Sugar and Dairy Free Ice Cream Options
If you have dietary restrictions, you might feel sad or frustrated when you pass an ice cream shop. When your friends clamor to go inside, you hesitate, because you know that what for them is a tasty treat on a hot day, for you is a potential disaster. A hasty trip to the bathroom if you’re lactose intolerant. A major health risk if you have diabetes.
What can you do?
Are there any dairy-free and sugar-free ice cream options available?
Here at Lapp Valley Farm, we’re ice cream experts, and we want everyone to be able to experience a treat. That’s why we’ve written this blog, going into detail about various dairy and sugar-free ice cream options.
Let’s get started!
TL;DR - Sugar and Dairy Free Ice Cream Options
Why it matters: People with lactose intolerance, diabetes, or dietary preferences can still enjoy frozen treats thanks to dairy-free and sugar-free options.
Benefits: Dairy-free ice cream is suitable for vegans and those with lactose intolerance, while sugar-free ice cream helps manage weight and blood sugar—all without sacrificing flavor.
How it’s made: Non-dairy milks (like coconut, almond, oat, or cashew) and sugar substitutes (like stevia or erythritol) make creamy alternatives possible, though flavors and textures differ slightly from traditional ice cream.
Other options: Sorbet, smoothies, fruit popsicles, iced coffee, and some boba teas offer refreshing dairy- and/or sugar-free alternatives.
Keep reading to learn more about ice cream alternatives!
The Advantages of Sugar-Free and Dairy-Free Ice Cream Options
There’s no question why people enjoy eating ice cream. On a hot day, there truly is nothing like a smooth, creamy, sweet treat.
That’s why, whether you’re following a vegan diet, trying to lose weight, or suffer from allergies or food sensitivities, you know that low-sugar, sugar-free, and dairy-free ice cream options are a must.
Advantages of Sugar-Free Ice Cream:
- Helps people manage their weight and other sugar-related health outcomes (for more on health, read our blog about eating ice cream guilt-free)
- Helps individuals with diabetes manage blood glucose levels
- Promotes fewer empty calories
- Still tastes delicious with a variety of natural sweeteners, such as stevia, monk fruit, or erythritol.
Advantages of Dairy-Free Ice Cream:
- Lactose-intolerance-friendly
- Fits into a vegan lifestyle
- Dairy alternatives, such as almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk, or cashew milk, bring unique flavors and textures
- Potentially lower in saturated fat, depending on what dairy alternative is used
But the main advantage of dairy or sugar-free ice cream is simple: it allows you to enjoy a sweet, cold treat, no matter what your health limitations are!
How Dairy-Free Ice Cream is Made
When you were a child, did you ever watch, fascinated, as someone made homemade ice cream by putting ice and salt into a hand-crank ice cream maker, adding a sweet milky liquid to the metal chamber in the middle, and then cranking the contraption until delicious ice cream was formed?
In our earlier blog post about the history of ice cream, we explained that, while frozen treats have been around since ancient history, true ice cream was not possible until the endothermic process was discovered. Adding salt to the ice makes it melt, but also makes it colder, allowing it to freeze the milky liquid. Cranking the mixture as it freezes makes the ice cream smooth instead of an icy chunk.
However, there’s quite a bit of chemistry involved in the ice cream mixture itself that makes it smooth and creamy. Both the lactose in the milk and the added sugar contribute to making ice creams have a pleasant texture.
Because of this, making dairy-free ice cream is not as straightforward as it may seem. Although you can substitute cream with a non-dairy alternative such as coconut cream, almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk, or soy milk, you may have to add emulsifiers and stabilizers such as guar gum, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, and soy lecithin.
Thankfully, when it comes to sugar substitutes, the process is more straightforward. Sugar lowers the freezing point of the mixture, which helps keep the cream soft, but sugar alternatives like erythritol and xylitol do the same thing.
Food technology has come a long way in the past few years, and grocery stores usually have delicious dairy-free and sugar-free ice cream options that are just as soft and smooth as their counterparts made with traditional ingredients! However, smaller ice cream operations that don’t have food scientists on staff have a more difficult time making good dairy-free ice cream.
How Dairy-Free Ice Cream Compares to Traditional Ice Cream
While makers of dairy-free ice cream try very hard to emulate the rich creaminess of traditional ice cream, it’s never going to be exactly the same. That’s the case, unfortunately, for every “food alternative.” There’s a reason that people who can tolerate dairy almost always choose to eat the dairy option.
On the other hand, ice cream is one food where the alternative is still very good and, in some cases, the alternative ingredients are almost unnoticeable.
Furthermore, while dairy alternatives like cashew milk, almond milk, and coconut cream affect the taste of the final product, you may be a person who loves the taste of nuts and coconut.
In other words, different doesn’t have to mean worse!
Think of it like eating frozen yogurt, sherbet, or a fruit smoothie. If you expect it to taste exactly like milk-based ice cream, you’ll probably be disappointed. But if you accept that it will be slightly different, you’ll discover that it’s delicious, and you may even prefer it to ice cream in the end!
Sugar-Free Ice Cream Options
Making sugar-free ice cream is a more straightforward process than making dairy-free options. Since most sugar alternatives have about the same effect on the chemistry of the ice cream as sugar does, making sugar-free ice cream is a simple matter of swapping out sugar for a sugar alternative.
However, since milk contains lactose, a naturally occurring sugar, and since lactose is crucial for getting the texture of ice cream right, most ice creams that use a sugar substitute instead of adding sugar will be labeled “no sugar added” ice cream rather than “sugar-free” ice cream. Depending on how sensitive you are to sugar, make sure to check the ingredient label to make sure it’s something you can tolerate.
Also, as with all sugar-free products, sugar substitutes can have an odd taste that some people find distasteful.
Other Popular Ice Cream Alternatives
If you’re craving a cold, sweet treat on a hot day but are unable to have dairy or sugar, you have more options than just dairy-free and sugar-free ice cream. For example, you might try:
- Fruit popsicles, which are typically dairy-free with no added sugar
- Sorbet, which is usually dairy-free, with options for no added sugar
- Smoothies, which can be easily made without dairy or added sugar
- Iced Coffee, which is fully customizable with dairy and sugar alternatives
- Boba Tea—boba pearls are made with sugar, so you’ll have to skip them if you want sugar-free. Most milk tea is made from lactose-free milk, but check with your server to make sure.
These items might be easier ways to treat yourself on a hot day if you have food sensitivities that make ice cream difficult. Just remember to check the ingredient labels or ask your server for ingredient specifications.
Bonus: Speaking of coffee, have you ever wondered if coffee ice cream has caffeine in it? Find out on our blog about coffee ice cream!
Ice Cream Options at Lapp Valley Farm
At Lapp Valley Farm, we have a farm-to-table ice cream shop featuring creamy, delicious ice cream made with the cream from the Jersey cows on our farm.
We currently offer seventeen flavors of ice cream:
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- Vanilla
- Strawberry
- Raspberry
- Coconut
- Black Cherry
- Chocolate
- Chocolate Marshmallow
- Chocolate Almond
- Chocolate Chip Mint
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Cookies n’ Cream
- Peanut Butter Twirl
- Coffee
- Butter Brickle
- Butter Pecan
- Maple Walnut
- Sugar-Free Raspberry
As you can see, due to our status as a dairy farm and the complex chemistry that goes into making great dairy-free ice cream, we don’t currently offer any dairy-free ice cream products. However, we offer milk alternatives for all the drinks in our attached coffee shop, so if you’re lactose intolerant, grab an iced coffee with oat milk!
We also offer sugar-free coffee drinks, as well as one sugar-free ice cream option—our delectable sugar-free raspberry ice cream.
If you’re looking for a delicious cold treat from a local dairy, stop in and see us! We’re located at 4040 Old Philadelphia Pike in Gordonville, PA.
We look forward to serving you happiness in a cone!