cold. Although papayas can be eaten at room temperature, the flavor is best when served cold. Place a whole or halved papaya into the fridge to prepare it. You can freeze the papaya to cool it more quickly, but bear in mind that you may need to thaw it slightly before using it. When you are ready to make your milkshake, remove the papaya from the fridge.
  3. Lay the papaya on its side and slice off about three inches from the bottom. You should be able to see into the seed cavity in the center of the fruit. If you don't have access to the seed cavity, slice off a bit more.
  4. Remove the seeds. Hold the papaya over a bowl. Use a spoon to scoop out the black, round seeds and the sticky membrane that holds them in place.
  5. Peel the papaya. Stand the papaya on the end, using the side that you sliced as the base. Slowly slice off the peel in thin, downward slices—and be thorough. Try to leave a small cap of peel at the top of the fruit so that you can hold the fruit without touching the inside. Lay the papaya back on its side and cut away any remaining peel.
  6. Open up the papaya. Chop off the top of the papaya around the stem. Slice the papaya in half, lengthwise.
  7. Remove any remaining seeds and fibers. Flip each half of the papaya over so that you can see the seed cavity. Use your spoon to scoop out any remaining seeds. Scrape away any white fibers for a smoother shake, although this is not strictly necessary.[3]
  8. Dice the papaya into small chunks using a sharp knife. The chunks do not need to be regular or equally-sized. The smaller the bits, the smoother your milkshake will be—but do not feel obliged to over-dice. As long as the blades of the blender can bite into the papaya and process it into the other ingredients, your milkshake should turn out fine.

Making the Shake

  1. First, blend the papaya with honey. Put 1 cup of diced papaya (per serving) into a blender with about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} of honey. This may improve the consistency of the papaya extract before you add milk. Blend until the papaya is thoroughly blended and juiced.
  2. Pour the milk into the blender. You can always add more milk to adjust the consistency later. If you are supplementing or replacing the milk with ice cream or yogurt, you can add that now as well.
  3. Add your sweeteners. {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} of honey, sugar, or another sweetener should do the trick. If you aren't sure how sweet you want your milkshake, leave out the honey/sugar until after you've blended all of the other ingredients. You can always add more of any ingredient to tweak the taste.
  4. Add any additional ingredients, to taste. Consider adding 1 1/2 of vanilla extract for a sweeter shake, or a pinch of black pepper for a spicier shake. If you aren't sure, you can always add extra seasonings after you've blended and tasted the basic shake.
  5. Make the shake. Blend all the ingredients for 1-2 minutes, or until the milkshake reaches a smooth consistency. Stop blending when you like the texture.[4]
  6. Add the ice cubes. If you are adding ice cubes, add them once the milkshake becomes a puree, then blend for another 30 seconds. This will ensure that the ice cubes blend into the shake, but not so much that they lose their texture.[5]
  7. Taste your papaya milkshake before you pour it. You can drink the shake as it is, or you can choose to add more ingredients to tweak the taste of the shake.
    • If the shake isn't sweet enough, you can add honey, sugar, or ice cream to taste. If you are using a sweet variety of papaya, then you may just choose to add more papaya.
    • If the shake is too sweet, you can add ice cubes, or milk to dilute the shake. Consider adding black pepper, if you haven't already, for a spicy twist.
    • If the shake is too thick, you can add more milk to loosen the consistency.
    • If the shake is too thin, you can add ice cubes, ice cream, or more papaya to thicken it up.



Tips

  • You can also add yogurt to your milkshake.
  • The quantity of papaya may vary on the amount of milkshake you want to make.
  • You should not add too much sugar or too little sugar.
  • Remember that we are not adding any ice cubes, because the papaya is frozen.

Warnings

  • Be careful not to cut yourself when you're slicing the papaya. Be methodical and take your time.
  • Exercise blender safety. Make sure that the lid is secure before you start the blades, and don't leave the blender on while you are doing something else. Make sure that the blender is off—and that the blades have stopped spinning—before you stick your hands or utensils inside.

Things You'll Need

  • Blender
  • Measuring cup
  • Tall glass for shake

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.eatingwell.com/healthy_cooking/healthy_cooking_101/kitchen_tips_techniques/selecting_a_ripe_papaya
  2. ↑ http://foodviva.com/milkshake-recipes/papaya-shake-recipe/
  3. ↑ http://www.brookstropicals.com/chopCRpapaya/
  4. ↑ http://www.indiankhana.net/2014/03/papaya-milkshake-papaya-recipes-summer.html
  5. ↑ http://www.noobcook.com/papaya-milkshake/

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