Snow cones (or shaved iced) are a time-honored tradition during the dog days of summer. Here’s a simple, inexpensive recipe for making your own delicious snow cone syrup in multiple flavors.
Snow Cones vs Shaved Ice
There’s actually a difference between shaved ice and snow-cones.
Shaved ice is comparable to snow in texture, that is to say, that it’s finely textured, light and fluffy. Shaved ice holds the flavor throughout the ice due to the density of the ice, so each bite is quite flavorful. For shaved ice syrups you’ll want to use a narrow flow squeeze bottle to add the flavors to keep from melting your ice too rapidly. We found these squeeze bottles work perfectly!
Snow cones, on the other hand, are considerably heavier in texture because they contain larger granules of ice. Snow cones are coarse and crunchy and typically the syrup settles on the bottom of the cone ensuring the last few bites are the most flavorful.
Regardless of which type of ice you prefer, these delicious homemade syrups will work wonderfully to flavor your icy creations.
Kool-aid Snow Cone Syrup
You’ll Need:
4 Pint (16 oz) Mason jars
4 packages of any kool-aid flavor
6 cups sugar
4 cups of water
Combine sugar and water in a large saucepan, over medium heat, stir once. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, reduce heat and let it boil for exactly 90 seconds over medium heat. Remove from heat and let it cool 5 minutes,
Evenly divide the simple syrup mixture among the 4 pint-sized mason jars. Mix in one (1) package of kool-aid flavor into each jar, stirring with a spoon until the fully combined.
The syrup will continue to thicken as it cools.
Tips-n-Tricks:
Avoid stirring the sugar, as that causes sugar crystals to form. The sugar will dissolve on its own without your assistance. This is also the reason you wait to add the kool-aid AFTER the syrup is done cooking to prevent sugar crystals from forming.
Sugar-Free Keto Friendly Version
The past couple of years our family has been paying closer attention to the amount of sugar that we consume and we often prefer to swap out keto-friendly choices in place of the sugar. These ingredients are fairly common at most grocery stores, but if you’re not used to looking for them (they’re often on the very top or very bottom shelves), then you might miss them! You can also order the items online.
You’ll Need:
1 cup Swerve Sweetener
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon Xantham Gum
about 8 to 10 drops of Lorann Flavor oils
Watkins All Natural Food Coloring *No Artificial Dyes*
Blender
Combine the xantham gum and 1/4 cup of water in a blender until combined. The Xantham gum is a natural thickener, but it works similar to cornstarch. It must thicken in a small amount of liquid BEFORE adding the remaining ingredients, or it won’t thicken at all.
Now, add each of the remaining ingredients to the Xanthan gum mixture in the blender and blend on high for 2 minutes. The mixture may become frothy, that’s normal. The ingredients will settle. If you’d like a splash of color, you can add a drop or two at this point and mix it in. That’s often half the fun for the kids, to see the array of different colors. Frankly, I like to mess with them a little bit, use blue coloring for cherry flavor and red coloring for blueberry flavored, etc. It keeps them on their toes.
Here are a few of our LorAnn Oil flavors:
LorAnn flavor oils come in a wide variety of flavors and can be used to flavor candies and frostings in addition to making snow-cone and shaved ice syrups.
Cotton Candy
Coconut
Pineapple
Strawberry-Kiwi
Tropical Punch
Peach
Watermelon
Coffee
Cookies and Cream
Lemon Oil
Grape
Root Beer
Vanilla Butternut
English Toffee
Marshmallow
Peach/Mango
Peanut Butter
Tutti Frutti
Pina Colada
Tips-n-Tricks:
You’ll note that we said to use 8-10 drops of the flavor oils, Always start with less and add more to your taste preference. Several of this brand of oils are extremely strong and can be a bit overpowering if over-used. Taste your syrup as you prepare it and add more as needed.
What are your favorite shaved ice flavors?
© Can Stock Photo Inc. / 808isgreat
