초록 ▼

Disclosed are food compositions and methods for preparing sugary coated puffed snack products upon simple heating of the food compositions in a consumer microwave oven. The food compositions comprise a plurality of puffable farinaceous dough puff pieces or pellets and a puffing media throughout whic

Disclosed are food compositions and methods for preparing sugary coated puffed snack products upon simple heating of the food compositions in a consumer microwave oven. The food compositions comprise a plurality of puffable farinaceous dough puff pieces or pellets and a puffing media throughout which the puff pieces or pellets are dispersed. The puffing media comprises from about 40% to 95% by weight of a nutritive carbohydrate sweetening agent and from about 5% to 10% moisture. The weight ratio of puffing media to puff pieces ranges between about 4:1 to 0.1:1. The water activity of the food compositions is less than about 0.75. The method for making a coated snack comprises forming a gelatinized dough, shaping the dough into pieces, partially drying the pieces, dispersing the pieces throughout a puffing media to form a puffing media/piece matrix, and microwave heating the matrix to simultaneously puff the pieces and to enrobe the pieces with the fluidized puffing media.

대표청구항 ▼

A process for preparing a sugary coated snack product by microwave heating, comprising the steps of: A. forming a gelatinized starch-containing dough having a moisture content of about 12% to 25% by weight; B. shaping the dough into a plurality of discrete pieces; C. partially drying said pieces at

A process for preparing a sugary coated snack product by microwave heating, comprising the steps of: A. forming a gelatinized starch-containing dough having a moisture content of about 12% to 25% by weight; B. shaping the dough into a plurality of discrete pieces; C. partially drying said pieces at a temperature of about 70°F. to 200°F. and at a relative humidity of at least 35% for a period of time sufficient to reduce the moisture content of the pieces to between about 5% to 15%; D. dispersing the partially dried pieces throughout a puffing medium consisting essentially of, from about 40% to 95% by weight of the puffing medium, a nutritive carbohydrate sweetening agent and from about 5% to 10% by weight moisture, wherein the puffing medium is substantially free of protein sources and wherein the weight ratio of puffing medium to the pieces is about 0.1:1 to 4:1, to form a puffing medium/piece matrix; thereafter E. microwave heating the matrix for about 1-4 minutes to form a plurality of puffed pieces enrobed in a sugar coating; and, F. cooling to room temperature to harden the sugar coating on the puffed pieces.