Anyone have good/interesting stories with swapping out or mixing sweeteners in your recipes?
In my recipes I generally use pure maple syrup. which ultimately adds that flavor into the ice cream, but i’ve been swapping it out with whatever I have in the house.
recently tried unrefined granulated sugar which seemed to stay in it’s crystalline state for some time. it wasn’t bad, just different. the flavor was not affected .
My latest batch I tried confectioners sugar and it was super sweet with a weird drying effect on your tongue.
I think my next try is a sugar alternative called allulose and then maybe start playing around with various combinations.
Be careful with the Allulose. As it is a sugar alcohol, in large quantities it can make your tummy and bottom have issues. Try making some simple syrup if you have the granulated kind, and use it to sweeten some drinks to see if your stomach can handle it.
That said, Allulose is the best bet to achieve the closest result to real sugar. Make small batches, and only make it as sweet as it needs to be or augment it with other sweeteners.
But, since you were using maple syrup I will point out that it is a special kind of sugar that has been converted, and will help make creamy ice cream with less crystallization. You won’t get that from regular sugar until you start to caramelize it.
Other types are corn syrup (dark and light), glucose syrup, sweetened condensed milk, agave nectar… Yeah. :)
You can get less crystallization if you add a splash of alcohol to the base as well. It can be something flavorless, sometimes flavoured alcohols can benefit. Like, Bailey’s, flavoured rums, or cocktail spirits.
thanks for that info! i picked it up on a friends suggestion and haven’t tried it in baking with it. syrup is a good idea!
I use granulated organic blonde cane sugar. I have to dissolve it in the low fat cream that I use (10%). I don’t add the high fat cream (35%) until the sugar is completely dissolved. I produce maple syrup in the spring (and build the machines that I use to make it, thus my username) but I find that it adds too much water and that the flavor is overpowered by the other flavors in the ice cream. If you can find someone who makes maple syrup they may sell maple sugar which doesn’t add water but does give you the maple flavor.
What are you using as a base recipe for this? I’m assuming you don’t use a custard base since you say that granulated sugar stays crystallized.
I normally use honey, brown sugar, or white sugar. With brown or white I add a small amount of corn syrup or Lyle’s golden syrup to help prevent ice formation. I do use a custard base because I prefer it.
I have never tried allulose (in anything) but I don’t like the taste of most of the sugar alcohols, and in baking they can give an odd mouthfeel. I haven’t dug into the science, but my guess is that they bind to fats differently than other sugars.
i’m not sure where my wife picked them up but the sugar granules i used were a lot bigger than typical white sugar and admittedly may not have given them enough time to break down. I haven’t used a custard base, but id like to sometime! As for what base I use, it is usually 40% cream, 40% while milk, and 20% sweetener and flavors. I don’t stay true to it most of the time just because I like to play around and see what outcomes I get.
brown sugar with corn syrup sound like an interesting combo. i may try that next time
I’d like to try blue agave nectar, it’s sweeter than sugar by volume, has a honey-like taste and a significantly lower glycemic index.
ill add it to the list! i don’t think i’ve ever had agave in any form outside of tequila
