You may dream of a white Christmas each year, but your best bet of snow comes in the new year. By then, your festive decorations are packed away and family gatherings have subsided. You have feasted yourself out of heavy meals for the next few weeks, preferring to get back into your normal routine. School is back in session and you are easing into your next project at work. You’ve moved on from the winter holidays and visions of the family enjoying a day off in piles of snow.
Yet the winter temperatures remain and you don’t have an occasion to celebrate when the snow finally does fall. Instead, you’ll need to create a new tradition for this transitional time of the year. On a snow day home (or days when you’re dreaming of snow), don’t pretend it’s not there. Take advantage and make snow cream!
Snow cream is easy enough to create. Your great-grandparents made it plenty of times when looking for ways to entertain you that you remember the process easily. Combine milk, sugar, vanilla extract and salt together before mixing into clean snow. (If there’s not enough snow on hand because you live in the South, use shaved ice instead.) Once well combined, scoop it out, wrap up in a blanket and enjoy the seasonal dessert.
Add toppings to fit your snow day dreams. A topping that always deserves a place on ice cream, especially snow cream, is sprinkles. To change up your yearly indulgence, however, try adding some cookie crumbles, chopped berries or crushed chocolate for a sweet crunch. Crushed peppermint or candied cranberries callback to the festive mood you were in oh-so recently. There are so many flavors to try!
Enjoy your snow cream before it melts away. Once it’s gone and you have the shivers, warm up as the sun sets with a hot mug of soup, giving you the snow day you envisioned. The weather may be a little late to the party, but a fresh fallen snow is better after the holidays than not at all.