WO2000042858A1

WO2000042858A1 - Method of preparing a powder mixture

Info

Publication number: WO2000042858A1
Application number: PCT/US2000/001060
Authority: WO
Inventors: Claudine Lamblin; René LE FLECHER
Original assignee: Bestfoods
Priority date: 1999-01-21
Filing date: 2000-01-18
Publication date: 2000-07-27
Also published as: FR2788665A1; EP1143801A4; FR2788665B1; CA2359626A1; EP1143801A1; PL349035A1

Abstract

The cake mixture is prepared by pouring a liquid. The powder mixture comprises a base powder and a fat with a low melting point. This fat is introduced cold, into a mixing tank (1) in which it is transformed into pieces which are mixed with the base powder, still cold. The method is carried out with the aid of an extruder (2) provided with an extrusion grid (9), the apertures of which are determined in order to reduce the heating of the fat through the grid (9).

Description

METHOD OF PREPARING A POWDER MIXTURE

The invention relates first of all to a method of preparing a powder mixture

for preparing a cake mixture and making a cake, for example a chocolate cake

or fruit cake.

Mixtures are known which are composed of a base powder which, for

example, may comprise flour, sugar, raising agent (bicarbonate[s] and

transformation acid[s]) and aromatic ingredients. In order to prepare the cake

mixture the baker has to add to the powder a liquid (water or eggs for example)

as well as a fat, before mixing it all, putting it into a tin and into the oven.

A recipe of this kind is not, however, always practical.

Mixtures are also known which are called complete, i.e. comprising the

base powder, egg powder and a fat. But in these mixtures, the fat content has

a very high melting point, for instance of the order of 50°C. In fact, with a fat

having a low melting point, i.e. melting on the tongue, the mixture would lose its

pulverulent quality and become pasty, with the result that starch grains of the

flour would be coated with paste, preventing their hydration when liquid is poured

onto them, and thus would be baked in the oven without being hydrated, which

would prevent them rising and would make the cake unintentionally sandy.

However, with such mixtures containing fat with a high melting point, the

cakes which are obtained do not have a very satisfactory taste; they leave on the

tongue, to use the expression of the person skilled in the art, a "filming" taste. The applicant thus set itself the problem of preparing a mixture, for the

preparation of a cake mixture, including a fat with a low melting point, but which

would not make the mixture pasty and which would keep it pulverulent

It is in these conditions that the invention is proposed which is a method

of preparing a powder mixture for preparing a cake mixture by pouring on a

liquid, the mixture comprising a base powder and a fat with a low melting point,

characterised by the fact that

the fat is introduced into the base powder cold,

the fat is transformed into pieces and

the pieces of fat are mixed into the base powder cold.

Thanks to the invention, the fat is preserved in the mixture in a solid state,

without being closely connected to the grains of the base powder. These grains

are not coated; it is rather they which coat the individualized pieces of fat. This

will anyway be the case as long as no mechanical force is applied to the mixture

and even if the temperature increases slightly, up to 30°C for example. Before

melting or becoming pasty, a fat becomes plastic but remains in the solid state.

Butter, for example, remains still relatively hard in the range from 20 to 25°C.

For the preparation of the cake mixture, it will be necessary to add to the

mixture for example eggs, by way of liquid, and to beat the mixture. It will then

be sufficient to pour the mixture into a tin and to let it bake in an oven to obtain

the desired cake. In the preferred implementation of the method of the invention, the fat is

extruded cold to obtain filaments which are introduced into the base powder

before being broken into pieces during the mixing.

The invention relates also to an extruder for implementing the preparation

method of the invention, characterised by the fact that the conformation and the

density, at the surface of the exit extrusion grid, of the extrusion apertures are

determined in order to reduce the heating of the fat through the grid.

It has been seen above that the base powder contains at least the

following ingredients, moreover in relative proportions which can vary:

flour,

sugar,

raising agent (bicarbonate[s] and its[their] transformation acid[s]),

aromatic matter.

The transformation acid serves, during the pouring of the liquid, the

necessary release of carbon dioxide. The raising agent is a bicarbonate

(sodium, potassium, ...) or a mixture of bicarbonates.

As fat, it is possible to envisage both vegetable and animal fats, but

preferably butter. In a general manner, fats are considered which have a melting

point lower than 37°C, advantageously lower than 32°C, or of which the melting

point curve presents a low percentage of solid fraction at a temperature lower

than 15°C.

The mixture also contains advantageously an antioxidant, to prevent the

fat from going rancid. By way of example, it will be noted that a mixture has actually been

prepared containing

31% dark chocolate with 58% cocoa,

2% powdered chocolate,

24% concentrated butter,

32.5888% sugar,

10% wheat flour,

0.1500% sodium bicarbonate, and 0.2500% pyrophosphate

sodium acid (its transformation acid),

0.0112% ascorbylpalmitate (antioxidant).

In order, during the preparation and mixing, to keep the low temperature

and thus to proceed cold, it is possible to incorporate carbon dioxide snow or

liquid nitrogen, making the temperature inside the mixer drop to approximately

5 or 4°C, see below.

The annexed figures make it possible to understand better the

implementation of the method of the invention:

figure I is a simplified view of the installation for preparing the

powder mixture, with its extruder and its mixer;

figure 2 is a plan view of the extrusion grid of the extruder, on a

larger scale, and

figure 3 is a sectional view of the grid of figure 2.

The mixing installation comprises essentially a mixing tankl and an

extruder 2. The tank 1 , here with an axis 4 like a truncated cone, opening out

upwards, comprises an endless screw 3 for raising and mixing and a mixing arm

5. The mixing arm 5 extends, in the upper portion of the tank, substantially

perpendicular to the axis 4 and here radially between this axis 4 and the wall of

the tank 1. During preparation, the arm 5 is driven in rotation around the axis 4.

The endless screw extends substantially parallel to the wall of the tank 1 , here

between a cardan coupling 11 at the base of the tank and the free end 12 of the

arm 5.

During preparation, the Screw 3 is driven in rotation around itself and its

upper end 13 is driven in a horizontal rotary movement with the free end 12 of

the arm 5. The ingredients of the mixture (base powder and pieces of fat) are

thus conveyed by the screw in an upward movement during the mixing and, by

the screw and the mixing arm, in a horizontal rotary movement. By this double

action of upward conveying and gyration, the ingredients are mixed gently and

smoothly.

In the upper portion, the mixing tank 1 comprises a cover 6 provided with

a hatch 7 for receiving fat, coming from the extruder 2 through a feed hopper 8.

The receiving hatch 7 is here off-center for a reason which will become apparent

later.

The extruder 2 with its hydraulic pressurization unit 10, is perfectly

standard apart from the exit extrusion grid 9, perforated, to a pre-determined

density, by specific extrusion apertures 11 making extrusion possible in good

conditions, practically without heating the fat. Thus from a block of butter which is 0°C at its center, filaments of butter

are extruded, the temperature of which does not exceed 5°C. In the case in

point, the extrusion apertures 11 have a graduated cross-section, here narrowed

at the top 12, towards the interior, widened towards the exterior 13, the widened

detent section at the exit of the grid, being approximately 5 to 10 times as long

as the narrowed section, here 9 times, for a thickness of extrusion grid of 20mm,

in its narrowed portion, and of 3mm in its widened portion. As far as the density

is concerned, in the internal portion of the grid, apertures, spaced out two by

two, in two perpendicular directions, by one aperture diameter, correspond to a

satisfactory density with regard to the cross-section of the extruded filaments

and the heating of the grid. In other words, the conformation and the density, at

the surface of the grid 9 of the extrusion apertures 11 are determined in order

to reduce the heating of the fat through the grid.

It will be noted that the plasticity of certain fats could lead to reversing

the direction of the extrusion apertures 11 , with their narrowed section not at

the top but at the bottom.

The extruded filaments enter by the off-centre hatch 7 of the tank.

Under the action of arm 5, screw 3 and of the other ingredients being mixed,

stirred and raised, the filaments are cut into small pieces. It will be noted,

however, that, in order to prevent accumulation of fat filaments on the mixing

arm 5 and to safeguard the homogeneity of the mixture, the extrusion process

is interrupted cyclically during periods of safeguarding (the homogeneity of

the mixture), when the arm 5 arrives opposite the receiving hatch 7, thanks to which the mixture remains effectively relatively homogenous, without pieces

of filament which are too long.

To resume the preparation method, in the mixing tank approximately

800 kg of base powder are prepared after 15 minutes of stirring. Then dry

ice, or carbon dioxide snow, is added to lower the temperature of the mixture,

then the stirring is carried out for a further 4 minutes approximately, the

temperature of the mixture having dropped below 5°C.

Then the block of butter which is O°C is extruded to obtain filaments

with a temperature which is also lower than 4°C and the whole is mixed for

approximately one minute. It only remains to package the preparation, for

example in 480g sachets.

Claims

1. Method of preparing a powder mixture for the preparation of a cake mixture

by pouring a liquid, the mixture comprising a base powder and a fat with a

low melting point, wherein

the fat is introduced into the base powder cold

the fat is transformed into pieces and

the pieces of fat are mixed into the base powder cold.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the fat is extruded cold in order to obtain

filaments which are introduced into the base powder before being broken

into pieces during the mixing.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the extrusion of fat is interrupted cyclically

during periods of safeguarding the homogeneity, of the mixture.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the ingredients of the mixture are conveyed

in an upward movement during the mixing.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ingredients of the mixture are carried

along in a horizontal rotary movement during the mixing.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein a fat is employed with a melting point lower

than 32°.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a fat is employed, the melting point curve

of which presents a low percentage of solid fraction at a temperature lower

than 15°C.

8. An extruderfor implementing the preparation method of claim 2, comprising

an exit extrusion grid, characterised by the fact that the conformation and the density, at the surface of the grid reduce the heating of the fat through

the grid.

9. The extruder of claim 8 wherein the extrusion apertures have a graduated

cross-section with a detent portion with an enlarged section at the exit of

the grid.

10. The extruder of claim 8 wherein the extrusion apertures, in the inside

portion of the grid, are spaced out two by two, in two perpendicular

directions, by one aperture diameter.