The Best Way to Crush Ice in a Blender

Add a restaurant-quality touch to your homemade drinks by serving them with freshly crushed ice. Crushing ice quickly in a strong blender is the best way to achieve the fine consistency that is perfect for smoothies and cocktails. This method rapidly exposes more of the frozen surface.

Things You'll Need

• Owner's manual
• 1 cup water or fruit juice (optional)
• Insulated ice bucket

Instructions

1. Review the owner's manual for your specific model of blender to make sure it is suitable for crushing ice. Some blenders have thin plastic pitchers that can be cracked by the spinning ice cubes.

2. Pull the ice that you intend to crush out of the freezer and allow it to rest on the counter for about five minutes.

3. Fill the blender's pitcher about a third of the way with ice cubes. The cubes will need plenty of room to bounce around to crush quickly. Water or fruit juice can be added at this step to speed up the process.

4. Place the lid of the pitcher and pulse the blender five to seven times in quick, two-second bursts.

5. Set the blender to chop or crush at medium speed and churn the ice by gently shaking the pitcher for 15 to 30 seconds. Some blenders feature a lid-mounted stir stick that you can use to move the ice to crush faster.

6. Stop the blender and dump the crushed ice into an insulated ice bucket when it has been crushed to the desired consistency. Use the crushed ice right away or move it to the freezer to hold until use.

References

• Practically Edible: Crushed Ice
• Chow: Crush Ice Without Burnout: Blenders That do the Job by Louisa Chu
• Monster Guide: How to Crush Ice

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish