Ice Cream without sugar (or sugar alternates)! Possible?

(Todd Allen) #21

Here’s my dirty secret that may get me kicked out of the keto club. I fairly recently bought a kilo of refined sugar and have been using a teaspoon each morning at breakfast. But it isn’t sucrose. It is trehalose with two glucoses instead of the glucose+fructose in regular sugar. And that seems to make it a tremendously different thing. It’s less sweet but it creates a lower freezing point making it better for smooth creamy ice cream. But of more interest to me it appears to be the miraculous wonder cure for most of the diseases of aging: type 2 diabetes, alzheimer’s, heart disease, etc., at least in tests on mice and human cell cultures. Curiously it has hardly been tested in people, though there is one trial in people that showed a modest benefit for cardiovascular disease that I’ve linked to below.

Here’s a great review article on trehalose:

Here’s a test in humans suggesting possible benefit for prevention of cardiovascular disease.

One possible downside is it has been shown to feed gut bacteria and in people on antibiotics it can lead to overgrowth of bad antibiotic resistant bacteria such as c. diff.

(Paul Melzer) #22

Fascinating, indeed. Might have to try it for ice cream.

(Paul Melzer) #23

I read that it is used in some ice creams, but for the life of me I can’t find a brand out there. Anyone know about one available commercially?

(Paul Melzer) #24

Sure hope that others chime in on the merits [and downsides?] of this sweetener, trehalose. I’m ordering some, despite the fact that I have for the most part lost a craving for sweets. I still want to make a lightly sweetened ice cream.

(Todd Allen) #25

Yesterday I made a frozen custard ice cream using trehalose. Here’s what I did:

creamed 1 cup cacao, 1 cup trehalose, 1/2 tsp salt into 12 egg yolks
warmed 1 quart HWC and 1 quart whole milk yogurt in a double boiler
slowly added/mixed warmed dairy into cacao paste, returned to double boiler and cooked gently with stirring until moderately thickened
transferred to ice cream maker cannister, cooled in cold water bath, chilled in refrigerator
put in ice cream maker (ice cube and rock salt type) for 45 minutes

The result had excellent texture. Flavor is mildly bitter from the cacao, slightly sour from the yogurt. Perhaps a shock to those expecting ice cream to be sweet. I find it satisfying and easy to eat in small portions. Had 1/2 cup of it with a 1/4 cup of raspberries for breakfast. Blood sugar went up from 85 mg/dl before to 100 mg/dl after…

I’m speculating this could be a good way to reap the potential benefits of trehalose. Many compounds bypass digestion to reach the blood stream more effectively in liposomal formulations which are basically highly emulsified in fat. And egg yolk is a great emulsifier and I suspect a custard is essentially an emulsion of the flavorings and sugar into the fat of the cream.

(Brandy) #26

This is my go to recipe. I rarely crave sweet anymore but every once in a while…

I use this this as the base and rarely put in berries. I cut the Swerve by half and I add in flavors that I’m in the mood for. Instant espresso, cardamom, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, whatever I want to taste. The vodka and gum are listed as optional, but I use them without fail, as the texture of the ice cream hinges on their use.

(Ethan) #27

This is my new go to https://rebelcreamery.com/

(Janet) #28

As others do, I put frozen berries in a food processor., add heavy cream and whiz until it is a thick frozen custard consistency. I use to add a spash of the DaVinci syrup in a berry flavor, but really not necessary.