Can arabic gum substitute for fat in making ice cream from homogenized 3% fat (low fat) milk

Question

Many articles suggest adding gum to ice cream batter to make it creamy , can this technique be used to add more gum to the milk to compensate for the low fat homogenized milk. Mostly recipes ask to add full cream along with milk, so if we don't want such a heavy cream ice cream can this or possibly some other technique work to compensate for the lesser fat to ensure a creamy store like ice cream?

Answer 1

I don't think I've tried this in ice cream, but a trick I picked up for sorbets (via looking at commercial product ingredient lists - often boring and full of things you can't get at home, but sometimes there's a useful nugget hiding in there) was to add pectin - the "regular" stuff, not the pink "low sugar" stuff (misleading - it's for "low sugar" canning, so it's mostly dextrose, or corn sugar - regular pectin is mostly pectin.) I'll use a tablespoon/15 ml for a 1.5 - 2 pint batch, and 3 Tablespoons/45 ml for a gallon batch (3 quarts liquid before freezing.)

Regular pectin mixes in quite nicely. The low sugar stuff is highly annoying (got a box by accident once - won't make that mistake again.)

I don't know if there's any compatibility issue with dairy (or not), I simply have never even thought to try it other than with sorbets/popsicles that are non-dairy. A quick look shows people using it to stiffen yogurt that isn't making it on it's own, so I think you'd be good there. For that matter, some lowfat/nonfat yogurt might also be a good ingredient for your lowfat ice "cream" attempts.

Answer 2

While I cannot comment on the use of arabic gum in ice cream recipes, I will share what I do to to help lower the fat in our homemade ice cream. I use a combination of Fat Free Sweetened Condensed Milk, Low Fat (2%) Evaporated Milk (you can also substitute fat free half and half or low fat milk) and unflavored gelatin as a base. Off of that base, my wife likes mocha chip (espresso powder, Kahlua and mini choc chips) and I like butter pecan. The end result is surprisingly rich and creamy and significantly lower in fat than using heavy cream and whole milk.

Based on comments, I have added the following: Both condensed milk and evaporated milk have had roughly 60% of the water removed. The final product is thick and creamy and I believe it is what helps make up for the fat, although it is just an educated guess. I have used unflavored gelatin in the past to help thicken depending on the recipe but as Ecnerwal suggested, pectin may work as well but I cannot confirm.