Does glucose used is added to sugar quantity in recipes like ice creams?

Question

I was successful making a new ice cream recipe from Pierre Herme:

• 100g Milk
• 135g Cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 45g sugar
• 15g glucose

I replaced the glucose by honey. After churning the ice cream, it was smooth and creamy, but it was too sweet. And who doesn't know Pierre Herme, he is one of the best pastry chef in the world. And his desserts are well balanced in terms of sugar quantities.

Is it because I replaced glucose by honey which added the extra sweetness?

I know glucose will help the ice cream to be smooth but does it add sweetness too? I think honey contains fructose and glucose. Glucose is a glucose, so the extra fructose in honey was the reason I guess?

The overall result:

Smooth ice cream but it melt as fast as it get out of the fridge because of the extra sugar in it.

Answer 1

Here is a quick answer:

Fructose:

• Sweetness of Fructose depends on temperature:

  • at lower temperatures (i.e. ice-cream) is sweeter.
  • at higher temperatures (i.e. hot coffee or tee) is less sweet

• Fructose is always sweeter than glucose

• Amount of calories doesn't change: cal of 1g of fructose equals cal of 1g of glucose

Here's a table:

   SUGAR    |    RELATIVE SWEETNESS
 -----------------------------------
 lactose    |              40
 maltose    |              50
 glucose    |              70
 sucrose    |             100
 fructose   |           120-170

As you can see, sweetness of fructose covers a range of values.

Honey:

• Contains roughly as much fructose as glucose:
  • fructose: 38%
  • glucose: 31%
  • other sugars: 10%
  • water: 17%

Composition varies from honey to honey

Fructose and Ice Cream:

Fructose sweetness is perceved faster than sucrose and it also vanishes faster leaving room for ice cream flavors like fruit, cream etc., whereas sweetness persistance of sucrose can mask them.

Conclusions:

"Is it because I replaced glucose by honey which added the extra sweetness?"

Yes.

Answer 2

You can substitute sugar straight over for glucose but you need to increase the wet ingredients or decrease the dry ingredients as glucose absorbs more liquids than regular sugar. Take a look at this article and this one! But mixing sugar and glucose is done in baking for the texture!

In pretty much every other regard when it comes to cooking/baking, glucose acts exactly like regular sugar BUT it is not a direct substitute for sugar and works best in baked goods when combined with other sugars. But it adds texture.

I remember I did mochi last week, filled with chocolate, green tea and anko paste. To do the anko paste (which i ended up throwing to the bin due to the honey) I needed glucose for the exact same thing: texture. I did not find glucose anywhere so I used regular honey, the same quantity as glucose, and it quite ruined the anko paste. That is because honey is not glucose. Honey also has fructose and depending on the honey, in different quantities. I would use 2/3 or even 1/3 honey if you substitute it.

In the end, I find baking and cooking quite like chemistry. If you do not measure this kind of things well, it is obvious the result is not gonna work!

Answer 3

The reason your ice-cream was sweeter is simply that honey is sweeter than straight up glucose. Ref. BBC Good Food

This is because fructose is sweeter than the same quantity of glucous. Ref. from healthline

BBC has a good guide to swapping sugar for healthier substitutes (I assume this is your aim!) Link but nothing about ice-cream. I would recommend experimenting a little bit, ice cream tends to be fairly forgiving when substituting.