I know headlines are oversaturated with Barbie talk, but bear with me if you can, this is about ice cream. Two weeks ago when Warner Bros. began its media push, I received a newsletter from a fellow food writer alerting readers of Cold Stone Creamery’s new Barbie-inspired ice cream concoction (of course, there’s also a sweepstakes).
“All That Glitters is Pink”
This “All That Glitters is Pink” signature sundae from Cold Stone is served in a bright pink cup with the Barbie movie logo and is textbook marketing to children (and grown-up Barbie fans). It entails, according to Cold Stone, “Pink Cotton Candy Ice Cream with Graham Cracker Pie Crust, Dance Party Sprinkles, and Whipped Topping.”
Little kids across America and around the world are likely drooling at the thought of enjoying the frozen atrocity. If I’m honest, they had me at “Dance Party Sprinkles” and I waved goodbye to my childhood decades ago.
The “Ingredients”
I surfed into the depths of Cold Stone Creamery’s website to find the ingredients, an obsessive occupational hazard, if you will. And I will preface my findings by pointing out that the chain’s website touts “Ice Cream Made Fresh.” The ingredient list for the ice cream is:
SWEET CREAM ICE CREAM [Cream, Nonfat Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Whey, contains less than 1% of: Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80, Annatto (color)], PINK COTTON CANDY FLAVOR [Water, Propylene Glycol, and FD&C Red #40].
The “Fresh” Claim
Fresh? Not with an ingredient list like that, I’m sorry to say. While staff at Cold Stone locations may churn the ice cream in machines at each shop, given the ingredients I assumed they begin with a packaged, pre-mixed liquid (this YouTube video confirms as much). Before I found the video, I inquired with their media department and haven’t heard back (yet). So I emailed customer service:
Me: Do employees measure and combine the individual ingredients on site, or do they receive a pre-mixed base for each flavor?
Cold Stone customer service (non-answer?) answer:
“All ice cream flavors are made fresh by our crew members at each location.”
There’s that “made fresh” again. Regardless, the Barbie sundae is creamy frozen sugar that’s colored pink with chemically processed dye and topped with crunchy sugar bits. Almost as delicious sounding as coal butter.
Here’s an unpacking of the less obvious ingredients:
Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan: Industrial starches that emulsify, or bind and thicken mixtures. Often used to replace culinary fat (i.e., the lack of fat in the nonfat milk in all their ice cream). Research has found evidence these gums may harm the gut by damaging the protective lining, an issue at hand with “leaky gut” syndrome (two of many research papers here, and here).
Polysorbate 80: Another emulsifier with data that suggests it causes inflammation and weight gain (this study published in Nature was done on mice, and doesn’t exactly make me want to volunteer for a similar human trial).
Mono and Diglycerides: Both are fatty acids naturally present in seed oils. When listed as an ingredient, the glycerides have been extracted using an alkaline agent and then distilled.
Propylene Glycol: A tasteless, syrupy liquid that is slightly sweet. Serves as a thickener and stabilizer, and is also commonly used in anti-freeze, paints, and cough syrup. Before the 21st century, it was derived from petroleum. Currently, it’s made from lactic acid, a by-product of corn farming.
FD&C Red #40: This particular red dye is banned from food in several European countries. The Europeans point to research showing Red #40 is carcinogenic (debated among experts) and more convincing research links the dye to hyperactivity in children (2007 randomized controlled trial published in the Lancet, and 2021 report out of the California EPA).
The Why
All of the ingredients above are added to save money on inputs and make ice cream more stable for the long-haul trip from the factory to your mouth. The emulsifiers used by Cold Stone and a majority of commercial ice cream brands are mainly substitutes for fat. This allows them to use less real cream, which is expensive.
The ingredients for the Barbie toppings are not listed online, and a Senior Director of Customer Service at Cold Stone wrote “since we are not the manufacturer of our mix-ins, we unfortunately do not have access to the specific information for those products.”
Traditional French custard ice cream requires only three ingredients: milk or cream, eggs, and sugar. And even if you don’t eat dairy or eggs, there are creative ways to whip up creamy frozen desserts. Sure, the additives in commercial ice cream typically make up one percent or less by weight, like the Barbie abomination. But that’s because they are powerful in small quantities and detrimental in large amounts. Not because Cold Stone and others are exercising caution.
Edible Epilogue
This false advertising of “fresh” food is all around us and so pervasive it’s created a numbing effect. And is often targeted at children and their caregivers. With one simple slogan, which may or may not be truthful, parents can avoid worrying about what’s in the ice cream dripping down their five-year-old daughter’s face.
Now I want to be clear that I love movies, go to the movies, and even consult for a design firm that serves movie theatres. And perhaps the marketing executives at Warner Bros. are not the responsible party. But surely the people in charge at Cold Stone Creamery know their ice cream could be better. And despite the widely known, negative effects of advertising to children (i.e., tobacco), a lack of regulation in our country and others allow food brands to legally make such claims.
A Better Pink Ice Cream
Since the air is scorching hot in so many corners of the world, here’s a naturally-pink, raspberry ice cream recipe with only four ingredients (caveat: you need an ice cream machine). I topped it with this incredibly basic almond cookie for a nutty, graham-cracker-like garnish.
If you don’t own an ice cream maker, keep scrolling for no-churn raspberry ice cream. All you need is a loaf pan and a hand or stand mixer. It won’t have all those churned feels, but it won’t have Red #40, either. All that glitters can be pink and doesn’t have to be processed.
Eat + be well,
Christina
P.S. More food for thought… I find it curious the writer of this recent article about Cold Stone (AKA an advertisement) on Mashed.com only lists the first five ingredients of Cold Stone’s ice cream in the article, but not the less than 1% ingredients.
No-Churn Raspberry Ice Cream
With just a hand or stand mixer (or a whisk and a lot of elbow grease), you can whip up a fresh, fruity, creamy frozen dessert. Heavy cream whips better when it’s cold, so keep it chilled until you begin. And better yet, chill the bowl and beaters, too.
The Ingredients
2 cups or 16 ounces of heavy cream
½ cup of granulated sugar
⅓ cup of honey
6 ounces (1 small container) of fresh raspberries (or good raspberry jam)
pinch of salt
The Method
Mash or blend the raspberries. In a blender or with a fork, purée or mash the raspberries until mostly smooth and set them aside.
Whip the cream. In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream, granulated sugar, and salt with a hand mixer at medium speed to medium to stiff peaks. The tips of the “waves” that stick off the beaters when you lift them out of the cream should stick nearly straight up. The stiffer the peaks, the lighter the ice cream will be.
Beat in the honey. Add the honey to the bowl and beat for a few moments more to incorporate it. The honey is a liquid sugar at room temperature and helps the mixture stay soft(er) once frozen.
Fold in the raspberries. With a flexible spatula, fold the mashed raspberries into the whipped cream gently with broad, circular strokes scraping up from the bottom of the bowl. Cut the spatula down through the center of the mixture every other stroke. Fold until the raspberries or jam are evenly dispersed in the cream.
Freeze. Immediately spread the whipped raspberry cream into a loaf pan or similar, cover, and freeze for at least four hours. The finished ice cream is very easy to scoop and will melt faster than a custard ice cream.
Up next… the trendy, deliciously simple (and cheap!) cacio e pepe. I’ll share the traditional technique and also a couple of useful ingredients for keeping the prone-to-separating sauce silky smooth.