Winter is associated with warm comfort foods: Hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows, warm hearty soups and stews, winter squash, and hot, steaming shepherd’s pie. Ice cream is typically relegated to a summer treat, but when life gives you snow, why not make snow ice cream? Here are three recipes for turning winter flakes into wintry snacks.
Snow safety
Before bringing the snow from the great outdoors into the kitchen, it’s important to make sure the key ingredient is clean and safe to eat. The blog AllRecipes shares some tips for obtaining “food-grade” snow. One method is to leave a clean bucket out right before it begins snowing. That way snow chefs can be assured that anything that fell in the bucket fell on a fresh, clean surface.
However, for those who didn’t prep in advance, snow that falls on the ground can still be safe to eat. Make sure to take snow from the top layer, an inch or two above the ground, since snow that is directly touching grass may have fertilizer or pollutants.
Snow salt chocochinos
Actress Reese Witherspoon recently went viral for making a snow-based coffee drink, CNN reports. Her TikTok reveals her recipe. Witherspoon filled up a mug with clean, white snow from outdoors. She mixed in chocolate sauce, salted caramel, and some cold brew until she had a creamy, slushy, sweet consistancy.
Later, in response to shocked viewers who told her she wasn’t “supposed to” eat snow, Witherspoon reported that “It snows maybe once a year here. I don’t know. Also, I want to say something: it was delicious. It was so good.”
Snow ice cream
Snow ice cream is a kindergarten classic. Many early childhood classes celebrate the season by brewing up some homemade ice cream with snow as a base. But, this frosty classic is still delicious for all ages.
WUSA9 shares the recipe and it’s so easy. Just mix sugar, vanilla extract and milk together. Then, slowly stir in clean, fresh snow, until the “ice cream” reaches a milkshake-like consistency.
Maple syrup taffy
AllRecipes shares another way of using snow to make a sweet treat. Gather together a bowl of flakes and smooth down the top. Put the bowl in the freezer. Next, boil maple syrup in a pan until the syrup reaches a temperature of around 245 degrees. At this point, the syrup should be viscous and liquidy, but will automatically harden if dropped in cold water.
Now, take the bowl of snow from the freezer. Slowly drizzle the maple syrup over the snow into thin lines. The sticky syrup should harden when it hits the snow’s frosty surface. Let the maple syrup sit on the snow for a few minutes. Afterwards, take the strips of solidified syrup and wind them around a popsicle stick to make maple syrup lollipops. Serve fresh and warm.
According to Southern Living, people have enjoyed the cool refreshing taste of snow for centuries. An ancient Persian desert from 500 BCE contained snow and honey, and reportedly Marco Polo brought the idea of snow ice cream back from China to Venice. There are so many ways to prepare delicious, sweet snow, so get shoveling, and start cooking.
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