Snow Day Treats

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

“Snowed in” is a relative term, depending on what area of the country you live. The farther north you go, the less of a big deal a few inches of the white stuff is. As you head south though, just a light dusting is enough to cause snow days and delays. Either way there are plenty of fun things to do to take advantage of the beautiful results of a winter storm.

When you get tired of sledding, building Frosty the Snowman, and making snow angels with your kids, come inside and try some special snow day treats. Many people I know have a tradition of making pancakes anytime it snows. And a pancake breakfast does taste better after a morning of playing and shoveling. The other traditional treat to enjoy after time spent outside in the snow is a delicious cup of hot cocoa.

But did you know there are some different treats you can make WITH freshly fallen snow? Some kids just love to taste snow pure and simple (my older son just pronounced his first taste of snow delicious) but there are a couple of other cooking ideas too. I’ll always remember the description in a Little House on the Prairie book of children drizzling freshly made maple syrup over a pan of snow and eating the candy after it solidified.

You can duplicate this project at home and give your kids a little history lesson about pioneer days at the same time. Simply collect some very fresh snow in a shallow pan like a pie dish; carefully bring some maple syrup to a low boil, and when the syrup reaches a temperature of about 230 degrees F on a candy thermometer, an adult can take it off the heat and carefully pour it over the snow in a thin stream, making any design you like. Always, always closely watch your children whenever making any candy project as cooking sugar makes it scalding hot. Your resulting candy will have a taffy like consistency which you can stretch into different shapes, and your kids will surely enjoy tasting this old fashioned treat.

Another fun and educational project is to make snow ice cream. There are several different ways to make it, so even city dwellers can use snow in a cooking project if using the Ziploc bag method below. The other way to do it is to mix very freshly fallen snow (if you are certain that your snow is pure) with some simple ingredients including half and half, sugar, and vanilla. Even if you live in Florida, you can try it with shaved ice instead. You can flavor your snow ice cream with mint, citrus or almond extract, or add mix ins like dried or fresh fruits, chocolate chips and nuts.

Even if it’s not a snow day, if you’ve still got some snow left on the ground, you can try your hand at these sweet treats!

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 cup half-and-half (very cold)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 dash salt
• 5 cups fresh, clean snow

***Optional Add-ins***

• mint extract
• citrus extract
• sliced strawberries or bananas
• chocolate chips
• chopped nuts

Serves/Makes: 1 pint

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup milk or half-and-half
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons rock salt