Snow Ice Cream Recipe
Need a new way to enjoy winter snow? This Vanilla Snow Ice Cream Recipe is a fun way to bring the joy of snow inside!
When I was young and there was so much snow outside that we had to walk around the mountains of snow the city plowed into the center of our street…when the drifts were so high you could climb them to the rooftop, my mother would get out a pail and make this Snow Ice Cream recipe.
It’s amazingly simple and a delight to make with children, particularly on school snow days! Fun to make and tasty to eat, this Snow Ice Cream recipe is at its best served immediately so no patience needed.
This recipe does call for a double boiler when making the custard. If you don’t have one, often one pan with handles will fit into another larger pan and the handles will hold the smaller pan above the bottom of the larger pan, allowing for the necessary space between the water and the small pan.
You can add coloring or different flavors to it by substituting the vanilla extract for other flavors. If you plan to color it, add the coloring at the end, or make rainbow swirls by adding different colors just before serving.
A reminder: Never eat the yellow snow! And never use anything but clean white snow.
- 2 cups half & half cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large pail or pot snow
- All you need for this recipe is the custard and snow. For the custard, you'll need the half & half, sugar, eggs, salt and vanilla extract.
- Slightly beat the eggs.
- In the top of a double boiler, pour the eggs, sugar and salt.
- As the water heats, mix the eggs, sugar and salt constantly to dissolve the sugar.
- Add the half & half cream.
- Mix all of the ingredients together and stir over boiling water.
- Continue cooking and stirring until the custard coats the back of your spoon, about 5 minutes. Then remove the custard from heat and let it cool to room temperature.
- As the custard cools, take your bucket or pail and a spoon and gather fresh, clean dry snow from the yard or snow drifts. TIP: If the snow has a top crust, scrape that off and gather the snow beneath the crust. The snow needs to be dry, not wet and slushy. On a warmer day try gathering snow from shady areas but stay clear of roadways. DO NOT use anything but clean white snow.
- With your cooled custard and pot of snow, you are now ready to make the ice cream.
- Pour the custard into the snow while mixing it in as you pour. If you're doing this on your own, pour a little custard, mix…pour some more, mix some more…until the snow and custard are thoroughly mixed. Work quickly to keep the mixture cold.
- Depending on the size of your pot or pail, you may want to add more snow. Just gather more on top of the custard-snow mix in the pot, take it back in and mix the snow in. You will have a good idea of how much snow you want by the texture and flavor.
- When you're happy with the ice cream you've created, immediately serve it and Enjoy!
- This recipe makes a lot of ice cream! It's great for winter get-togethers and gatherings. If you find you have a lot more than your party can eat, you can put the rest in a freezer container. This will freeze incredibly hard so allow it to sit out until soft enough to scoop before serving.
I used a 5-quart pot for gathering and mixing the snow in this recipe. The first batch of snow I gathered was reduced to nearly half when I mixed the custard in. I added more snow to just about the top of the rim.
You can use any size pot or pail for this and add more snow as needed however, I recommend nothing smaller than a 3 or 4-quart pot.
You can speed up the cooling of the custard and shorten Total Time by setting the covered custard in the snow for about 10-15 minutes.