This fun snow ice cream recipe is super fun and easy to make in just 5 minutes!
When life gives you snow, make snow ice cream! ♡
If you’ve never whipped up a batch of this fun snow day treat, it couldn’t be easier. All you need are 4 simple ingredients, a bowl and spoon, and a few scoops of fresh snow (or shaved ice). And in less than 5 minutes, a cute and legit-delicious bowl of snow cream can be yours to enjoy!
It’s the perfect quick and easy activity for kiddos of all ages (or, hey, any of us kids at heart). And it’s of course completely customizable with whatever different flavors, nuts, chocolate chips, sprinkles, or any other ice cream add-ins that you love best.
So the next time you wake up to a winter wonderland, go scoop up some fresh snow and let’s make some snow ice cream together!
Snow Ice Cream Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Snow Ice Cream Ingredients
Here are the 5 simple ingredients that you will need to make this snow ice cream recipe:
- Milk: You can use just about any kind of milk that you prefer for this recipe — dairy or plant-based, plain or vanilla or chocolate, sweetened or unsweetened, up to you!
- Sugar: We typically make snow cream with basic white granulated sugar, but feel free to use whatever type and amount of sweetener you prefer.
- Vanilla extract: We’ll add a little splash of vanilla extract as our main flavor.
- Fine sea salt: I also highly recommend adding a pinch of fine sea salt to bring out the vanilla flavor.
- Fresh snow (or shaved ice): Finally, you’ll need about 8 cups of fresh clean snow. Or if you prefer not to use snow, you’re welcome to use shaved ice instead. I recommend placing the snow in a metal mixing bowl or a chilled glass bowl to prevent it from melting if you bring the snow inside.
Snow Cream Tips
Detailed instructions are included in the recipe below for how to make snow ice cream. But here are a few extra tips to keep in mind too!
- Freeze snow while prepping: I’m sure this goes without saying, but fresh snow melts quickly! So I recommend either popping your bowl of fresh snow in the freezer while you prep the other ingredients. Or wait to go scoop up the fresh snow (or make the shaved ice) until you have already whisked the other four ingredients together.
- Adjust the sweetener to your liking: Please feel totally free to add however much (or little) sweetener that you prefer. If you are using a sweetened/flavored milk, you will likely also need to use less sweetener.
- Add sprinkles just before serving: Most sprinkles will start to bleed their coloring into the ice cream after a minute or two, which is no big deal — they’ll still be delicious. :) However if you would like the sprinkles to look nice when serving the ice cream, I recommend waiting to add them until the very last moment.
- Enjoy immediately: In our experience, fresh snow ice cream doesn’t hold up all that well in the freezer. So it’s best to enjoy immediately. :)
Fun Variations
Here are a few ideas for fun add-ins you can mix into or sprinkle on top of your snow ice cream:
- Cocoa powder: To make chocolate snow cream, mix 1 heaping tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder into the milk mixture before adding in the snow.
- Chocolate chips: Semisweet, white, butterscotch, vegan, etc.
- Cookies/candies: Crumbled Oreos or gingersnaps, chopped candy bars, M&Ms, etc.
- Fruit: Chopped berries, cherries, peaches, pineapple, etc.
- Nuts: Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, pistachios, etc.
Snow Ice Cream
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: About 2-4 servings
Description
This 5-minute recipe for homemade snow ice cream is a sweet way to celebrate a snow day!
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk (any kind)
- 1/3 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
- 8 cups clean snow or shaved ice (more or less, depending on the density of the snow)
- optional topping: sprinkles!
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk milk, sugar, vanilla and salt together until combined. Go scoop up some fresh (clean!) snow, and immediately stir it into the milk mixture until you reach your desired consistency. (The ice cream should be fluffy, not runny. But it melts quickly, so dive in quickly.)
- Top with sprinkles or other ice cream toppings if desired, and enjoy!
Notes
*Consume fresh snow at your own risk.
This sounds interesting but I would never use snow from outside, that is probably one of the dirtiest things. I guess going the shaved ice route would be the one to go. Most people don’t know but even though snow appears to be clean it contains so much bacteria and you can get quite sick from eating it.
Born and raised in Wyoming and been eating snow since I was 3 years old. Never gotten sick from it, and people consume a lot of food everyday that has a lot more bacteria in it than snow. As long as you aren’t eating snow that’s been a high traffic area for animals, or been walked through…you’ll be just fine :)
*This* Georgia girl is excited to try this with my two small kids. We have a light, fluffy coat of snow outside. I set out a deep casserole dish a few hours ago, and we’ll whip up a batch after our homemade pita pizzas this evening. Blending some berries and spinach (shhh!) to add to the ice cream with the Vitamix. Thanks for the recipe! :)
It looks like mashed potatoes with sprinkles!
This is SUCH a fun recipe :) I love it!
thx well i am a kid and we have been getting a lot of snow latly and i love ice cream and when i found this well i know what i am going to do when my mom gets home
There’s bugs in snow. I did an experiment in class when I was younger, we brought fresh snow inside and waited for it to melt and it was full of little tiny bugs that you could barely see. Doesn’t matter if the Snow is fresh, there’s still stuff in it. I would definitely try this with shaved ice though.
Living in Western Australia, we don’t have snow. However, this is too awesome to not make. I will be making this as a treat for my kids today using the shaved ice! Will let you know how it goes!!!
I grew up on snow cream but we always waited until the second snow (it was cleaner we thought). Ha!
Fresh snow or not, you shouldn’t eat snow it’s dirty lol just get shredded ice
Thanks for the great idea! We made this on Monday and it was a big hit here. I am actually going to share a link on my blog on Friday! Hope you are staying warm there!