Summer may have not arrived yet, but that doesn’t stop our desire for a cold and refreshing dessert once in a while. If you want to impress your little fellas, check this natural sea salt ice cream recipe out. It’s easy and fun to prepare and your kids will love it! We loved it because it came out really tasty and refreshing. We’ve used food coloring to get the original color right, but if you don’t care much about that, we suggest replacing it with blueberries, which will still give it a light blue color and it will slightly resemble the original sea salt ice cream from the video game, if done properly.

This recipe is inspired by Kingdom Hearts video game and is very popular among little kids who have played the game. The lead developer of the video game first tasted this ice cream in Tokyo, during his visit at a Disney resort. He liked it so much that he worked with the company to incorporate it into his video game.

NATURAL SEA SALT ICE CREAM

Despite natural sea salt containing important nutrients, it’s also a flavor enhancer. This means that it helps reveal the flavors of other ingredients when combined together. It does not only activate salt receptors but other flavor receptors as well, making us taste everything much more intensely. In other words, sea salt enhances the sweet flavor, creating what is called ‘flavor layering’. Flavor layering, when done right and not excessively, makes flavors explode in your mouth. We take pleasure in combining positive biological responses such as those from sugar and salt. Sugar, because it indicates the presence of calories, and salt, because it provides essential nutrients for our body to function properly. And that’s why these two flavors go perfectly together and we crave them so much.

FANTASY FOOD SERIES: KINGDOM HEARTS INSPIRED NATURAL SEA SALT ICE CREAM INSTRUCTIONS

What you need:

2 eggs
2 cups of milk
1 cup of heavy cream
⅓ cup of sugar
¾ tsp vanilla powder
Natural sea salt
Blue & green food coloring OR handful of blueberries, baking soda & cheesecloth

2 large bowls
Hand mixer
Medium pot or saucepan
Popsicle tray
Wooden popsicle sticks

Instructions:

Start by separating the egg whites from the egg yolks in the two large bowls. Add the sugar into the bowl with the egg yolks and mix together. Use the hand mixer to beat the egg whites until they become fluffy. Then bring the milk to boil in a pot or saucepan. Don’t forget to stir constantly, otherwise it will burn at the bottom. Pour the milk into the egg yolk slowly, mix together and then, put the mixture back into the pot and stir constantly, on low heat. Remove when it’s thick enough, but keep in mind that it must NOT come to boil this time. Then pour the mixture into the egg whites slowly and use the hand mixer on low speed. Add the vanilla powder and natural sea salt, you may use a generous amount of salt for this recipe. Taste in between and add more sea salt if needed. Chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Add the cream and mix slowly. Now it’s time for coloring! Remember, we’ve used packaged food coloring for this recipe. Depending on the intensity of your food coloring, you might need to add between 7-9 drops of blue and 1-2 drops of green into the mixture .

If you decide to use blueberries as natural food coloring, you’ll need to place them in a cheesecloth and squeeze the juice out. At first, the color will be reddish purple but fear not! Add baking soda and it will gradually turn into a nice light blue/teal color. Try adding a little bit of juice into the mixture at first, and wait in order to get the right tone.

Pour the mixture into your popsicle tray, leaving about 2cm on top. We used a pouring cup to pour into the tray, to avoid the mess. Freeze for about 1 hour. You can check in half an hour instead, if your freezer is too strong. Add the wooden popsicle sticks carefully, leaving some space for them to be held comfortably, and place back into the freezer for the rest of the day.

Sea salt goes perfectly with desserts. You must have noticed that every baking recipe includes salt in their ingredients. We suggest using natural sea salt over table salt, because it’s healthier, it tastes better and it actually contains minerals that are essential to our diet. Sea salt enhances the flavors of our foods and the same happens with our desserts. So why not give it a try with this recipe? Kids will go crazy over this!

Our fantasy food series begins with this recipe inspired by Kingdom Hearts. If you want to see more of it and recreate foods and desserts from your favorite cartoons, video games, fantasy movies and series, then stay tuned because there’s going to be more of it!

Don’t forget to visit our shop for natural ingredients, like natural sea salt for all your fantastic recipes!