Real Snow Sno-Cones

During our toddler's holiday party one of the teachers mentioned that they would be focused on snow related projects this coming week, due of course to the two weeks of snow that has accumulated. One project in particular caught my attention - Sno-cones. To that I say, "good timing" and, more importantly, "YUM!"

Our toddler has experienced sno-cones a couple of times in her short life. Once at the farmers market when she was about a year old. It was very hot that day and we all needed a refreshing treat. So, one sno-cone split three ways was just the ticket we needed to finish our shopping. The second was much more recent. A couple of weeks ago the circus came to Indy and my darling hubby took his little girl - mama was confined to the house at the time and had to miss the outing :( - and they had a terrific time. Her souvenir was a large cup in the shape of a white Bengal tiger that once held the sno-cone she and her Papi shared.

As the discussion with the teachers continued my mama bear brain kicked in and I couldn't help but think of all of the awful things that are probably in sno-cone flavorings - red dye this number, blue dye that number, high frictose corn syrup, and goodness knows what else. So, I left thinking that I could improve on the original by improving the taste while also making something more natural.

The next morning, I woke early thinking about sno-cone flavoring syrup and pancakes. So, I decided to combine my efforts. The pancakes were a slight twist on the Joy of Cooking's multi-grain pancake recipe (twist added to accommodate the contents of my pantry), a terrific pancake if you ever run across the recipe and happen to be in the mood for pancakes.

When I was little, my mother often made her own pancake syrup by making a simple syrup and adding vanilla. Were you talking to her, my friend Dina would tell you a very funny story from my early cooking efforts in which I ruined the syrup. I assure you, and her, that I've improved my technique over the years. So, I checked my stash of frozen berries and settled on raspberries.

My recipe for raspberry syrup is below. You can substitute any flavor berry you want in the recipe. I suppose you could also attempt a peach flavored syrup or something similar by cutting your fruit in small pieces and cooking it in the syrup,  but berries are by far the easiest and frozen berries make this treat available all year long. In addition to pancakes and sno-cones, you can top ice cream or other treats with the syrup.

The syrup turned out well. I made it a bit sweeter this time given the dual purpose, but you can easily cut the sugar by 1/2 cup. We had it first on our pancakes - a delish combo if I do say so myself - and even better when my darling hubby procured some fresh snow for us from the fresh batch that fell overnight. The trick to making a sno-cone, as my hubby explained to me, is packing down the snow since the crystals are much smaller than the shaved ice used in the traditional approach. And, I have to say, he's absolutely right! So, give this a try with your family. For obvious environmental reasons, I wouldn't advocate eating tons of snow from outside your backdoor, but if you happen to possess a sno-cone machine and are looking for a more natural way to flavor them, this might be an approach that you want to adopt.

Homemade Raspberry Syrup
Combine the following in a heavy bottom sauce pan

• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Bring sugar and water to a low boil without stirring. You can swirl the pan a couple of times if needed, but do not stir with a spoon or other implement. When the syrup has come to a low boil, add one 8-10 oz. package frozen raspberries without syrup - thawed or still frozen, either is fine. Stir to combine. Allow the syrup to come to a boil a second time and allow to boil for approximately 5 minutes so that syrup forms and fruit infuses its flavor into the syrup.

Remove syrup from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Syrup is very hot and will cause a bad burn if it touches your skin.

Once syrup has cooled for 10 minutes, pour syrup through a strainer set over a heat proof bowl or a large  heat proof glass measuring cup. Push any remaining syrup through the fruit in the strainer to separate all syrup from the fruit pulp. Discard pulp. Allow syrup to continue to cool to room temperature. Transfer syrup to a squeeze bottle - I used a left over aguave syrup squeeze bottle. Any other clean squeeze bottle will work.


Real Snow Sno-cone

• 1 Dixie type cup for each sno-cone
• 1 bowl freshly fallen snow (metal is best for retaining the chill on the snow)
• 1 small ice cream or baking scoop for filling the cups
• 1 small metal spoon for packing the snow into the cup
• Sno-cone syrup in squeeze bottle

Fill a cup with scoops of snow until full. Using the small metal spoon, pack down the snow as much as possible. Top with a bit of syrup and carefully work snow around with spoon to distribute syrup. Add more snow to fill cup to the top. Pack again with the spoon and top with syrup. Serve.