If Life Gives You Snow, Make Snow Cream

Chocolate snow cream. *

The Weather Forecasters were predicting a rather substantial snow fall last night, so I set out a large bowl on our patio table out back to catch some snow for making snow cream.  When I was a kid my Mama made snow cream for us every time there was snowfall.  As I recall she would mix a beaten egg, milk, sugar and vanilla in with the snow.  Nowadays it isn't safe to eat raw eggs so I omitted that in my recipe.  Actually I didn't have a recipe, I just mixed the snow with chocolate milk, a bit of heavy cream and sugar to taste.  Dan had requested chocolate snow cream, and we happened to have chocolate milk on hand.

Bowl full of fresh snow.

The bowl was full of snow when I got up this morning, and I thought I would put it in the freezer until I was ready to make the snow cream.  BIG MISTAKE!!!  After about an hour I began to wonder if the snow would freeze solid, so I went out to check it and sure enough the top was a layer of frozen snow, so I brought it in.  I could dig down into the bowl where the snow was still not frozen though and that is where I made the snow cream.

Top frozen.  Dug down into middle where the snow was not frozen.

I just gradually added chocolate milk, a bit of sugar, and some heavy cream into the middle of the bowl and stirred until it was incorporated with the snow.

Mixing ingredients into snow.

Ready to eat.  

It was more like a chocolate slushie.  Dan and I each had a small bowl, and it was okay.  It had to be eaten immediately because it melted quickly.

But one member of our family found it absolutely delicious.

Maggie eating a bit of the slushie.  There wasn't much chocolate milk left. (I know dogs should not eat chocolate.)

Here's a recipe I found on line, but as I said, I think you can just add the milk, and sugar to taste and to consistency.  Next time I won't put the snow in the freezer.

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon snow
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups milk

Directions

1.

When it starts to snow, place a large, clean bowl outside to collect the flakes. When full, stir in sugar and vanilla to taste, then stir in just enough milk for the desired consistency. Serve at once.

* Dan is an environmental biologist, and he said it won't hurt you to eat snow cream occasionally.  This is for those of you who are worried about pollutants in the air.  Dan is very cautious about things like that, so I thought if he said it was okay it would not be harmful.