Something most people have never thought about - sculpting with ice cream. From mobile phones to windmills and the pyramids of Egypt, you can sculpt some amazing things.

This is something that many people want to learn to do. There are various ways of making ice cream without using sugar but the main one I favor is to replace the sugar with honey or maple syrup.

If you do this, however, you need to be aware of two things:

1. You may need to redress the balance of solids within the recipe because honey and especially maple syrup have a much lower 'solids' content than sugar. Using heavy cream instead of light cream in the recipe is one way of redressing this balance.

2. Your ice cream may be harder than usual in texture - sugar actually lowers the freezing point of the ice cream mixture, thus producing a softer texture.

There are two alternative methods ....


The first is to use a sweet fruit juice (such as grape or apple), boiled and reduced down to a syrup (and again opt for heavy cream in the recipe).

The second is to use artificial sweeteners. If you want to find how to make ice cream using artificial sweeteners, just do a Google Search and you will find plenty of recipes.

If you are happy to consider a little brown sugar in your ice cream, then here is my recipe for Crunchy Pecan Nut & Maple Syrup ice cream which calls for just 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.

It might help to read more about ice cream sweeteners and the role that sugar plays as a key ingredient.

NOTE: I do not have any recipes for diabetic ice cream. However, there are plenty of commercial ice cream makers who produce tasty varieties.