Here we are again, in the midst of yet another snow storm.  They’re only predicting 8-12″ inches here in southern Maine.  Oh, happy day!

Today’s snow is light and fluffy (and falling at about 2″/hr!) which got me thinking about snow ice cream.  Here’s the quick recipe for it:

  • 8  cup  snow, or shaved ice
  • 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract

Place snow or shaved ice into a large bowl. Pour condensed milk over and add vanilla. Mix to combine. Serve immediately in bowls.

Now if eating sugary snow isn’t your thing (given all the pollution emitted these days), you can use it to help freeze your ice cream.  This is a great alternative if you didn’t plan ahead and make enough ice cubes.  Simply mix the snow with rock salt (or sea salt) and put it in your ice cream maker where you’d normally put the ice.  This mixture of snow and salt can get as cold as 14F!

In case you’re still curious as to how the salt and ice/snow mixture actually works to freeze your ice cream, Anne Marie Helmenstine of About.com’s Chemistry Guide has an explanation for you:

That is an example of freezing point depression, which is a colligative property that you learn about in chemistry class. Colligative properties are dependent on the number of particles present in a system. When salt dissolves in water, the sodium and chlorine ions disrupt the water’s ability to form ice crystals. More ions in the water result in more disruption, so salts that dissolve to yield three particles (e.g. CaCl2) can depress freezing point more than salts that yield two particles (e.g., NaCl). Energy is absorbed from the environment, so a baggie containing salt and ice with a small volume of water will become colder as the salt dissociates and the ice (or snow) melts. This is great for making ice cream, but note that you can’t add salt to very cold ice and expect it to freeze your ice cream or de-ice a snowy sidewalk because water has to be present. This is why NaCl isn’t used to de-ice sidewalks in areas that never warm up to 32°F.

Happy snow-cream making!

PS – Watch out for yellow snow — it’s not lemon!

{28 Jan 2009}