Vanilla "Blizzard" Cones
A snow day tradition
When you’re a child, snow days are magical. School cancellations were something to be celebrated. And your only responsibility on a snow day was to build the best snowman and to race your friends down the local hill on your sled.
As a kid growing up outside of Boston, my friends and I had our fair share of snow day traditions. We would build epic snow forts, sled for hours, and trudge through the woods on snow adventures. And on those rare occasions when it was just too treacherous outside, we would spend hours playing Super Mario brothers on original Nintendo or bathing in a hot tub, taking breaks only to do snow rolls.
My absolute favorite snow day tradition was creating homemade snow cones. My friend Alisa’s parents always had some kind of fancy, organic syrup on hand. We would go outside, fill our bowls with fresh, clean snow and drizzle almond or vanilla syrup over the top. No artificial or bright colored “syrups” for us!
In honor of yet another snowstorm today, I would like to share my recipe for homemade vanilla snow cones with all of you. There is certainly more than enough fresh snow to go around on a day like today, and the ingredients for this recipe are most likely already in your pantry (and outside your door).
recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cup water
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Gently stir water and sugars together in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Stir in vanilla.
- Go outside your back door and scoop up a heaping bowl of fresh, clean snow.
- Drizzle your homemade vanilla syrup liberally over the top. Enjoy!
