The 2 Ingredients You Need For Dye-Free Homemade Cotton Candy Ice Cream

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Cotton candy or "bubblegum" ice cream is a flavor you won't find anywhere in the wild. Instead, it's a mix of two artificial dyes and flavors: blue raspberry and pink vanilla. That doesn't mean it's impossible to recreate the fun with more natural ingredients at home. Pink pitaya powder, blue spirulina, and an ice cream base of your choice can recreate the vibrant pastel colors of store-bought cotton candy ice cream at home. Pink pitaya powder comes from dragon fruit, which is high in fiber and has a similar taste to kiwi. Blue spirulina is a pigment that comes from algae, rich in antioxidants, and it has a neutral, slightly earthy taste. Pink pitaya and blue spirulina are saturated powders that are vegan-friendly and free of artificial dyes, bringing all the colors of cotton candy to your ice cream.

"Artificial" isn't synonymous with "dangerous," but as the FDA changes food coloring guidelines, it can be helpful to find alternative methods for capturing all the colors of the rainbow with plant-based ingredients. Cotton candy ice cream may use Red 40 to achieve its pink hue, and some people are either allergic to this dye or simply don't appreciate the mild taste it adds to their food. With the right kitchen hacks, there are endless ways to enjoy a scoop of ice cream.

Pink pitaya and blue spirulina have gained traction for being all-natural dyes, but they're not always available at the local grocery store. Suncore Foods is an all-natural dye retailer with an Amazon storefront, selling blues made from spirulina and butterfly peas, purples made from taro yam and sweet potato, and pink made from pitaya. All the pastel colors a baker can dream of are possible to find without using standard food coloring.

With the right palette at hand, you can effortlessly add any of these powders to an ice cream base. To get the iconic swirl texture from your two colors, divide your ice cream into two separate bowls, scooping blue powder into one and pink powder into the other. Mix each color in their respective bowl and then put them into the same container later, where you'll then be able to swirl them together. Developing each color separately instead of combining them at the beginning prevents the blue and pink from just turning into purple.

This all-natural dye hack works with all the ways to make ice cream without a machine, so you can choose whichever no-churn method meets your preference. Homemade ice cream in a bag or the electric stand mixer trick are some of the most effortless at-home tricks. To capture the flavor of cotton candy ice cream, a little bit of cotton candy extract (or vanilla) is all you need to bring the nostalgic flavor home.