Ice cream generally contains seven categories of ingredients: fat (dairy or nondairy), milk solids-not-fat (MSNF) (the lactose, proteins, minerals, water-soluble vitamins, enzymes, and some minor constituents), sweeteners, stabilisers, emulsifiers, water, and flavours (Goff & Hartel, 2013). In this post, we’ll be looking at the role of sweeteners in ice cream.
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- Ice crystal formation and growth in ice cream
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1. SWEETENERS USED IN ICE CREAM PRODUCTION
Sweeteners commonly used in ice cream production include sucrose, glucose (starch sugar or starch syrup), invert sugar (mixture of glucose and fructose), maple sugar, honey, fructose, molasses, malt syrup, brown sugar, and lactose. The most common choice of sweetener is a combination of sucrose (10-12%) and corn starch hydrolysate syrup (CSS) (3-5%) (Goff & Hartel, 2013).
1.1. SUCROSE
Sucrose (granulated or table sugar) is made from sugar cane or sugar beets and is approximately 99.9% solids. It is also available in liquid form as a sucrose solution with approximately 67% solids (Goff & Hartel, 2013). Sucrose can be used as the sole sweetener in ice cream with excellent results and is arguably the most common sweetener used in homemade ice cream.
1.2. CORN SWEETENERS
Sweeteners derived from corn starch, or other starch sources such as potato, tapioca, rice, oat, or wheat, are extensively used as a replacement for a portion of, or all, the sucrose in ice cream. They are a more economical way to increase the total solids content without increasing the total sweetness.
The use of corn syrups is reported to enhance smoothness by contributing to a firmer and more chewy texture, provide better meltdown characteristics, bring out and accentuate fruit favours, and increase resistance to heat shock, which improves the shelf-life of the finished product (Glazier and Mack, 1941; Keeney, 1962; Goff & Hartel, 2013).
During the hydrolysis process, starch is converted into sugars including glucose, maltose, maltotiose, and dextrose. The extent of starch conversion into sugars is generally expressed as dextrose equivalents (DE value), with a low conversion, 28-38 DE; regular conversion, 39-48 DE; intermediate conversion, 49-58 DE; and high conversion, 59-68 DE (Goff & Hartel, 2013). As the DE increases, the sweetness increases. Lower DE corn syrups are reported to produce a smoother ice cream, increase resistance to heat shock, and improve meltdown (Glazier and Mack, 1941; Keeney, 1962). Ice cream manufacturers usually use liquid or dry corn syrup products with a 28-42 DE (Goff & Hartel, 2013).
With further processing, dextrose can be converted to fructose to produce high fructose corn sweeteners (HFCS). These are much sweeter than sucrose and contribute more to freezing point depression (lower the temperature at which the water in the ice cream mix starts to freeze) than sucrose. Goff & Hartel (2013) note that compared to sucrose, HFCS (42, 55, and 90%) are from 1.8 to 1.9 times as sweet and lower the freezing point nearly twice as much. The most common type is HFCS 42, which contains 42% fructose, 52% dextrose, and 6% higher saccharides (Goff & Hartel, 2013).
2. THE ROLE OF SWEETENERS IN ICE CREAM
The main function of sweeteners is to make the ice cream sweet and enhance the creamy flavour. Lack of sweetness produces a flat or bland taste, but too much tends to subdue other flavours. Sweeteners also improve texture by influencing ice crystal size, increase meltdown, and generally make ice cream softer and easier to scoop.
2.1. ICE CRYSTALS IN ICE CREAM
Ice crystal size is a critical factor in the development of smooth and creamy ice cream (Donhowe et al. 1991). Smooth and creamy ice cream requires the majority of ice crystals to be small, around 10 to 20 µm in size. If many crystals are larger than this, ice cream will be perceived as being coarse or icy (Drewett & Hartel, 2007; Goff & Hartel, 2013).
Ice cream is frozen in two stages: dynamic and static freezing. Ice crystals are formed during dynamic freezing, where the ice cream mix is frozen and agitated to incorporate air, and grow during static freezing, where the partially frozen ice cream mix is hardened in a freezer without agitation. The aim is to promote the formation of as many small ice crystals as possible during dynamic freezing and then to preserve these small crystals during static freezing and storage.
The composition of ice cream has a significant influence on ice crystallisation (Donhowe & Hartel, 1996; Hatley et al., 1991). In particular, sweeteners and stabilisers are the most important composition determinants of ice crystal size (Hagiwara & Hartel, 1996). Sweeteners influence ice crystal formation and growth by two main mechanics: 1. specific effects on ice crystallisation mechanisms (nucleation, growth and ripening) and 2. effect on freezing point depression and recrystallisation (Goff & Hartel, 2013).
2.1.1. NUCLEATION AND GROWTH
During dynamic freezing, ice cream mix enters the ice cream machine slightly above its freezing point. As the freezer bowl absorbs the heat in the mix and brings it below its freezing point, a layer of ice freezes to the wall of the cold freezer bowl causing rapid nucleation, or the birth of small ice crystals (Hartel, 2001). For smooth and creamy ice cream, it’s important to have a high rate of nucleation so as to create as many small ice crystals as possible (Hartel, 1996).
Sweeteners have been shown to reduce the rate of ice nucleation (Schwartzberg, 1990). Arbuckle (1940) concluded that sugar improved the texture of ice cream by reducing the amount of ice that was formed and Berger & White (1979) found that, in general, a higher sucrose content produced smaller ice crystals. Similarly, Haddad Amamou et al. (2010) found that the average crystal size decreased with increased sucrose concentration. Arbuckle (1986) notes that an increase in sugar content from 12 to 18% decreases ice crystal size by about 25%. Drewett & Hartel (2007), however, found that sweetener did not significantly affect mean ice crystal size. These studies suggest that although sucrose may reduce the rate of ice nucleation, resulting in fewer crystals, a higher sucrose content improves texture by producing smaller crystals.
2.1.2. FREEZING POINT DEPRESSION AND RECRYSTALLISATION
Ice crystal growth during static freezing and storage, or recrystallisation, can result in coarse or grainy texture. Arbuckle (1986) notes that the mean size of ice crystals may increase to as large as 65 µm during static freezing because of growth. Sweeteners affect recrystallisation by depressing the freezing point, or lowering the temperature at which the water in an ice cream mix starts to freeze (Harper & Shoemaker, 1983; Wittinger & Smith, 1986). For an ice cream mix with a lower freezing point, less water is frozen at a given temperature.
Hagiwara & Hartel (1996) found that the lower the freezing point, or the larger the amount of unfrozen water in ice cream, the higher was the recrystallisation rate. Harper & Shoemaker (1983) found similar effects of freezing point for the effect of sweeteners on recrystallisation rates. These results suggest that ice cream formulations with the highest possible freezing point and the least amount of unfrozen water, should have the greatest resistance to recrystallisation.
Different sweeteners depress the freezing point of water to different extents. The freezing point of mixes with a high sugar content may range downward to -3°C (26.5°F) while mixes with high fat, low sugar content may range upward to -1.4°C (20.5°F) (Goff & Hartel, 2013). Corn syrup of either 42 or 63 DE lowers the freezing point of ice cream mix more than sucrose, producing a softer ice cream that is easier to scoop at lower temperatures. The use of low DE CSS (20DE) causes an increase in freezing point compared with that for sucrose (Hagiwara & Hartel, 1996).
Miller-Livney & Hartel (1997) found that the highest freezing points were exhibited by mixes containing 20 DE CSS, and mixes containing 42 HFCS had the lowest freezing point. They also found that recrystallisation rates were lowest for ice creams made with 20 DE CSS and the highest for ice creams made with HFCS. Similarly, Hagiwara & Hartel (1996) found that ice creams containing HFCS exhibited the highest recrystallisation rates. Ice creams made with 20 DE CSS and 42 DE CSS gave the lowest recrystallisation rates, and ice creams made with sucrose were intermediate in recrystallisation rate.
Effect of calculated amount of water frozen on recrystallisation rate of unstabilised and stabilised ice cream. From Hagiwara & Hartel (1996).
2.2. MELTING
The type and amount of sweetener also affects the melting rate of ice cream, with a lower freezing point leading to an increased rate of melting (Muse & Hartel, 2004; Goff & Hartel, 2013). Junior & Lannes (2011) found that formulations added with fructose syrup generally presented a higher melting rate when compared to ice creams made with glucose syrup, a probable cause being the impact of fructose syrup on the freezing point of the mixes.
Muse & Hartel (2004) tested the effects of three types of sweeteners, sucrose, 42 DE HFCS, and 20 DE corn syrup, and three levels of the emulsifier (0, 0.05, and 0.1%) polysorbate 80 on melting rate and hardness. They found that ice cream made with 20 DE corn syrup had the slowest melting rate, whereas ice ream made with 42 DE HFCS had the fastest melting rates.
2.3. HARDNESS
The hardness of ice cream is affected by overrun, ice crystal size, ice phase volume, and extent of fat destabilisation (Muse & Hartel, 2004). Higher overrun in ice cream has been found to lead to softer the ice cream (Tanaka et al., 1972; Goff et al., 1995; Wilbey et al., 1998), and Sakurai et al. (1996) found that ice creams with more large ice crystals were harder than ice creams that had fewer large ice crystals.
Muse & Hartel (2004) found that the ice phase volume (the amount of frozen water) significantly impacts the hardness of the ice creams: the more ice in the ice cream, the harder the sample. They found that ice creams made with 20 DE CSS had the greatest ice phase volumes and were the hardest. A positive correlation between hardness of ice cream and the amount of ice was also found by Wilbey et al (1998). Sweeteners affect the hardness of ice cream by depressing the freezing point and reducing the ice phase volume, resulting in softer ice cream that is easier scoop.
3. SUMMARY
The main function of sweeteners in ice cream is to make ice cream sweet and enhance the creamy flavour. Sweeteners also play a significant role in improving ice cream texture by producing smaller ice crystals and retarding ice crystal growth during hardening and storage.
A higher sweetener content depresses freezing point, resulting in ice cream that is softer and easier to scoop but melts quicker. 42 HFCS produces mixes with the lowest freezing points and ice cream with the softest texture, whilst lower DE corn syrups (20 DE) are reported to produce a smoother, but harder, ice cream, increase resistance to heat shock, and improve meltdown.
I hope that helps. I’d be happy to answer any questions so do get in touch and say hi! All the best, Ruben 🙂
REFERENCES:
Arbuckle, W. S. 1986. Ice Cream, 4th ed. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY.
Arbuckle, W.S., 1949. A microscopic and statistical analysis of texture and structure of ice cream as affected by composition, physical properties and processing methods. Res. Bull. 320, Missouri Expt. Sta., Columbia, MO.
Berger, K. G., and White, G. W., 1979. Ice cream. Page 499 in Food Microscopy. Vaughan, J. G. Academic Press, London.
Donhowe, D. P., Hartel R. W., and Bradley R.L., 1991. Determination of ice crystal size distributions in frozen desserts. J. Dairy Sci. 74.
Donhowe, D. P., and Hartel, R. W., 1996. Recrystallization of ice in ice cream during controlled accelerated storage. Int. Dairy J. 6.
Drewett, E. M., and Hartel, R. W., 2007. Ice crystallisation in a scraped surface freezer. Journal of Food Engineering. 78(3).
Glazier, L. R., and Mack, M. J., 1941. Corn syrup solids improve frozen dairy products. Food Ind. 13: 68.
Goff, H. D., Freslon, B., Sahagian, M. E., Hauber, T. D., Stone, A. P., and Stanley, D. W., 1995. Structural development in ice creamdynamic rheological measurements. J. Texture Stud. 26:517–536.
Goff, H. D., and Hartel R. W., 2013. Ice Cream. Seventh Edition. New York: Springer.
Haddad Amamou, A., Benkhelifa, H., Alvarez, G., and Flick, D., 2010. Study of crystal size evolutionary focused-beam reflectance measurement during the freezing of sucrose/water solutions in a scraped-surface heat exchanger. Process Biochemisty. 45(11).
Hagiwara, T., and Hartel, R. W., 1996. Effect of sweetener, stabilizer and storage temperature on ice recrystallization in ice cream. J. Dairy Sci. 79:735–744.
Harper, E. K., and Shoemaker, C. F., 1983. Effect of locust beam gum and selected sweetening agents on ice recrystallization rates. Journal of Food Science. 48:1801.
Hartel, R. W., 2001. Crystallisation in foods. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers.
Hartel, R. W., 1996. Ice crystallisation during the manufacture of ice cream. Trends in Food Science & Technology. 7(10).
Hatley, R. H. M., Van Den Berg, C., and Franks, F., 1991. The unfrozen water content of maximally freeze concentrated carbon-hydrate solutions: validity of the methods used for its determination. Cayo-Letters. 12:11.
Junior, E. D. S., and Lannes, S. C. D. S., 2011. Effect of different sweetener blends and fat types on ice cream properties. Cienc. Tecnol. Aliment., Campinas. 31(1), 217-220.
Keeney, P. G., 1962. Understanding corn sweeteners. Ice Cream Rev. 80(2).
Miller-Livney, T., and Hartel, R. W., 1997. Ice Recrystallization in Ice Cream: Interactions Between Sweetener and Stabilizers. Journal of Dairy Science. 80:447-456.
Muse, M. R., and Hartel, R. W., 2004. Ice Cream Structural Elements that Affect Melting Rate and Hardness. Journal of Dairy Science. 87, 1-10.
Sakurai, K., Kokubo, S., Hakamata, K., Tomita, M., and Yoshida, S., 1996. Effect of production conditions on ice cream melting resistance and hardness. Milchwissenschaft. 51(8):451–454.
Schwartzberg, H. G., 1990. Food freeze concentration. In: Rao MA, Schwartzberg, H. G., Biotechnology and food process engineering. IFT basic symposium series. New York: Marcel Dekker. p 127-201.
Tanaka, M., Pearson, A. M., and deMan, J. M., 1972. Measurement of ice cream with a constant speed penetrometer. Can. Inst. Food Sci. Technol. 5(2):105–110.
Wilbey, R. A., Cooke, T., and Dimos, G., 1998. Effects of solute concentration, overrun and storage on the hardness of ice cream. Pages 186–187 in Ice Cream: Proceedings of the International Symposium held in Athens, Greece, 18–19 September 1997. W. Buchheim, ed. International Dairy Federation, Brussels, Belgium.
Wittinger, S. A., and Smith, D. E., 1986. Effect of sweeteners/stabilize interactions on the viscosity and freezing point of ice cream mix. Milchwissenschaft 41 (12):766.
I run a small-batch ice cream start-up based in Manchester, U.K.
I took a look at the journal of dairy science, but I didn’t see anything about the use of glycerin in ice cream, or anything about reduced sugar ice cream—only reduced fat. I did see some stuff about increasing protein, and was wondering about the possibility that doing that might help, since it increases solids. Some recipes I see call for egg whites. Do you know anything about the effect of egg white protein in ice cream? I didn’t see in mentioned in the journal, but it seems like it’s more neutrally flavored so it wouldn’t lead to a flavor problem, which seems to be an issue with using lots of whey protein. (But egg white proteins are bigger, so their effect on freezing point reduction would presumably be smaller for the same weight of protein.)
I did also see an article that said more fat made the ice cream softer, but they only went up to 10% fat. I’m not making ice cream to sell, so the cost issues are not a concern. The recipe I normally use for regular ice cream looks to be around 22% fat (total, including fat from egg yolks). I have one sugar-free recipe that is made from butter (mechanically emulsified in a blender with coconut milk and eggs) and it has 40% fat! And I hadn’t recognized the connection between fat content and speed of melting, but I do notice that it takes this ice cream a long time to soften.
I notice also you suggested salt. Does salt have enough of an effect that the amount of salt can make a difference without producing a salty taste? I usually add a small amount of salt (looks like about 0.5 g per kg of mix) to enhance the flavor.
Did you have any luck finding any journals on alternative sweeteners in ice cream? These usually discuss ways of reducing the sweetener content. I just noticed that you have a .edu e-mail address so I’d highly recommend looking through the references section of this post and see if you can find a copy of those journals if you have access to journal databases in your university. I remember reading a journal about alternative sweeteners for diabetic ice cream but can’t remember the name. There is also some good information in Ice Cream by Goff and Hartel on low sweetener/alternative sweeteners for diabetic ice cream.
I haven’t tried using egg whites myself but I know that they increase foaming and usually result in higher overrun. I don’t know what the effect of prolonged heat would be on egg white flavour. Wow, 40% sounds very high! I’d recommend increasing the total solids content through a combination of both fat and not fat-milk-solids instead of just fat.
The amount of salt I use in some recipes, usually no more than a tsp, doesn’t have a noticeable effect on freezing point depression or hardness. Perhaps a combination of salt and alcohol would do the trick.
I hope that helps.
All the best,
Ruben
I’m actually not at the university any more—they just let me keep the email.
I did a test. I prepared a mix from 2 cups (472 ml) heavy cream (36% fat), 1 cup (236 ml) water, 16 g whey protein, 6 egg yolks, 1/4 cup (60 ml) erythritol, and a pinch salt. I added stevia to taste (and lost track of how much I added). I cooked the mix (a little too much—oops), strained it. I divided it in half. To one half added 2g of cremodan 30 ice cream stabilizer and to the other half I added a tablespoon (15 ml) of glycerin. Then I chilled the mixes in an ice bath and churned them. The first batch I churned was the cremodan mix. It chilled (much) faster (because it was in a metal bowl) and when it reached 40 deg F (4.5 deg C) I churned it until it was too thick to move in the machine, about 3 minutes. I attempted to measure the overrun and estimated it at about 5% (the weight of a cup of the mix went from 8.2 oz to 7.8 oz). I chilled the second batch (with the glycerin) and it actually ended up a bit colder, about 37 F (2.8 C) before I churned it. I’m using the Cuisinart with the bowls you chill in the freezer and I have two bowls that were both well chilled in my chest freezer, so I started with a fresh bowl each time. The batch with the glycerin had a much longer residence time in the machine, about 6 minutes. It was clearly softer at the point where it was no longer moving in the machine. I measured the overrun at 18% (the weight of a cup went from 8 oz to 6.8 oz). I do wonder what the effect of batch size is on overrun. I’m also not sure why the mix with the glycerin was 0.2 oz lighter before churning. One possible explanation is that because the mix containing cremodan was thicker, I filled the measuring cup above its sides slightly and had more mix in it. If that’s the case then 5% was an overestimate on the overrun.
I sampled the ice creams after about 24 hours of hardening in the freezer. The ice cream with the glycerin was soft and scoopable straight from the freezer. The ice cream with the cremodan was much harder. The ice cream was in a thin layer and I was able to break off some pieces with a spoon and after ten minutes at room temperature it was soft enough to eat. This made me wish I had a control with no special ingredients added, because I feel like even that result was somewhat softer than I would have gotten with no additives. Certainly in the past I’ve had batches (with different formulation) that needed to warm up for 30 minutes so I could cut them with a chef’s knife into portions.
So glycerin seems like a great option assuming that its metabolic impact is acceptable (which I haven’t been able to determine). Cremodan may have helped (which wasn’t what I expected) but without a control I can’t tell for sure, and it didn’t help enough by itself. But perhaps combined with increased overrun the result might be good. Because overrun wasn’t controlled I can’t isolate the effect of the additives in my study—was the glycerin treated product softer because of the glycerin, or because it had 3.6 times more air incorporated?
Have a look at Physicochemical and sensory optimisation of a low glycemic index ice cream formulation. Weelan, A., Vega, C., Kerry, J, and Goff, D. 2008. International Journal of Food Science and Technology. 43(9).
Looks like the goal of their research is to evaluate the effects of sugar substitutes. They evaluate mixtures of sugars and sugar alcohols and conclude that two formulations are good. 1. 6% tagatose, 6% polydextrose, 3% maltitol, and 2. 15% maltitol, 2.5% trehalose.
They say fiber is interesting as a potential ingredient but more work is needed.
I’m interested in sugar-free ice cream and have found a lot of diverse and bizarre recipes out there. My observation is that you can do almost anything and get a product that is OK eaten straight out of the ice cream machine. But if you want to eat it tomorrow, you’re in trouble. They freeze solid—I assumed this was due to lacking the freezing point reduction that sugars bring.
So I’ve been wondering about whether it’s possible to make an ice cream that is scoopable when frozen without the use of sugars or sugar-like substances (e.g. polysaccharides like inulin). I’m not sure how to categorize glycerin metabolically, but if it leads to a “soup” with small quantities then perhaps it could have a role in softening ice cream. But at what quantity?
In many cases the sugar-free recipes I encounter are very high fat—sometimes much higher than normal ice cream. What implications does this have? The only nontrivial source of protein may be egg whites. What implications does this have?
I encountered one recipe that didn’t freeze solid. It called for cream and egg whites to be whipped before the mix was frozen in the machine. The resulting mixture had a very high overrun, whereas normally without the whipped cream I’m getting a very low overrun.
So is there any other way to keep the ice cream from getting hard?
Hi Ruben,
I am not a science oriented person but have had an interest in sugar. What I thought I knew seemed to have little overlap with your interesting article. Here’s what I understood; common sugar comprises glucose and fructose in approximately equal proportion. Glucose is digested directly in the body but fructose must be processed by the liver. When the body has a significant dose of fructose in a short period, the liver cannot convert all the fructose and instead converts it to the bad kind of fat in cholesterol terms. Some medical experts blame fructose for the explosion of obesity related health effects. Therefore, I buy pure glucose and use it as about 20% of sweeteners in my ice cream, and light heartedly call it “low fructose”.
I had read that this also improves creaminess but cannot recall where I read this. This seems to be contradicted by your research references.
BTW, I particularly enjoyed your emphasis on how to heat for maximum protein tangling. I use a sous vide machine to do that.
Your thoughts?
David
Hi there David!
Thanks for getting in touch! Yes you’re right in that the hydrolysis of sucrose forms equal quantities of glucose and fructose, resulting in invert sugar. I haven’t done much research into the nutritional aspects of sweeteners so don’t know how much I can help there.
I don’t know what effect pure glucose has on texture but you might find these two articles helpful. Let me know if you need a hand with getting a copy of each.
Junior, E. D. S., and Lannes, S. C. D. S., 2011. Effect of different sweetener blends and fat types on ice cream properties. Cienc. Tecnol. Aliment., Campinas. 31(1), 217-220.
Ozdemir, C., Dagdemir, E., Ozdemir, S., and Sagdic, O., 2008. The effects of using alternative sweeteners to sucrose on ice cream quality. Journal of Food Quality. 31(4)
I’ll hopefully be writing up a post on the effects of protein denaturation as I’ve found it an extremely important area!
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Rueben,
Thanks for your reading suggestions, I found the first paper and will read it. I could not find the second paper.
Take care,
David
🙂
Here are a couple of non-standard sweeteners that I have experimented with…
Inulin – sometimes labeled as chicory root fiber or oligofructose. It’s soluble, not as sweet as sugar, and has prebiotic effects. http://www.inspiredbyinulin.com/applications/icecream.html
“Inulin can successfully replace sugar and fat in ice cream, resulting in a high-quality, ‘guilt-free’ product. It also enables manufacturers to make claims such as ‘low fat’, ‘low sugar’ or ‘low in calories’. Inulin gives ice cream – even low-fat versions – a creamy mouthfeel. It also makes ice cream melt homogenously and improves its heat-shock stability. Moreover, inulin can be used as a sugar replacement in sorbets and frozen desserts.”
glycerine (aka glycerol) – a sugar alcohol, is digested differently in the body than sugar and is considered a ‘sugar free’ sweetener and doesn’t cause tooth decay. It has a freezing point depression factor of 3.7. I use it in place of alcohol to lower the freezing point. Make sure you get food grade if you try this. Also excellent article here https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/ice-cream/228-ice-cream-hardness.html
stevia – derived from the stevia plant, approximately 100 times sweeter than sugar, this is great if you just need a little sweet kick without modifying the ratios in your mix. Pure stevia, that is not cut with erythritol or other fillers, is insanely sweet but takes experimentation to get the flavor right.
Hi again Jeff!
Thanks for sharing! I’ll hopefully be writing up a post soon on sweeteners for low fat/diabetic ice cream where I’ll try to cover alternative sweeteners. Which sweeteners have you had the best results with?
All the best,
Ruben
All of these alternate sweeteners have limitations, so I rarely use them. My notes on inulin were that it imparted a strange tangy flavor to the mix, however if you used a strong flavor like mint or chocolate that would easily mask it. Inulin also seemed to interfere with the thickeners I used in that recipe (guar, locust bean gum, cellulose gum (CMC)). It would be interesting to see if it plays well with carrageenan, my favorite thickener, that might be my next experiment.
Glycerine was great but you can’t use much because you’ll end up with cold soup. As a side note: I used to keep a tub of liquid glycerine in the deep freeze because it remained a liquid in the freezer, then I dunked my churned mix in it to freeze it faster thinking that the liquid in contact with the side walls of the container would draw the heat out of the mix faster than air. It didn’t make that much of a difference and using a slow speed fan in the freezer worked just as well as a make-shift blast freezer.
Stevia and any other supersweet sweetener work fine but I generally like to also have sugar in the mix because the flavor profile of stevia isn’t quite the same as sugar and because you use so little you have to add more other ingredients to keep the total solids up. So I end up adding more dehydrated skim milk or whey protein and that throws off the flavor a bit. Cream is such a delicate and wonderful flavor, it doesn’t take much to throw off the flavor of the mix, especially if it’s vanilla. Strong flavors are more forgiving.
I’m interested in sugar-free ice cream and have found a lot of diverse and bizarre recipes out there. My observation is that you can do almost anything and get a product that is OK eaten straight out of the ice cream machine. But if you want to eat it tomorrow, you’re in trouble. They freeze solid—I assumed this was due to lacking the freezing point reduction that sugars bring.
So I’ve been wondering about whether it’s possible to make an ice cream that is scoopable when frozen without the use of sugars or sugar-like substances (e.g. polysaccharides like inulin). I’m not sure how to categorize glycerin metabolically, but if it leads to a “soup” with small quantities then perhaps it could have a role in softening ice cream. But at what quantity?
In many cases the sugar-free recipes I encounter are very high fat—much higher than normal ice cream. What implications does this have?
I encountered one recipe that didn’t freeze solid. It called for cream and egg whites to be whipped before the mix was frozen in the machine. The resulting mixture had a very high overrun, whereas normally without the whipped cream I’m getting a very low overrun.
So is there any other way to keep the ice cream from getting hard?
Hi Adrian!
Thanks for getting in touch! That’s a go question. I haven’t tried using glycerin before so am probably not the best person to ask. I’d recommend having a look on journalofdairyscience.com for any journals on the use of glycerin in ice cream production.
Higher fat content will mean a more expensive product if you’re producing ice cream to sell. It may also result in a buttery heavy flavour if the fat content is too high. Ice cream containing a high amount of fat also tends to melt more slowly.
You could try using alcohol or salt to lower the freezing point and make your ice cream more scoopable and not as hard. You could also try increasing the total solids content in your mix by increasing the not fat-milk-solids, through the use of skimmed milk powder, eggs and fat. This will reduce the water content in your mix, making it softer. Higher overrun also tends to produce a softer ice cream; whipping your mix before freezing it in an ice cream machine will certainly produce ice cream with higher overrun.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.
All the best,
Ruben
So why have you chosen to use only sucrose in your ice creams, Ruben? Do you prefer the taste? Most of the professional ice cream recipes I’ve see use a combination of sucrose with atomized glucose (similar to CSS) and invert sugar syrup.
Hi there Perrin!
Thanks for getting in touch! That’s a good question. I think that most consumers associate the use of CSS, or similar sweeteners, in ice cream with a lower quality product. I’ve positioned my business as a premium/artisanal ice cream producer and therefore don’t think the use of CSS would be wise. I’ve also managed to obtain excellent results with sucrose and so don’t really have the need to find an alternative.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben