12 MINUTE READ
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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Table of Contents
1. Which sweeteners are used in ice cream?
Sweeteners used in ice cream include cane and beet sucrose (‘sugar’), invert sugar, Corn Starch Hydrolysate Syrup (CSS), high maltose syrup, fructose or high fructose syrup, maltodextrin, dextrose, maple syrup or maple sugar, honey, brown sugar, and lactose. Because these sweeteners contribute metabolisable energy to the diet, they are called ‘nutritive’ or ‘caloric’ sweeteners. The most common choice of nutritive sweetener is a combination of sucrose (10-12%) and CSS (3-5%) (Goff & Hartel, 2013).
Below is a table showing suggested mix compositions for ice cream, from Goff & Hartel (2013).
2. Why are sweeteners used in ice cream?
The primary purposes for using sweeteners in ice cream are: to provide sweetness and enhance flavour; to develop smooth and creamy texture; to make ice cream softer and easier to scoop; and to contribute total solids.
2.1. Sweetness and flavour enhancement
The main function of sweeteners is to increase the acceptance of ice cream by making it sweet and by enhancing the pleasing creamy flavour. Lack of sweetness produces a flat taste; too much tends to mask desirable flavours (Goff & Hartel, 2013).
2.1.1. Relative Sweetness
Sweeteners differ in their relative sweetness. Relative sweetness is a means of ranking sweeteners in comparison to one another. Sucrose is used as the standard and has a relative sweetness value of 100. Fructose, which has a relative sweetness value of 173, is the sweetest nutritive sweetener, whilst maltodextrins, having a relative sweetness value of between 6 and 17, have a bland taste with very little sweetness.
Below is a table showing the characteristics of sweeteners in ice cream, from Goff & Hartel (2013).
2.1.2. Sweetness Perception
As well as having different sweetness values, sweeteners also differ in the way that their sweetness is perceived. Sucrose imparts a sweetness that is slow to develop and slow to decay. If used in excess, its broad sweetness profile can mask flavours that are perceived at the same time. The sweetness perception profile of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is the sum of those of its constituent sugars, fructose and glucose (dextrose). Fructose has a very intense sweetness that only lasts for a short period of time. Dextrose is less sweet than either fructose or sucrose. Its perceived sweetness lasts for longer than that of fructose, but less than that of sucrose (Hull, 2010). Because perception of the sugars in fructose-only or HFCS-sweetened ice cream decays faster than sucrose, these sweeteners are said to enhance the flavours of fruits and spices that are masked to a degree by sucrose (White, 2014).
Below is a profile of sweetness response, from Hull (2010).
2.2. Develop smooth and creamy texture
Besides enhancing sweetness and flavour, nutritive sweeteners also determine textural creaminess and mouthfeel (Stampanoni, 1993; Guinard et al., 1997). In general, increasing the sweetener level increases creaminess as a result of the reduction in the size of ice crystals. Smooth and creamy ice cream requires the majority of ice crystals to be small. If many crystals are large, the ice cream will be perceived as being coarse or icy.
Sweeteners influence ice crystal size by two main mechanisms: 1. specific effects on ice crystallisation, and 2. effect on freezing point depression.
2.2.1. Ice Crystallisation
To control ice crystal size, it is important to develop an understanding of ice formation (known as crystallisation) during the freezing of ice cream. Ice cream is frozen in two stages, the first being a dynamic process where the mix is frozen in a scraped-surface freezer (SSF) (an ice cream machine) whilst being agitated by the rotating dasher, a mixing device with sharp scraper blades attached, to incorporate air, destabilise the fat, and form ice crystals. Upon exiting the SSF, the ice cream, at about -5°C to -6°C (23°F to 21.2°F) and with a consistency similar to soft-serve ice cream, undergoes static freezing where it is hardened in a freezer without agitation until the core reaches a specified temperature, usually -18°C (-0.4°F).
During dynamic freezing, the ice cream mix is added to the SSF at between 0°C and 4°C (32°F and 39.2°F). As the refrigerant absorbs the heat in the mix, a layer of water freezes to the cold barrel wall causing rapid nucleation (the birth of small ice crystals) (Hartel, 2001). The crystals that form at the cold barrel wall are then scraped off by the rotating scraper blades and dispersed into the centre of the barrel where warmer mix temperatures cause some crystals to melt and others to grow and undergo recrystallisation.
Recrystallisation is defined as “any change in number, size, shape… of crystals” (Fennema, 1973) and basically involves small crystals disappearing, large crystals growing, and crystals fusing together, all of which result in an overall increase in ice crystal size. Russell et al. (1999) found that crystallisation during the freezing of ice cream is dominated by recrystallisation and growth and that these mechanisms appear to be more important than nucleation in determining the final crystal population.
In general, as the concentration of a sweetener is increased, ice crystals become smaller owing to a reduction in ice crystal growth rate and delayed nucleation during dynamic freezing (Omran & Kind, 1974; Hartel, 1996; Haddad Amamou et al., 2010). This effect can be explained by two facts. First, the higher viscosity (thicker mix) promotes crystal melting and attrition. Second, the solution has a higher resistance to water diffusion (movement of melted liquid from smaller ice crystals to the surface of larger ice crystals) at higher concentrations of sweetener (Haddad Amamou et al., 2010).
2.2.2. Freezing Point Depression
The freezing point of pure water is 0°C (32°F). When a substance is dissolved in water, however, the temperature at which the water freezes is lowered. This lowering of the freezing point is referred to as the ‘Freezing Point Depression’ and is defined as the difference between 0°C (32°F) and the temperature at which water in an ice cream mix first begins to freeze (Goff & Hartel, 2013). Freezing point depression is influenced primarily by sweeteners (including the lactose in milk) and milk salts. Increasing the amount of these solutes will lower the freezing point of an ice cream mix, resulting in less ice being formed at a given temperature.
Freezing point depression affects the rate of recrystallisation during static freezing, the softness and scoopability of ice cream, and the rate at which ice cream melts during consumption.
2.2.2.1. Recrystallisation during storage
As ice cream sits in storage, the ice crystals continually grow by recrystallisation (Donhowe & Hartel, 1996; Hartel, 1998). This increase in crystal size eventually reaches a point where the ice cream develops coarse texture, at which point it has surpassed its shelf life. Several studies have found a direct relationship between recrystallisation rate and freezing point; that is, the lower the freezing point, the higher the recrystallisation rate during storage (Hagiwara & Hartel, 1996; Harper & Shoemaker, 1983; Miller-Liveney & Hartel, 1997). This is because as the freezing point is depressed, the amount of unfrozen water increases, and this unfrozen water will participate readily in recrystallisation during storage.
Different sweeteners depress the freezing point of water to different extents, depending on the number of small molecules in the mix. The lower the molecular weight of a sweetener, the greater the effect it will have on lowering the freezing point. Dextrose and fructose, having nearly half the molecular weight of sucrose, will be twice as effective at lowering the freezing point than an equivalent weight of sucrose. 20 DE CSS will actually cause an increase in the freezing point compared with that for sucrose.
Investigating the effects of various sweeteners (sucrose, 20 DE CSS, 42 DE CSS, and 42% HFCS) and stabilisers on ice recrystallisation during storage, Hagiwara & Hartel (1996) found that ice creams containing HFCS exhibited the highest recrystallisation rates, whereas ice creams made with 20 DE or 42 DE CSS had the lowest recrystallisation rates. These findings were attributed to the greater freezing point depression caused by HFCS (-4.4°C (24°F)) compared to 20 DE CSS (-1.7°C (28.9°F)).
2.2.2.2. Softness and scoopability
Sweeteners are also responsible for the softness and scoopability of ice cream through their effect on freezing point depression. A high sweetener content will generally produce soft ice cream owing to a low freezing point and the subsequent reduction in the ice phase volume (the amount of frozen water). If the sweetener used is sucrose, the freezing point is likely to be high and the ice cream hard. Similarly, ice cream made with 20 DE CSS will likely have a high freezing point and hard texture. If sucrose is replaced with either dextrose or fructose, the freezing point is likely to be low, resulting in less frozen water and softer ice cream.
2.2.2.3. Melting rate
The type and amount of sweetener also affects the melting rate of ice cream during consumption, with a lower freezing point leading to an increased rate of melting (Muse & Hartel, 2004; Junior & Lannes, 2011; Goff & Hartel, 2013). Ice cream made with either dextrose or fructose will have a higher melting rate because of a lower freezing point, whereas ice cream made with 20 DE CSS will have a slower melting rate because of a higher freezing point.
2.3. Contribute Total Solids
Ice crystal size is related inversely to the total solids (the fat, MSNF, sweetener, egg yolk solids, and stabiliser and emulsifier) of an ice cream mix; that is, ice cream made from a mix with a higher total solids content generally contains smaller ice crystals (Donhowe et al., 1991; Guinard et al., 1997). The theory behind this is that an increase in the level of total solids in the mix will lower the amount of water and thereby reduce the total amount of ice formed. Because of their low sweetness value, CSS (20 to 64 DE), lactose, and maltose, are a convenient and cost-effective way of increasing total solids without introducing excessive sweetness.
3. Summary
Nutritive sweeteners are used in ice cream primarily to provide sweetness, promote smooth and creamy texture by reducing ice crystal growth during dynamic freezing, produce softer ice cream that is easier to scoop, and to contribute to the total solids content of a mix, thereby reducing the size of the ice crystals. Excessive sweetener use, however, will likely mask flavours, increase recrystallisation rates during storage, thereby limiting shelf life, and produce ice cream that melts quickly during consumption.
4. References
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 (11–12):1191–208.
Fennema, O. R., Powrie, W. D., Marth, E. H., 1973. Low Temperature Preservation of Foods and living Matter. USA: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Goff, H. D., and Hartel R. W., 2013. Ice Cream. Seventh Edition. New York: Springer.
Guinard, J. X., Zoumas Morse, C., Mori, L., Uatoni, B., Panyam, D., and Kilara, A., 1997. Sugar and Fat Effects on Sensory Properties of Ice Cream. Journal of Food Science. 62.5.
Haddad Amamou, A., Benkhelifa, H., Alvarez, G., and Flick, D., 2010. Study of crystal size evolution by focused-bean reflectance measurement during the freezing of sucrose/water solutions in a scraped-surface heat exchanger. Process Biochemistry. 45. 1821-1825.
Hagiwara, T., and Hartel, R. W. 1996. Effect of sweetener, stabilizer, and storage temperature on ice recrystallization in ice cream. J Dairy Sci. 79(5):735–44.
Harper, E. K., and Shoemaker, C. F., 1983. Effect of locust bean gum and selected sweetening agents on ice recrystallization rates. J. Food Sci. 48:1801.
Hartel, R. W., 1996. Ice crystallisation during the manufacture of ice cream. Trends in Food Science & Technology. 7(10).
Hartel, R. W., 1998. Phase transitions in ice cream. In: RaoMA, Hartel RW, editors. Phase/state transitions in foods: chemical, structural, and rheological changes. IFT basic symposium series. New York: Marcel Dekker. p 327–68.
Hull, P., 2010. Glucose Syrups, Technology and Applications. Singapore: Wiley-Blackwell.
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.
Miller-Livney T., and Hartel, R. W., 1997. Ice recrystallization in ice cream: interactions between sweeteners and stabilizers. Journal of Dairy Science. 80:447–56.
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.
Omran, A. M., and King, C. J., 1974. Kinetics of ice crystallization in sugar solutions and fruit juices. AIChE Journal. 20(4). 795–803.
Russell, A. B., Cheney, P. E., and Wantling, S. D., 1999. Influence of freezing conditions on ice crystallisation in ice cream. Journal of Food Engineering. 29.
Stampanoni, C. R., 1993. Influence of acid and sugar content on sweetness, sourness and the flavor profile of beverages and sherbets. Food Qual. Pref., 4. 169–176.
Sutton, R., and Bracey, J., 1996. The blast factor. Dairy Industries International, 61(2). 31-33.
White, J. S., 2014. Sucrose, HFCS, and Fructose: History, Manufacture, Composition, Apllications, and Production. In J. M. Rippe (ed), Fructose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sucrose and Health, Nutrition and Health. New York: Springer.
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Hi Ruben
Great article.
Do you know if the temperature of the sugar has any affect ?
i.e if I add sugar to my custard base before it’s been cooked or if I add sugar to my custard base after it’s been cooked and cooled ?
The later obviously helps get the flavour balance correct, but most recipes seem to suggest adding the sugar at the beginning.
Hi Ruben, thanks for this great blog! I would like to make an ice cream using coconut or date sugars but i am unable to find the depression freezing point for these two . Can you recommend a book/reference? Thanks samia
Coconut sugar is about 75% sucrose with the remainder glucose and fructose. It’s basically the same stuff as white sugar. Date sugar appears to be 50% fructose and 50% glucose, so the same as corn syrup in composition. But date sugar is also mixed with maltodextrin, apparently not a standard amount.
Thank you very much Adrian!
Hello dear Ruben
as always u put amazing info and work, so thank you
kindly can you advice regarding the sugar percentage for Fruits sorbet vs chocolate or vanilla sorbet
big thx in advance
Harold McGee has the final word on fruit sorbets in his book The Curious Cook. There are pages of charts for every fruit with recommendations for different textures (scoopable vs “granita”) and diluted fruit vs pure fruit. I’m not sure what a chocolate or vanilla sorbet is.
I have a question. If I am making an alcoholic ice cream, say a basic cream recipe with added, say Jagermiester, Red Stag Whiskey or Absinthe (they are quite popular with customers) I would want to sweeten with a 50/50 dextrose/sucrose mix to lower the freezing point and make the ice cream more solid? (that’s what Ive been doing, but am looking for advice)
Hi, do you know the values (specially relative freezing point depression) for allulose and erytrithol ?
Thanks!
Hi Ruben,
I love your site! I just made my very first batch of vanilla ice cream with the Lello Mussino machine and it is absolutely phenomenal. Your detailed recipes and explanations are so helpful!
Is it possible to substitute dark brown sugar for white sugar? I know brown sugar has a higher moisture content and was wondering if I would need to adjust the recipe because of this.
Thanks!
Hey Kate,
Thanks for getting in touch. Good to hear that your vanilla batch turned out well. Yes it is possible to sub a dark sugar for the white, there won’t be a significant difference in texture and you don’t need to change the formulation; the 3% or so higher moisture content in dark sugars won’t have a significant effect on texture. Light and dark muscovado work well but the flavour is quite strong!
Hope that helps.
Ruben
Hello Ruben. His website was the first one I found when searching for “diet ice cream recipes for industrial manufacturing”. I have diabetes and have a hard time finding good quality diet ice cream that has no artificial flavor or fat. Because of this scarcity of offers where I live, I decided that I would research and find a basic recipe to which I could add flavors. It was then that I found everything I was looking for in one post. My Sunday lit up! (Issuarte)
Sorry! Please read “this” message.
“Hello Ruben. Your website was the first one I found when searching about “diet ice cream recipes for industrial manufacturing. I have diabetes and have a hard time finding good quality diet ice cream that has no artificial flavor or fat. Because of this scarcity of offers in the place where I live, I decided that I would research and find a basic recipe to which I could add flavors. It was then that I found everything I was looking for in one post. My Sunday lit up! (Issuarte)
Hi Ruben,
I have been trying out your recipe. Regarding the fat & sugar content calculation in the spreadsheet. Shouldn’t the fat and sugar content become more concentrated post heating? Say sugar content is @ 10% pre-heating, shouldn’t post heating be >10%? It is obvious that the custard taste sweeter after heating with the lost of certain water content. I am still experimenting with the cream, milk and sugar ratio to find my personal preference. Many thanks.
Hi there Cheeyong!
Thanks for getting in touch. Yes the fat, not fat-milk solids, egg yolk, and sugar contents do indeed become more concentrated post heating. If you’re using the spreadsheet I uploaded in my post ‘How to calculate an ice cream mix‘, you’ll see the post concentration solids in cells G20-G26.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Ruben
Congratulations on the Great Taste Awards! Anything I see in the grocery with those awards tend to be really good, so well done.
I noticed in the Judges’ Comments that they found the ice cream to be a tad sweet? At 16% sugar, guess that’s a lot for some folks.
Have you read the gelato book by Angelo Corvitto? He has a lot of insight on use of different sugars and their sweetness levels and anti-freezing powers (AFP), to get the same textures with different sugar combinations. There’s a pdf of the book floating around online. Worth a thorough read. Generally get negative feedback from my relatives when my ice creams get too sweet, so no I tend to shoot for 20-22% sugars content with a sweetness rating between 8-12%.
David
Thank you David! Yes it was very interesting to read that some of the judges found my vanilla ice cream quite sweet, but then also that a second set of judges found the same ice cream well-balanced. The vanilla certainly does enhance the sweetness so perhaps that was why some found it too sweet.
I have Angelo’s book but haven’t yet had a read through yet. I want to update my post on sugar in ice cream to include different sugars and so may very well give his book a go. Very interesting to read that your ice cream has a low sweetness level of between 8 and 12%! I don’t think I’ve ever gone lower than about 14% sweetness so will give 8-12% a try.
All the best,
Ruben
Ruben – Do you have any suggestions as to how to find manufacturer’s descriptions of sugar types used in their products?
I noted a mention, on your site comments, of trehalose (a disaccharide made of 2 glucose molecules) being tried as a sweetener and thickener in commercial and artisan ice creams. In 2000, trehalose was approved by the FDA for use as an additive in food. There are reports suggesting that trehalose use may have led to the explosion of Clostridium difficile gut infections which, according to a CDCP estimate, had apparently killed nearly 30,000 people in the U.S. (by 2011)? Here’s a link to an extensive explanation (not just fear-mongering):
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/the-curious-case-of-a-boring-sugar-that-may-have-unleashed-a-savage-plague/
I would appreciate your comments, as ice cream is a very favorite food in our family.
H. Hekariya
Hi there H Hekariya,
Thanks for getting in touch. That’s a very interesting, and concerning, article. I haven’t yet tried using, or done any research into, trehalose so am probably not the best person to comment on this sugar.
With regard to your first question, the types of sugar used in ice cream should be displayed on the ingredients list somewhere on the packaging. I’d recommend contacting the manufacturers directly through their customer service department if you need more specific information, although I don’t know how helpful they will be.
Sorry I can’t be of much help. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.
All the best,
Ruben
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