The behavior of sugar in artisanal ice cream

Sugar plays a very important role in artisanal ice cream, not only because of the sweetness it provides, but also because of its functions in its preparation. Among which we find the control in the freezing temperature , the regulation of the texture and others that I will work on in the course of this blog.

Before we begin, we must make certain concepts clear:

• Solution: Ice cream is a solution composed of a solvent, water, and some solutes. This solution is composed of three solutions: True Solution, Colloidal Solution and Emulsion.
• POD: Sweetening power
• PAC: Resistance to cold that the solution will have

What is sugar?

Sugar is a small crystalline substance that dissolves easily in water and has a sweetening or high sweetness power. We find it mainly in the Plant World in plants such as sugar cane and beets, although we can also find it in the Animal World in elements such as honey and lactose.

Being a solvent with a low molecular mass, it has a high capacity to bind and transform the characteristics of the main molecule of each ice cream: water. A key factor in the true solution.

types of sugars

I refer to these in the plural because there is not only one type of sugar that can be used in the solution, for this reason it is important to know the sweetening and antifreeze powers of each one of them, so we will use them properly and have complete control. on the level of sweetness and texture of the ice cream.

As I mentioned before, we can take different types of sugars from the Animal and Vegetable World, but here is a more detailed list of them:

• Milk
• Honey
• Corn: Dextrose (Glucose)
• Fruit: Different types of sugar, sucrose, fructose and glucose
• Flowers: Honeys of different types
• Plants: Agave Type

POD and PAC levels in sugars for artisan ice cream

Each type of sugar handles different levels of POD and PAC and to implement them correctly in the formulas when creating artisan ice cream we must know them perfectly.

SugarsPODPACSucrose 100100 Dextrose 70175 Fructose 173179 Honey 105156

Table 1. POD and PAC levels in sugars

Saccharose

This type of sugar is not usually implemented only in the preparation of artisan ice cream, since being hard directly affects the texture of the ice cream, it also usually has the disadvantage of crystallizing at low temperatures. Normally it is combined with a type of sugar that contains greater antifreeze properties.

Dextrose

Dextrose is a very fine sugar that dissolves very easily in the solvent, as you could see in the table that I presented previously, its PAC is at 175 and it has a low sweetening power (70), something very useful if you works a niche that likes artisan ice cream with low sweetness.

Fructose

This is the sugar that is extracted from fruits, it has a POD level of 173 and a PAC of 179, it is usually used mainly in healthy ice creams.

Honey

Honey is a type of sugar, as we well know, created by bees, it has a high antifreeze power and is usually used when we want to give this specific flavor to artisan ice creams and in the preparation of healthy ice creams.

The antifreeze power of sugar

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The resistance to cold that sugar creates in ice cream is one of the most important factors in ice cream making, if not the most important. Under normal conditions, water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius, but when it enters a solution with the sugars, the water will no longer freeze at that temperature and the solution will have its own cryoscopic point (decrease in the temperature of the freezing point) depending on the amount and the quality of dissolved sugars.

In fact, the true solution is the one that will not freeze and will make the ice cream spreadable.

The True Solution

It is the solution that makes up the solvent, that is, water, with a part of the solutes: sugars, alcohol, salt or polyols. It is through this solution that the rise in POD and PAC is generated, it provides solids that, when entering solution, sequester part of the water, directly determining the quality of the solution.

Knowing first-hand each of the antifreeze and sweetener levels of sugars will allow us to perfectly manage the texture of artisan ice creams and their serving temperature.

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