In general, erythritol is ideal for formulating ice cream with a reduced sugar and calorie content, since it reduces calories and, at the same time, provides texture and a pleasant sugar-like flavor. The market expects demand to increase, especially among millennials and centenarians, for alternatives to sugar in all products, but flavor and texture should remain a top priority. As snack bars, confectionary products, baked goods and other sweets develop guilt-free alternatives, claims such as “no added sugar”, “low sugar” and “sugar free” will continue to increase. Other naturally occurring sweeteners, such as erythritol, xylitol and monk fruits, are ingredients that help reduce sugar and, at the same time, improve texture and mouthfeel.
Brands will have to walk the tightrope to reduce sugar and maintain the flavor and texture that consumers demand for their favorite treats. Dextrose is ¾ times sweeter than sucrose, but it lowers the freezing point of water by nearly double. Therefore, by replacing some sucrose with dextrose, we can make our ice creams less sweet and softer. It is usually available in pharmacies, home beer stores, and on the baking islands of supermarkets.
Dextrose is also known as glucose. Invert sugar is a syrup widely used in professional cooking. It is sweeter than sucrose and lowers the freezing point of water to the same extent as dextrose. It has a significant effect on the texture of ice cream, providing body and reducing ice crystals.
Chefs buy it pre-prepared in large tubs from brands such as Trimoline. But we can easily do it at home. Allulose is undoubtedly the best sweetener for sugar-free ice cream. It is not a sugar alcohol, but a rare sugar that is not metabolized, so it is zero in carbohydrates.
Does not recrystallize, keeping ice cream delicious and smooth. While both recipes are for sugar-free ice cream, that recipe had to do with chocolate, however, it doesn't mean that it's a bad thing. This recipe is for sugar-free vanilla ice cream, which I think also has its place on the dessert table. As someone who grew up on ice cream that was often loaded with sugar, this was something I was wondering about as well.
However, what I discovered was that yes, there is a way to make ice cream without adding sugar. Technically, if you don't add sugar to the recipe, or anything that contains sugar, then it's totally sugar-free, but when it comes to something like ice cream, sometimes the ingredients that have sugar also have the fat that makes ice cream so pleasant. Personally, I prefer ice cream that isn't loaded with fat or sugar because I don't enjoy that feeling of heaviness that ice cream can give me after eating it. You can check out my guide to alternatives to baking with sugar on Amazon.
The recipes presented on this site do not include specific alternatives to sugar. Only suggestions are offered as to the “type” of alternative to be used. It's up to you to select the alternative for use that best suits your needs. If the recipe is heated or cooked, it is best to use an alternative that can be heated or cooked for better results.
This site does not recommend any specific ingredients. You can see the articles that have appeared in my featured Sugar Free Sunday section here. On its own, stevia can have a bitter or persistent aftertaste, so companies mix it with other naturally occurring sweeteners to reduce sugar and maintain the pleasant taste provided by sugar. So, scientifically, yes, sugar is sugar in its basic molecular structure, but nutritionally, honey and maple syrup are better.
Even though your homemade sugar-free ice cream doesn't have added white sugar, it does have some carbohydrates. Beth, to see if your father is right, try a couple of months with processed refined sugar, which is in everything today, and then try a couple of months with honey or maple syrup instead of sugar. But when we add sugar to water, the sugar causes the water to freeze at a temperature lower than that temperature. Use sugar-free chocolate like Lily's or dark chocolate with a minimum of 85% cocoa solids (I like 90% Lindt).
It's completely possible to make great-tasting unwhipped sugar-free ice cream, as I did with this chocolate and avocado ice cream (use a mix of coconut milk and whipped cream). Eliminating sugar automatically makes things healthier, unless you replace that sugar with very unhealthy substitutes such as aspartame or sucralose. Technically, if you don't add sugar to the recipe, or anything that contains sugar, then it's totally sugar-free,. I should add that I make salted caramel with coconut sugar, since it replaces brown sugar and doesn't seem to increase my glucose level.
Sorry, but my father is a science teacher (all the good ones like biology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, etc.) and sugar is sugar. But if you love sugar-free ice cream and have enough people at home who would want to eat it regularly, it's definitely a worthwhile investment. If you have the opportunity to watch the Good Eats episode “Churn, Baby, Churn”, Alton Brown talks about the science behind using some type of sugar in ice cream, even though he uses white sugar. .
