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
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
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Perfect! I added a tablespoon of cherry jam!
Made this with my mom since we got 16.75 inches at the high point. It’s DELICIOUS!!!! Thanks for the recipe!
We made this tonight for Cub Scouts. It was good and easy! We used coconut milk beverage, as that is what my son prefers. I had premeasured the milk and vanilla into a jar. Then I premeasured the sugar and salt and put that in another. So then while we were outside, the kids mixed those two into a bowl. Then I carried the bowl out to some fresh snow :-) and we scooped in the snow.
I had some extra that I brought home and my teenager didn’t like it (with the coconut milk – which did give it a coconuty flavor), but he was inspired to make some with regular dairy milk. He made 1/4 of the recipe, which made a bowl portion for him. It tasted just like “regular” vanilla ice cream. He’s asked if he could make it for dessert every night when we have snow (and we have lots of it at the moment).
Just tried just tried this recipe with my husband and son, it was awesome. If you add a scoop of hot cocoa mix to it you can make chocolate! Perfect snowy day snack. Thanks for sharing it with the world.
I made this earlier today and it was AMAZING!!! I am 13 yrs old and I made this for me and my grandma and we loved it. The flavor was very good and we added some toppings and that was very good. I would say that the snow melted very easily 😂 Definitely trying again!
Just made this with the kids so fun, tastes just like vanilla ice cream !!
Fantastic and easy recipe! My first time making snow cream and it was fun and easy! Super glad we could use just regular milk too. My daughter said it is snow cream dream! Yummy! Thanks for sharing!
I love snow cream.
Best recipe! Thanks!
I just made this and it’s good. My son wanted to add coloring and I thought to add maraschino cherries with some juice instead. It made it have a nice flavor and everyone liked it.