Shelf-stable food product

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10143207-B2
Application number	US-201213691176-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2012
Priority date	Nov 30, 2012
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

A shelf stable, confectionary food product having a core and a confectionary coating. The core is formed from dehydrated crumbs, such as dehydrated cake crumbs sweetened with sugar, and a shortening-based matrix comprising shortening and water. When the dehydrated crumbs are combined with the shortening-based matrix, the crumbs rehydrate. The food product has a shelf life at room temperature of more than one month, such as more than 3 months, or more than 6 months, or up to 9 months.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for forming a food product comprising:
combining shortening with water to form a shortening mixture, wherein the water and shortening make up at least 75% of the shortening mixture and combining the shortening and water includes: 1) heating solid or semi-solid shortening to a temperature of at least 150 ° F. prior to combining the shortening with the water; or 2) heating the shortening mixture after combining the shortening with the water;
combining dehydrated crumbs having a moisture content less than 10% and a water activity of 0.2 to 0.6 with the shortening mixture at a ratio of the dehydrated crumbs to the shortening mixture of 1.5:1 to 0.75:1 to form a crumb mixture;
forming the crumb mixture into a plurality of cores, each of the plurality of cores being capable of maintaining a shape; and
coating each of the plurality of cores with a confectionary coating to form a respective shell over each of the plurality of cores, wherein, after coating, the crumb mixture of each of the plurality of coated cores has a water activity of 0.5 to 0.8.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dehydrated crumbs are cake crumbs, cookie crumbs, brownie crumbs or muffin crumbs.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein, prior to coating, each of the plurality of cores has a mass of 10 to 20 grams.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein, after coating, the crumb mixture of each of the plurality of coated cores has a water activity of 0.6 to 0.7.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein, prior to combining the dehydrated crumbs with the shortening mixture, the dehydrated crumbs have a water activity of 0.3 to 0.4.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein, 24 or more hours after coating, the dehydrated crumbs have a water activity of 0.5 to 0.8.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein, 24 or more hours after coating, the dehydrated crumbs have a water activity of 0.6 to 0.7.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective shell of each of the plurality of coated cores is less than or equal to 5 millimeters thick.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective shell of each of the plurality of coated cores is less than or equal to 50% of the coated core by weight.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: packaging the plurality of coated cores, wherein, after packaging, the crumb mixture of each of the plurality of coated cores has a water activity of 0.5 to 0.8.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the crumb mixture, prior to forming into the plurality of cores, has a density of 0.78 to 1.31 g/cc.

Assignees

• Arora Akshay
• Conley Jill
• Waite Danielle
• Enz Jeffrey F
• Gen Mills Inc

Inventors

• Arora Akshay
• Conley Jill
• Waite Danielle
• Enz Jeffrey F

Classifications

• A21D13/13

  with coatings · CPC title

• A21D13/24

  coated after baking · CPC title

• A21D13/38 Primary

  characterised by the filling composition · CPC title