pleasure in simple things

With this past weekend’s first big snow, I was taken back to thoughts of my childhood snow treats!  Growing up in the Northeast, snow has always been plentiful in the winters and, aside from using it for throwing, riding on, and building with, we also used it as an edible treat!

Eating snow off a mitten was a childhood rite of passage, but as you got a little older and a little more sophisticated, maple syrup or Zarex (a sweetened liquid fruit syrup that was added to water to make a flavored drink) was poured onto a fluffy mound of the white stuff in a bowl to create a sweet treat!

These memories prompted me to go outside and create some sweet treats using snow!  Of course, make these treats only on the coldest of days!

Now that I am doing my best to avoid white sugar completely, my sweeteners of choice are honey and maple syrup.  So, I used these two sweeteners to create my treats!

First, a maple ‘taffy.’  I think in the U.S. this practice was adopted from a common one in Canada.  You simply boil up some maple syrup (boil it until it gets to the soft ball stage), pour it into a line in the snow, and collect it by rolling it onto a stick for a sweet pop-type maple treat!

I should mention that I only use 100% maple syrup in my house and that is the only thing I recommend you use with snow.  The corn syrup variety of ‘syrup’ sold in the grocery store for pancakes definitely does not qualify as maple syrup!

The second treat uses honey as a sweetener.  After mixing some vanilla extract into honey and pouring it into the snow, form little frozen balls with a spoon.  Yum!  You can vary the extract or flavor of honey to change up the flavor profile.

I hope these two sweet treats have inspired you to create your own ‘snow much fun’ treats!  If you want to be ambitious, any homemade simple syrup can be used to create snow cones using snow…the flavor possibilities are endless!   I am thinking of trying a honey lavender!  Or, with Valentine’s Day approaching, maybe something using rosewater would be intriguing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things…like eating some freshly fallen snow!  xo Jackie