The Best Sweetener To Use For Craveable Vegan Ice Cream

If you want to avoid dairy but not ice cream, there are many vegan-friendly ice cream brands to choose from. But if you want to skip the store-bought ice cream to make your own from scratch, the dairy component is not the only ingredient you have to consider. Sweeteners, including some types of plain white sugar, are processed with animal byproducts so you must be careful. Luckily for your sweet tooth, there are some simple sweeteners that are suitable for vegans according to Tyler Malek, head ice cream maker and co-founder of Salt & Straw, that's highlighting vegan flavors with its January flavor menu.

"A combo of organic cane sugar and corn syrup is the best," he says. "Organic cane sugar is never processed with bone char, meaning you don't need to worry about that contaminant." Yes, you read that correctly: Some sugars are processed with bone char to achieve that bright-white color that you're used to. Technically, the bones should be removed from the final product, but it's still an important consideration for those who lead a strictly vegan diet. Organic cane sugar skips this ingredient in the refining process which is why the color isn't quite as bright, but it's still sweet for your ice cream-making needs.

Organic cane sugar is a good option per Tyler Malek's advice, but it's not the only vegan option you can use for your homemade ice cream. Turbinado sugar, like this sugar from Iberia available on Amazon, is also considered vegan if you can't find organic cane sugar at the local grocery store. Then there are the other sweeteners that aren't quite sugar but will introduce sweetness to the mixture including agave, honey (not exactly vegan since it comes from bees), stevia, and maple syrup. Just be mindful of what else goes into your ice cream because ingredients like coconut milk and chocolate will also add varying levels of sweetness.

To try these vegan-suitable sweeteners in your ice cream, consider this chocolate-banana vegan ice cream recipe that uses maple syrup in place of regular sugar. And if that doesn't appeal to your craving, try our golden milk vegan ice cream that achieves the sweet factor with honey. And if you just prefer to get your vegan ice cream out, some of Salt & Straw's flavors this month include Coconut Cake and Pineapple Jam, Bananas Foster with Candied Pecans, and Death by Chocolate Cake.