While visiting our friend Jane over at Fullam Meadow Farm today, she remarked that the falling snow was the perfect consistency for “snow cream”. This was something that I had heard of as a New Englander but never experienced. More often then not, when spring rolled around, thoughts shifted to maple syrup production and “sugar on snow”, a treat where maple sap is cooked just past the syrup stage, drizzled onto a bowl of snow while hot, and then rolled up on a stick as it cools/hardens. It’s a staple in any true New Englander‘s cache of childhood memories.
So when Jane mentioned snow cream, and that all it needed was sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and a bit of freshly fallen snow, it seemed new, exciting, and most of all easy.
But upon getting home, I found our pantry lacking any sweetened, condensed milk. All we had were 6 or 7 cans of regular evaporated milk. Conjuring up a little Yankee ingenuit, I went to that old spring standby, and came up with this recipe for Maple Snow Cream. Enjoy!
Yields 4 Servings
Ingredients:
1 - 14oz can Unsweetened Evaporated Milk
1/2 cup - Maple Syrup (NH is best, but whatever you have will work)
1tsp - Vanilla Extract
8-12 cups - Loose Packed Fresh Snow
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the condensed milk, syrup, and vanilla Set aside in fridge while you collect the snow.
Scoop clean snow directly into a large metal mixing bowl. I imagine lighter weight metal bowls will work best as the snow will chill them quickly and not cause too much melting.
Pour the milk mixture over the snow and begin mixing with a spoon. Keep going. Eventually the mixture will come together and begin to take on a thick slush like consistency, before eventually resembling ice cream.
Serve immediately. Unlike ice cream which has a high percentage of fat, this melts quickly. Add some chocolate syrup if you’d like for an extra treat, but honestly, I like it as is.
That’s it! Hopefully you’ll enjoy this quick and easy treat, and keep the tradition going. I know what I’ll be making for as a treat whenever we have fresh snow.
-Jack
