I love playing in the fresh snow. Yes, even as a grown-up, making snow angels and having snowball fights is so much fun! But there are some other unique and fun activities to do in the backyard this winter, including making snow ice cream. Yes, using snow itself to make the ice cream.
If you haven’t heard of this delightful treat, you’ll be glad to know it’s easy and doesn’t require many ingredients or much time to make it. Grab a (clean!) shovel and join me out back for a wintry treat.
Table of Contents
What You Need to Make This Snow Ice Cream Recipe
To make your vanilla snow ice cream, you’ll just need a few simple ingredients, plus, of course, the yummy add-ins if you want some ice cream concretes.
- 1 can (12 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or mint or lemon – any extract will do!)
- ½ gallon of fresh, clean white snow
Step-by-Step Instructions for Making Snow Ice Cream
Before you begin your winter dessert adventure, I want to emphasize that it’s important you only use fresh, recently fallen snow. Anything older than a few hours at most could be contaminated with things you don’t want to eat.
You also need to make sure the snow is fairly thick before you scoop off the middle layer of it for your ice cream. Why? Again – you want to make sure you’re getting pure, clean snow without dirt or grime from the ground beneath the fluffy white stuff.
To make your ice cream:
- Combine the milk, sugar, and vanilla together in a small mixing bowl until well combined.
- In a large mixing bowl, add 8 to 10 cups of snow.
- Now, pour the milk mixture over the snow a little bit at a time.
- Stir together well with a wooden spoon the whole while.
- Once completely blended, mix in your add-ins or added flavoring.
- Serve immediately!
Tips and Tricks for Your Snow Ice Cream
Additionally, these tips and tricks could help make your snow ice cream an amazing experience for all.
- The texture of the snow ice cream will be like what you get with “regular” homemade ice cream. That means a little thinner than the store-bought stuff.
- Note that the texture of the snow itself will affect the quality of your ice cream and the volume it creates. If you have thick, wet snow, it will create less than powdery, fluffy snow.
- Your ice cream will be amazing topped with any cold ingredients like fudge bits, chocolate chips, candy sprinkles, nuts, whipped cream, shredded coconut, cold caramel or chocolate sauce, or frozen berries.
- Avoid hot toppings like hot fudge, as they’ll make the ice cream melt a bit too fast!
Wintry Delights For All
As you make a batch of this light, fluffy stuff, be sure to find some fun mix-ins like chocolate chips or shredded coconut. The scale of deliciousness will rise as you add in goodies! But even if you prefer just plain vanilla, the flavor can’t be beaten, and the texture is oh, so lovely – just like homemade churned ice cream.
Just remember to make sure you dig through the snow to get to the fresh, clean layer beneath the surface but above the dirt by several inches. Once you do, you’ll find the sweet, melty treat is ready to go in just 10 minutes or so. Enjoy!
