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 1x
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.
Getting about 2-3 feet of snow here so I’m glad I found this recipe today!!
Does anyone have any advice on making a chocolate version of this? My Gram used to make chocolate snow ice cream flavored with chocolate syrup, but she’s since passed and we can’t find her recipe. I know the sugar had to be reduced because the syrup has sugar in it, but I can’t remember by how much.
I used tropical punch kool-aid.
Gma asks if instant pudding works too.?
Made snow ice cream before this and I never really used this many ingredients since we always just put a tiny bit of extract and called it good to go. When i made this it sort of just tasted like vanilla extract but then I read the comments and everybody else said it was really goo so i think it was my own mistake. :)
Love it!
We drink our rainwater, so I don’t fear pollutants where I am. Made this with whipping cream, and it was delicious! I froze the extra, and ate it the next day. To my surprise the texture was more like ice cream! We’ll definitely be making this again. Thank you!
Ummmmmmm Your NOT suppose to eat snow. Do you know many pollutants are in that snow?! DO NOT EAT IT!!
Perfect and just what we needed on this 2nd day of snow. My mom used to make snow cream, but I couldn’t remember the specifics. Thank you!
What a lovely recipe! I was all out of milk so I used heavy whipping cream and used coconut sugar instead of white sugar and it came out great! My 3 year old gobbled it up! Thanks for sharing! :)
Perfect for the Snowpocalypse we’re having out in the Northeast today!