The Ice Cream: The Phantom Taster

[kerravonsen]

Here be the weekend, and here be more ice cream!

Regarding Experiment #51, it was rather interesting eating the second half of it (the bit that was put in the freezer overnight) - it was still very gummy. I finally told myself that it was like a frozen strawberry marshmallow; from that point of view, it was yummy.


Experiment #52: Low-Fat Strawberry Ice Cream
Recipe:
* 1 punnet (250g) fresh strawberries
* 8 T Xylitol
* 1/2 t vanilla bean powder
* 100 ml skim milk powder

Chop the strawberries. Microwave on high for 2 minutes.
Add Xylitol. Puree.
Mix in the other ingredients.
Put in the refrigerator to cool.
Process in ice-cream machine.

Whys: I wanted to try the stewing idea again, but with fewer and simpler ingredients.
I added the Xylitol to the strawberries before pureeing them because Xylitol cools things down when it dissolves, so I thought it might cool down the strawberries a teeny bit faster.

Result: Creamy soft-serve texture (but it didn't stick to the sides this time, which is good). The volume was low because I hadn't added any water to the mixture. The taste was mildly strawberry with an odd sort of aftertaste; perhaps it was the Xylitol?

Verdict: Nice texture, not so good in taste.

Lessons: (a) Cooking the strawberries is still a good idea. (b) Try a mix of Xylitol, Erythritol and Splenda next time. (c) More strawberries, less milk.

Comments

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

Interesting info about the xylitol cooling things down. Thanks for that.

Have you tried using Stevia at all?

[kerravonsen]

Interesting info about the xylitol cooling things down.

Xylitol has an endothermic heat of solution; that is, it requires heat in order to dissolve, so it cools things down by a degree or two when it dissolves in them. So does Erythritol.

Have you tried using Stevia at all?

Not in my ice-cream making, no, though I have used it in my coffee. 8-)

The reason I'm using Xylitol and Erythritol in my ice-cream making is because of chemistry, not taste. What most people don't realize is that sugar (sucrose) has two roles in ice-cream making, and only one of them is sweetening. The other role is lower the freezing-temperature of the mixture. Other things that lower the freezing-temperature in classic ice-creams and sorbets are fat (in the cream) and alcohol. Of the three, alcohol affects the mixture the most, hence most recipes with alcohol only have a few tablespoons, while with sugar it tends to be a cup or more of sugar (which is why they tend to have a cup of sugar and then add lemon juice to cut the sweetness). Xylitol and Erythritol are in the class of molecules known as "sugar alcohols" and they also have an effect on the freezing temperature of the mixture. They have a stronger effect than sugar does, so I don't need to add as much of them as I would if I were using sugar.

Splenda (sucralose + maltodextrin) and Stevia, on the other hand, have no effect on the freezing temperature of the mixture, so when I use them, I use them purely for their sweetness. The reason I'm considering using Splenda next time is to try to improve the flavour, since the flavour was odd this time, and I'm hoping that the Splenda will be able to mask the flavour of the Xylitol. Xylitol has a sort of menthol-y aftertaste, which is fine in small quantities but seemingly not so good when in larger quantities as used in my ice-cream.
In my experience, Stevia has a slight bitter aftertaste - only a slight one, it's a lot better than Saccharine in that regard - but Splenda has no aftertaste at all, so I like it better.

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

This is absolutely fascinating and very useful information, thank you.

I'm still experimenting on and off with making my own ice-cream, but due to my own health requirements I usually use a home-made soy-custard; that is, it uses soy milk, soy cream, and no eggs or dairy.

While this has had varying degrees of success, depending on which recipe I almost adhere to, I've had problems with the freezing temperature of the mixture actually being too low. I recall the last time we chatted about this you suggested one of the ingredients in the store-bought soy custard may have been lowering the temperature too quickly (I can't recall which ingredient off-hand), hence the move to home-made soy custards.

This was an improvement, but still had a tendency to freeze so quickly that the mixture stuck to the sides of the bowl and jammed the blade in place. I got round that by taking the bowl out of the freezer and letting it sit for about 15-20 mins before churning the mix, but also found that I had to let the soy custard sit in the fridge for a full 24 hours for it to be cool enough for the ice-cream maker.

So I'm wondering if Stevia might be an option for my ice-cream to actually prevent the freezing-temperature (would it be correct to say freezing point there, or am I muddling my vaguely-recalled science?) from lowering too far for the soy mixture. I'd actually like my soy-ice cream to be low in carbs as well. Not that I'm picky or anything :-D

Technically of course, I'm not supposed to be using the Stevia at all, as it's still illegal in this country to use in foodstuffs *rolls eyes*

[kerravonsen]

but still had a tendency to freeze so quickly that the mixture stuck to the sides of the bowl and jammed the blade in place.

This is a sign that the freezing temperature of the mixture is too high, not too low. You need to lower it, so that it doesn't freeze so quickly. If you can get hold of some Xylitol or Erythritol you could use them. Xylitol would probably be easier for you to find, considering that according to Wikipedia "the largest manufacturer globally is the Danish company Danisco" which ought to make it easy to get hold of in Europe.

Technically of course, I'm not supposed to be using the Stevia at all, as it's still illegal in this country to use in foodstuffs *rolls eyes*
Seriously? That's nuts!

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

the mixture is too high, not too low. You need to lower it, so that it doesn't freeze so quickly

Aha! Thank you. I think I can get Xylitol here, but I've not managed to find Erythritol anywhere yet, although it's possible it's being sold under some kind of pseudonym.

Seriously? That's nuts!
Yeah. General consensus seems to be it was a scam to protect the interests of the massive European sugar industry. The last review was nearly 10 years ago though, and it looks as though the equivalent of the FDA may be about to approve Stevia for food consumption in the next review - because Coca Cola wants to market a product with Stevia in it... I'm guessing that means Coke packs more financial punch than Sugar.

I did manage to get some in the end though. There are some companies that are willing to sell it to you online. As far as they're concerned they're just selling a product. What you do with it once you get it is entirely up to you ;-D

[kerravonsen]

I've not managed to find Erythritol anywhere yet, although it's possible it's being sold under some kind of pseudonym.
Very likely so. The Erythritol I use is sold by the company "Nature's Goodness" under the name of "No-Cal" and it's not until you read the INGREDIENTS on the back that it says "100% Erythritol". But I think it's worth trying to find it because it has some advantages over Xylitol. First, too much Xylitol can have a laxative effect. Second, it isn't as sweet as either Xylitol or sugar, which means that you can have more control over the flavour of your ice-cream. Third, it has much fewer calories than Xylitol does.

Stevia in icecream making is what makes it hard

[(Anonymous)]

I've read that Stevia will make the ice cream hard as a rock and so need to add it at the end when the ice cream is nearly done. Which means it will probably not be blended in thoroughly throuout the mixture. I want to experiment with Erythritol or xylitol. Have any of you done this since this thread was started? If so what was your result? It sounds like, from this thread, that you may be able to cut down on the amount of these two in comparison to table sugar.

Re: Stevia in icecream making is what makes it hard

[kerravonsen]

I've read that Stevia will make the ice cream hard as a rock and so need to add it at the end when the ice cream is nearly done.

I don't think Stevia makes things worse, it's just that it doesn't contribute to making the ice-cream softer. I suspect that the people who warned against Stevia were expecting that Stevia ought to behave like sugar and were burned by that, because they didn't know that sugar contributes more to ice-cream making than just sweetness.

The two main things that contribute to making ice-cream more "scoopable" (that is, not so rock-hard after you've had it in the freezer for a while) are fat and gums (gums are things like gelatine, Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum etc). Sugar contributes too, because it helps make it softer, but fat and gums help preserve the fluffiness. Obviously with low-fat icecream one wishes to avoid the fat, but one doesn't want to put too much gum in, because it can make the ice-cream rather rubbery in texture if there is too much. Also, I think dairy solids contribute a bit too, because I've noticed that my low-fat ice-creams tend to be creamier than my sorbets.

Have any of you done this since this thread was started?

I haven't been making any ice-cream recently, because it's winter here, but take a look at the other posts with the tag food:ice cream experiments, which I posted since this thread was started.

It sounds like, from this thread, that you may be able to cut down on the amount of these two in comparison to table sugar.

Correct; in comparison to table sugar, one doesn't need as much Xylitol or Erythritol to get the same effect on the freezing temperature. But I'm afraid I haven't done a recipe-for-recipe comparison. It's probably easier to compare sorbet with sorbet, because normal ice-cream gets its temperature-alteration from both sugar and fat, while sorbet has no fat, and thus gets its temperature-alteration purely from sugar.

Okay, here's this BBC mango sorbet recipe and my mango sorbet recipe. Note that my recipe uses 8 tablespoons of sugar-alcohols, and the BBC recipe uses 250g of sugar. According to this conversion chart, that's 115g versus 250g: a bit less than half. That meant that I didn't need to add lemon juice to cut the sweetness.