{"id":37,"date":"2016-05-30T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T22:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/under-belly.org\/?p=37"},"modified":"2023-02-03T17:01:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T17:01:40","slug":"sugars-in-ice-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/sugars-in-ice-cream\/","title":{"rendered":"Sugars in Ice Cream"},"content":{"rendered":"
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[This article was substantially revised in February 2023, April 2019, and June 2019. Thanks to experience and advances in our software analytics, we’ve updated our approaches to sugars since this first went live in 2016.]<\/h6>\n

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Sugars: they\u2019re sweet, and they keep the ice cream soft<\/strong>. If you\u2019ve had homemade ice cream with the consistency of concrete, it\u2019s because the level of solids\u2014especially sugars\u2014was too low.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some bloggers and cookbook authors tell you to soften the ice cream by adding alcohol. This works, but you can do better. While alcohol depresses the freezing point, it does so at the expense of smoothness. By increasing the unfrozen portion of water in the ice cream, while doing nothing to help control that water, it will encourage ice crystals to grow larger. You\u2019ll end up with a softer but icier texture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Personal narrative and manifesto:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The quick fix would be to add more sugar, but most ice creams are too sweet already. A typical home recipe is 17% or more table sugar by weight: candy. You can’t taste any subtlety through cloying sweetness\u2014you can\u2019t taste the dairy, and you can\u2019t taste any of the more delicate, aromatic flavors we\u2019re going to work so hard to put in there.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s not just home recipes. Haagen Dazs is too sweet. Ben and Jerry\u2019s is too sweet. Talenti is too sweet. Cold Stone is too sweet. Every small town \u201chomemade\u201d ice cream shop I\u2019ve ever wandered into: too fricking sweet.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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I once managed an ice cream shop in Colorado, making ice cream that the owners and I were proud of. It was way too sweet, of course, but I had no reasonable frame of reference, until after I\u2019d quit and taken a trip to Paris, where I was lucky enough to be invited to dinner at Taillevent\u2014a restaurant which at the time had three Michelin stars and which had once been considered the finest in the city. After uncountable savory courses, we were put in the hands of pastry chef Gilles Bajolle<\/a>, who would soon become the first chef that I\u2019d shamelessly steal or reverse-engineer recipes from. He was most famous for his marquise au chocolat with pistachio cr\u00e8me anglaise (which indeed I stole and worked on for many years) but the dish that opened up the heavens for me was the single unadorned quenelle of thyme ice cream.<\/div>\n
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There\u2019s nothing surprising today about an herb flavored ice cream. But back in the 20th Century, for someone who\u2019d been making flavors like \u201crocky mountain road,\u201d an herb flavor besides mint was a sucker-punch to the imagination. And the flavor itself: let\u2019s just say that I took a bite and sat there, very quietly, rethinking everything. The sensations kept developing, unfolding, surprising, telling stories. It was obvious that this was the first truly good ice cream I\u2019d ever had.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Only later did I realize that one of its secrets would be easy to duplicate, at least in theory: make the ice cream less sweet. Let the herbs and the dairy do what they do.<\/div>\n
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End Rant.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The Problem<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Conventional ice cream is too sweet, but reducing the sugar content makes it too hard at serving temperatures.<\/div>\n
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The Solution<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Use different sugars.<\/b><\/div>\n
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Michael Laiskonis<\/a>, former executive pastry chef at Le Bernardin and current Creative Director at the Institute of Culinary Education, taught me how to think about using sugars.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Freezing point depression is dependent on the molecular weight of a dissolved ingredient. The lower the molecular weight, the smaller the molecule, and so the more molecules per gram\u2014and the greater the reduction of the freezing point. \u00a0Please see the article on solids, water, and ice<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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Consider the following table [updated 8-29-2020]:<\/div>\n
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\"Sugars<\/a><\/div>\n
We want to look at three factors independently: Sweetness, Freezing Point Depression, and Solids\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The chart, in keeping with industry conventions, shows all values in relation to sucrose. Sweetness is expressed either as Relative Sweetness, Sucrose Equivalence, or POD (“Potere Dolcificante”). For our purposes we can use these terms interchangeably. The important point is that sucrose has a value of 100. A higher value is proportionally sweeter; a lower value is proportionally less sweet.<\/div>\n
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Freezing point depression is expressed either as FPDF (freezing point depression factor) or PAC (“Potere Anticongelante”). These terms can likewise be used interchangeably\u2014but when given the chance, why not use an Italian acronym? Sucrose again has a value of 100.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Solids are just solids, expressed in percent. Everything in the mix besides water, air, and alcohol. We prefer high-solids sugars (solids >90%) because we want to avoid adding water whenever possible. Liquid sugars (glucose syrups, corn syrups, invert syrups) also tend to be less consistent products. The proportion of water can vary from sample to sample.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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I find it useful to not just look at the individual POD, PAC, and solids values, but to consider the ratios. This tells us how to use different proportions of sugars to solve problems.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The most important ratio is PAC : POD<\/strong>. This helps us control freezing point depression independently of sweetness. With a value of 1, sucrose has the lowest ratio among the most useful sugars. If you prefer your ice creams less sweet, higher-ratio sugars like fructose and dextrose will allow you to control sweetness while still hitting your targets for freezing point depression. For example, with a value of 2.5, Dextrose has the highest ratio among our most-used sugars \u00a0(Lactose and Atomized glucose are higher still but their usefulness is limited. See below).<\/div>\n
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The other important ratio is Solids : POD<\/strong>. This helps us control sweetness and total solids independently. Among the most useful sugars, dextrose has the highest ratio; fructose the lowest. If your formula needs more solids as well as more sweetness, increasing the proportion of dextrose or sucrose will help. If it needs more sweetness, but is already pushing the limits of solids, increasing the proportion of fructose will help. Atomized glucose, maltodextrin, and lactose have very high ratios, but their usefulness is limited (see below). \u00a0<\/div>\n
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The sugars we care most about are sucrose, dextrose, and fructose.\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
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Sucrose<\/b>\u00a0is table sugar. Since it’s the most familiar, and has the flavor we most expect, we use it as our foundation. It also provides a frame of reference for understanding the other sugars. Sucrose is a disaccharide, meaning that it’s a molecule made up of two smaller sugar molecules\u2014in this case the monosaccharides glucose (dextrose) and fructose.\u00a0<\/div>\n


\n<\/b>Dextrose<\/b>\u00a0(another name for the monosaccharide d-glucose) is about 3\/4 as sweet as sucrose, but has nearly double the effect on freezing point suppression. Simply by decreasing sucrose and increasing dextrose, you can lower the sweetness while simultaneously softening the texture. Magic! Dextrose is also hygroscopic, meaning that it holds onto water, reducing the formation of both ice crystals and sugar crystals. It’s effectively a stabilizer, although it’s much less powerful than dedicated stabilizers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Fructose\u00a0<\/b>is a monosaccharide, which, along with glucose (dextrose) makes up both table sugar and invert syrup. It has the same high freezing point suppression of dextrose, but is much sweeter\u2014about 25% sweeter than table sugar, 80% sweeter than dextrose. We use fructose to increase both sweetness and freezing point depression while minimally increasing solids. Fructose is even more hygroscopic than dextrose, helping to control water and reduce crystallization more than any other sugar.<\/div>\n
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Invert syrup<\/b>\u00a0is a liquid sugar. It’s made by heating sucrose syrup with a weak acid until it the glucose and fructose molecules detach from each other. It’s sweeter than sucrose, and offers stronger freezing point suppression. It’s in the pantry of every pastry chef, thanks to its powerful hygroscopic qualities. As with dextrose and fructose powders, foods made with invert syrup stay moist longer and are resistant to crystallization. Invert syrup is not as good a choice as powdered fructose, because it adds water, it’s harder to handle, and its precise composition (water content, residual sucrose content) are variable. But we include it because it’s a pantry staple for every pastry chef; fructose is not.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Dextrose, fructose (and \u00a0possibly invert syrup) can be especially helpful with flavors that require adding non-dairy fats, like cocoa butter (chocolate) and nut oils (nut butters). These fats tend to freeze harder milk fat, and give ice cream a dry, stiff, crumbly texture. Increasing the proportion of these monosaccharides can help preserve a smooth texture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Other Important Structural Sugars<\/b>
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\n<\/b>Atomized Glucose <\/strong>is useful in cases when you need maximum solids, high freezing point depression and minimum sweetness. It contains dextrose, and a whole stew of other mono-, di-, and polysaccharides, including dextrins. This gives it bulk without much sweetness. The trouble with atomized glucose is that it’s not a consistently defined product; you don’t know for sure what you’re getting or what its properties will be. The one clue manufacturers give us is the DE number (for Dextrose Equivalence). This tells us what percentage of the contents is reducing sugars (like dextrose) vs. larger saccharides (like maltodextrin). The higher the DE number, the more it will behave like dextrose powder. The lower the number, the more it will behave like maltodextrin. Lower numbers are more useful in ice cream; as a practical matter, most recipes use a mid-range number, like DE40, because this is most widely available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atomized glucose is a pantry staple for some pastry chefs, especially in Europe. It leads to some confusion, since some chefs don’t know the difference between it and dextrose, and some recipes don’t specify which to use. It also has the glycemic index (and associated health effects) of pure sugar. And its gotten expensive over the years. I avoid it except in sorbets and non-dairy ice creams, where its combination of solids and low sweetness can be ideal for creating a balanced formula.<\/p>\n

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Maltodexrin<\/b><\/p>\n

Maltodextrin is a bit like atomized glucose minus the glucose. It’s got the same glycemic health concerns as atomized glucose. It\u00a0<\/b>adds solids and bulk with minimal effect on sweetness or freezing point. It’s a bit of an anti-sugar in this sense. It can be useful in particular sorbet flavors which by their nature are low on solids, and so need something to combat their innate wateriness\u2014ones like lemon and watermelon. These flavors are built from fruit juices that are mostly water.It can also be useful in non-dairy ice creams. In ice cream, skim milk powder works better than maltodextrin. And the latter does all the bad things to your body that sugar does, without the benefit of tasting like anything. But milk solids are generally not an option in sorbets, which everyone expects to be dairy-free.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Inulin<\/strong> is technically a starch (derived from plants like chicory and Jerusalem artichokes), but we’re including it here because it offers some sugar-like behavior (some sweetness, some freezing point depression). It’s mostly used as a non-caloric fat replacer, since it has textural qualities similar to fats (this use is outside our purview; if you’re on some kind of diet, you’ve walked into the wrong room). It is, however, pure magic in sorbets, used at around 3.5% the water weight of the formula. It’s slightly exothermic, so it produces a mild warming effect when it melts in your mouth. This can counter the (usually undesirable) cooling effect of ingredients like erythritol.\u00a0Inulin is interesting to us for cases where we need high solids without a lot of sweetness or freezing point depression. Nominally it doesn’t look as good as maltodextrin for this purpose, but inulin’s textural properties allow it to behave like a much larger dose of solids. You can think of it almost as a specialty stabilizer that also adds POD and PAC. As a bonus, it doesn’t have the lousy health impact of maltodextrin, and is non-dairy\u2014which makes it an ideal choice for adding bulk and creaminess to sorbets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trehalose<\/strong> is a naturally occurring disaccharide composed of two glucose molecules stuck together. It’s much less sweet than sucrose, but has the same freezing point depression factor. Its properties are very close to those of lactose. But since the source of lactose is milk solids, it’s not useful in sorbets. Sorbets are the ideal application for trehalose, where it’s often a battle for getting the solids and freezing point correct without creating a cloying sugar-bomb. Trehalose does have a some disadvantages compared with lactose. It’s much less soluble, so we usually limit quantities to a few percent. Relatedly, it does not offer the incredible water control of lactose. It’s also an uncommon ingredient, in many cases leading us to special orders and jacked-up prices, so it’s good that we don’t need piles of it.<\/p>\n

Erythritol<\/strong> is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol that provides sweetness with virtually no caloric value. We mammals don’t have the enzymes needed to break it down. Many sugar alcohols are, however, highly digestible to our gut bacteria, which can lead to gas and bloating. Erythritol is much less problematic in this regard. It’s primary drawback is its high price. It’s also endothermic, meaning that it that pulls in heat as it dissolves, creating a cooling effect in the mouth. This is refreshing in breath mints, but not so pleasing in an already-cold dessert. This can be combated with an exothermic ingredient (like inulin) or by just limiting the amount you use. The key benefit of erythritol is its very high PAC:POD ratio, making useful for controlling freezing point and sweetness in sorbets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lactose<\/strong> is the sugar that’s already in your milk and cream. Skim milk powder is about 50% lactose by weight\u2014so you might as well just get your lactose from the SMP, which belongs in every recipe anyway. Lactose has the same freezing point depression factor as sucrose, but with sweetness that’s so low it’s barely detectable: highly useful for increasing solids and \u00a0freezing point depression independently of sweetness. Lactose is also a champion in terms of water control. Lactose can absorb roughly six times its weight in water, which gives some stabilization power, and makes it more effective than most other sources of solids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Practice<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I want my ice creams to have a\u00a0POD (relative sweetness) of 110\u2013120<\/strong> (equal to this many grams of sucrose per 1000g).<\/div>\n
And I want them to have a PAC (freezing point depression factor of 220\u2013230<\/strong> (also equal to this many grams of sucrose per 1000g).<\/div>\n
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In a formula that doesn’t include flavor ingredients that contribute sugars, water, or anything else that messes with texture, I can achieve these values with a standard blend.<\/div>\n
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Standard Sugar Blend<\/strong><\/div>\n
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(per 1000g)<\/div>\n
80g sucrose<\/strong><\/div>\n
45g dextrose<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Here’s the math:<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 POD \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 PAC<\/strong><\/div>\n
80g sucrose \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 80 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a080<\/div>\n
40g dextrose \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a029 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a076<\/div>\n
70g skim milk powder \u00a0 \u00a06 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a038<\/div>\n
Other ingredients \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a00 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 26<\/div>\n
Total<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 115 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0219<\/strong><\/div>\n
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This is right on target, in the middle of my ideal range.
\n[These guidelines differ somewhat from the formulas you’ll see elswhere in the blog series. We will eventually update those formulas to reflect this more refined approach]<\/div>\n
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How to Tweak:<\/h4>\n
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Is the sweetness ok but the consistency too hard?<\/b> Less sucrose, more dextrose. Maintain POD and increase PAC.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Is the sweetness ok but the consistency<\/b><\/span> too soft?<\/strong> Less dextrose, more sucrose. Maintain POD and decrease PAC<\/div>\n
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\n<\/span><\/span>Is the consistency ok but the sweetness too high? <\/b>Less sucrose, more dextrose. Maintain PAC and decrease POD<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Is the consistency<\/b><\/span> ok but the sweetness too low?<\/strong> Less dextrose, more sucrose. Maintain PAC and increase POD<\/div>\n
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Are the sweetness and consistency ok but the solids too low (lacking density and creaminess)?<\/strong> Increase milk solids and slightly decrease dextrose. Maintain PAC\/POD, increases solids. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Are the sweetness and consistency ok but the solids too high (too dense \/ chewy \/ gummy)? <\/strong><\/strong>decrease milk solids and slightly increase dextrose.<\/p>\n
Maintain PAC\/POD, decrease solids. \u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Are there ingredients that add fats<\/b>\u00a0which could harden the ice cream\u2014like chocolates or nut butters? Decrease cream, increase milk. Decrease sucrose, increase dextrose and fructose.\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/span>Are you adding flavor ingredients that have their own sugars?<\/b> Like fruit, chocolate, gianduja, or liqueur? Calculate (or estimate) the amount of added sugar and reduce the sucrose by the same amount.\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/span>With fruit, look up the actual composition of the fruit (it usually contains sucrose, fructose, glucose, and other sugars). You can compensate by reducing the glucose as well. We\u2019ll discuss this in detail in a future post on fruit flavors. Or, as a shortcut, use calculated POD and PAC values for each fruit, and adjust the sugars to compensate.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Finally, are there flavoring ingredients that will directly effect the freezing point\u2014namely alcohol?<\/b> If there\u2019s a lot, the ice cream may need all the help it can get to harden enough. Eliminate the glucose. Reduce the sucrose, too, if there\u2019s any room to lower the sweetness. Add a bit of nonfat dry milk to get th solids up, and increase the stabilizers. We\u2019ll discuss this in detail in a future post on booze flavors.<\/span>
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<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n
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More Sugars<\/b><\/h4>\n


\n<\/b>Honey <\/b>is a useful sugar in some ice cream flavors. It behaves mostly like invert syrup (because it IS mostly invert syrup\u2014around 75% by weight), and tastes rather strongly \u00a0… of honey. Because it adds about 20% water to the recipe, and increases body, it’s generally not a good idea to substitute honey for all the sucrose. But up to 50% works fine. It can be interesting to experiment with some of the more exotic and intense honey varieties, like buckwheat, heather, and chestnut. You’ll probably want to use these honeys in moderation. Mild honeys like clover and alfalfa are most traditional.<\/p>\n

Atomized Glucose\u00a0<\/b>is a powdered sugar blend made by dehydrating glucose syrup, which itself my be derived from corn or wheat or other grains. Its contents and qualities vary widely from one product to another. The actual sugar content is going to be a blend of dextrose, maltodextrin, and a whole lot of other dextrins that fall between these two in terms of sweetness and other qualities. The one clue manufacturers give us is the DE number (for Dextrose Equivalence). This tells us what percentage of the contents is reducing sugars (like dextrose) vs. larger saccharides like maltodextrin. The higher the DE number, the more it will behave like dextrose powder. I like to avoid atomized glucose, because 1) you never know for sure what you’re getting, and 2) maltodextrin is a kind of phantom sugar; it has virtually no sweetness, but has the glycemic index (and associated health effects) of pure sugar. It also does nothing for flavor. It’s also gotten expensive over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There ARE a few situations where atomized glucose is the best solution to a problem. In sorbets and dairy-free ice creams, it can provide the solids (and free water control) that you can’t get from milk solids. And it does it without excessive sweetness or freezing point depression. I try to use other options first, including trehalose, but often\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caramel<\/b> is useful as a flavor ingredient. A little goes a long way, which is convenient\u2014because it’s hard to know how caramel will effect the ice cream’s texture and freezing point. Caramelizing sugar is a gradual process by which some portion of the sucrose molecules break down into smaller molecules, and combine into larger, more complex, more flavorful ones. I like to use a small quantity of caramel, but to cook it to a fairly dark and flavorful degree. This way it will behave less like sugar in the recipe, and will have maximum effect on flavor.<\/p>\n

You might also experiment with using caramels browned to different degrees\u2014like a medium caramel, for more traditional toasted flavors, and a dark caramel, for the more complex and bitter burnt sugar flavors.<\/p>\n

Caramel is challenging to calculate for. Its sweetness diminishes gradually as cooks darker, and at a certain point gets overtaken by bitterness. Its freezing point depression factor increases in the early stages of cooking, as the sucrose breaks down into monosaccharides. But as cooking progresses, larger molecules form, reducing the freezing point depression. Light-to-medium caramels can probably be treated like invert syrup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Molasses<\/b> is unrefined syrup centrifuged off from sugar cane syrup after it crystalizes. It contains all kinds of stuff, including water, so it’s best to use in small quantities just for flavor. The primary sugar component is sucrose.<\/p>\n

Maple syrup<\/b> is also useful as a flavoring. Like molasses, its primary sugar is sucrose (typically 52%), and it contains water (typically 45%) plus around 3% invert syrup.. It’s not easy to know precisely how much water is in there, since syrup is boiled down to whatever level the maker desires. Fortunately, a little goes a long way. Grade B is the most flavorful. The grade signifies darkness and not quality; annoyingly, many grocers don’t know their trade and stock only the inferior Grade A. It’s worth it to find a reliable local source of the good stuff. Maple syrup is so expensive these days, you should get all the flavor you can from every ounce.<\/p>\n

There are other varieties of glucose, <\/b>including corn syrups (typically around 1\/3 glucose by weight) and various glucose syrups, identified by their DE number for dextrose equivalence<\/i>. The DE number technically refers to the percentage of reducing sugars\u2014in this case meaning either glucose or fructose. The higher the DE number of a glucose syrup, the more glucose it likely contains, and the greater the freezing point suppression. Atomized glucose is just spray-dried glucose syrup. It contains more water than anhydrous dextrose. Here’s all you need to know: Avoid using any of this stuff<\/b>\u00a0unless it’s all you can get your hands on. Pure Dextrose powder and invert syrup are more useful, and make it a lot easier to know what you’re getting. If you need a bulking ingredient, atomized glucose will do the job without adding water.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/b>Non-Caloric Sweeteners<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s not easy, but it\u2019s possible, to make decent sugar-free ice creams. The trick is finding ingredients that taste like sugar, adequately suppress the freezing point, and won\u2019t give you a bellyache.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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By these standards, the perfect ingredients do not exist\u2014although some of the sugar alcohols, like erythriol<\/a>, come pretty close. We\u2019ll discuss these in a later post (although I\u2019m no expert on the topic).<\/div>\n
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In the next post we’ll explore the dark arts of stabilizers.<\/p>\n

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Appendix 1: Invert Syrup<\/b><\/h3>\n
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How to make Invert Syrup<\/b><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

250g sucrose<\/div>\n
120g water (approx)<\/div>\n
0.25 \u2013 0.5g citric acid or cream of tartar (tartaric acid)<\/div>\n
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Mix ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.<\/div>\n
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Once the mixture boils wash away any sugar crystals stuck to the side of the pan with pastry brush dipped in water. Water from the brush won’t affect the outcome.<\/div>\n
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On medium heat without stirring boil the mixture to 235\u00b0F \/ 113\u00b0C. Remove from heat and cover the pan. Let cool at room temperature until it\u2019s reasonably safe to handle. transfer to plastic container. Store in a refrigerator. Invert sugar will last at least a few months.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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You can melt and re-cook it if starts to crystalize. Toss it if you see mold.<\/div>\n
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Most professional kitchens just buy the stuff<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So\u2014What is<\/i> Invert Syrup?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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Sucrose is a disaccharide, meaning a sugar molecule made up of two smaller monosaccharides: glucose and fructose. When we make invert syrup, we split these two monosaccharides apart, with the addition of water\u2014a reaction called hydrolysis<\/i>. Hydrolysis can occur with just the addition of water and heat, but an acid catalyst improves the efficiency of the reaction.<\/p>\n

Typically, we can split (invert) about 85% of the sucrose. Manufacturers may be able to invert more of the sugar, by using other chemical or enzymatic catalysts.<\/p>\n

When you cook your own, you control the final water content with the cooking temperature. Cooked to 113\u00b0C\u2013114\u00b0C the final syrup will contain a bit under 20% water. This is dry enough to work in ice cream without adding too much water, and gives a long life in the fridge. But it’s not unreasonably gluey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n
The stuff is great to have around. In addition to magic it works on ice cream, substituting about 10% invert syrup for sucrose in most desserts will improve moistness and add shelf life.<\/div>\n
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Why is it \u201cInverted?\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
This may be the most useless piece of knowledge in the entire blog series. But you asked.\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Chemists measure the composition of optically-active solutions with a polarimeter<\/a>, which passes plane-polarized light through the solution being measured. When the solution contains sucrose, the light rotates to the right. When the solution breaks down to glucose and fructose, the light rotates the other way, hence the inversion:\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
C12H22O11 (sucrose, Specific rotation = +66.5\u00b0) + H2O (water, no rotation) \u2192<\/span> C6H12O6 (glucose, Specific rotation = +52.7\u00b0) + C6H12O6 (fructose, Specific rotation = \u221292\u00b0) net: +66.5\u00b0 converts to \u221219.65\u00b0 (half of the sum of the specific rotation of fructose and glucose).\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n

This inversion of polarized light has no known application in the kitchen. Not even <\/span>Nathan Myhrvold<\/a> has suggested that we run out and buy a polarimeter. Just try to remember that inverting sugar does not mean turning the bag upside-down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Appendix 2: Sample Recipe<\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n

Quartet of Dark Sugars Ice Cream<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
I\u00a0wanted to create a\u00a0recipe that gets all its flavor from the sweeteners, and that explores the possible depth and range of those ingredients. It uses caramel, molasses (from the dark muscovado sugar), maple syrup, and chestnut honey. It’s about layers of flavor. Background hints of vanilla and salt take it an extra step. It’s not kid stuff\u2014it isn’t even especially sweet.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Muscovado sugar is a semi-refined brown sugar that’s heavy on molasses and has a deep, complex flavor. Chestnut honey is dark, bitter, and challenging. For the maple syrup, look for one marked “Grade B”, which is darker and more flavorful\u00a0than grade A. The grade has nothing to do with quality.<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>I’ve written this for cooking in an immersion circulator, but it adapts fine to the stovetop or other heating methods.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Makes 1 to 1.3 liters<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
55g dark muscovado sugar<\/span><\/div>\n
50g nonfat dry milk<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
3g salt\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
0.8g locust bean gum (TIC or Willpowder)<\/span><\/div>\n
0.4g guar gum<\/span><\/div>\n
0.2g lambda carrageenan<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
35g (approx) water<\/span><\/div>\n
35g granulated sugar<\/span><\/div>\n
30g (approx) water<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
460g\u00a0 whole milk<\/span><\/div>\n
2 egg yolks (36g)<\/span><\/div>\n
27g chestnut honey\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

25g maple syrup<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

270g\u00a0 heavy cream<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

10g (2 tsp) alcohol-based vanilla extract<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n
-thoroughly stir together muscovado sugar, dry milk, gums, and salt.<\/span>
\n-set immersion circulator to 75\u00b0C<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
-heat 1st portion of water and granulated sugar in a saucepan. Cook to medium-dark caramel.<\/span><\/div>\n
-turn heat low. Deglaze with second portion of water. Water will boil off and caramel will clump.<\/span><\/div>\n
-when water is mostly gone, add milk and stir to disolve caramel. Stir in the honey and maple syrup.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
-pour milk mixture into blender.<\/span><\/div>\n
-set blender speed to create a vortex; add powdered ingredients. cover and blend on high for 30 seconds to disperse the stabilizers.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

-add yolks, cream and vanilla extract.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

-briefly blend again on high speed.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
-pour mixture into 1gal ziplock bag.<\/span><\/div>\n
-add weight (recommended, to keep bag from floating) and evacuate the air.<\/span><\/div>\n
-cook in water bath for 45 minutes to set custard, hydrate stabilizers, denature milk proteins.<\/span><\/div>\n
-gently agitate bag after 5 and 15 minutes. if you see air accumulated in the bag after 15 minutes, release it, and carefully reseal bag.<\/span><\/div>\n
-mix will be pasteurized (pasteurization time after reaching this temperature is under 2 minutes).<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
-remove bag from water bath. open and pour hot mix into clean blender container (or a square container if using a homogenizer or stick blender). remove weight (with tongs). use bag to squeegie off any mix. temporarily seal bag and keep handy.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
-blend on highest speed for 30 seconds to homogenize.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
-pour mix back into ziplock bag.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
-chill bag in ice water bath (use ice bath to evacuate the air when sealing bag). carefully agitate to cool. Try to cool to refrigerator temperature.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
-refrigerate at least 4 hours, below 38\u00b0F \/ 3\u00b0C to age mix \/ pre-crystalize fat.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
******<\/span><\/div>\n
-pour into ice cream machine: snip off bottom corner of bag, and squeeze out mix as if using a pastry bag. or squeeze out into an intermediate container that\u2019s easy to pour from.<\/span><\/div>\n
-spin in the ice cream maker. With a mulitispeed machine, use a slow setting (this recipe works best with a low overrun). Ideal drawing temperature is 23\u00b0F \/ -5\u00b0C.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
-harden in a blast freezer for several hours, or overnight in a cold standard freezer (should be set to -5\u00b0F \/ -20\u00b0C or lower). Ice cream will have to warm up several degrees before serving. 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge works well. Ideal serving temperature is 6 to 10\u00b0 F \/ -14 to -12\u00b0C.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Analysis:<\/strong><\/div>\n
Total Fat: 12.1%
\nMilk Fat: 11.3%
\nTotal Solids: 37.4% (a little lower than ideal)
\nSolids Nonfat: 25.3%
\nMilk Solids Nonfat: 10.6%
\nAcidity: 0.17%
\nAlcohol: 0.3%
\nStabilizer\/Emulsifier: 0.14%
\nEgg Lecithin: 0.29%
\nPOD: 114 \/ 1000g
\nPAC: 263 \/ 1000g (a little higher than ideal)<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n

Appendix 3: FPDF,\u00a0<\/b>PAC, <\/b>Absolute PAC<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n

Problems in Quantification\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There are some confusing conventions in the ice cream world, concerning how these values are calculated for an entire formula. In the US, it’s common to quantify a formula’s freezing point depression factor withf FPDF, or freezing point depression factor. This is calculated only with the sweeteners, but ignores the significant effects of milk solids (which are about 50% lactose, plus salts). In most of Europe, they use the PAC value, which by convention takes the milk solids into account, along with the various sugars and salts (and possibly alcohol) in the flavor ingredients. PAC is an improvement.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Even PAC is imperfect, however, because it doesn’t account for the total amount of water. The values are based on a given quantity of total ingredients, which, depending on total solids, may have a little or a lot of water that needs to be controlled. PAC divided by total water gives a value I call “Absolute PAC” which corresponds more closely to the actual observed freezing point depression. Calculate water by subtracting total solids, and any alcohol, from the formula weight.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Just don’t expect anyone to know what you’re talking about when you use this term; it’s not an industry convention.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Absolute PAC, plus some fairly daunting math, can be used to estimate the final ice fraction of the ice cream at any given temperature. And ice fraction, along with the concentration of saturated fats (cocoa butter, nut butters, etc.) and the final overrun (volume increase from air) can be used to model the ice cream’s final hardness. You need a lot of data and many equations to create even a rough estimation. We’re constantly refining our own software tools to do a better job at this; unfortunately, any kind of useful hardness modeling is too arcane to dive into in a blog article.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Shameless Plug:<\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Keep an eye out for my photography book on the Brooklyn Domino Sugar Refinery<\/a>.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\"Cover<\/a><\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 [This article was substantially revised in February 2023, April 2019, and June 2019. Thanks to experience and advances in our software analytics, we’ve updated our approaches to sugars since this first went live in 2016.]   Sugars: they\u2019re sweet, and they keep the ice cream soft. If you\u2019ve had homemade ice cream with the consistency of concrete, … <\/p>\n

Read More About: Sugars in Ice Cream <\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":""},"categories":[8,4,3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/under-belly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}