Claims
- 1. A flour providing improved texture and volume to batter based food products, said flour prepared by the process of:
- heating a flour having an initial moisture content of greater than 8% by weight to a moisture content of about 1% to 6% by weight by exposure to radio frequency heating at a frequency ranging from 3 MHz to 300 MHz.
- 2. The flour of claim 1
- wherein the flour is selected from the group consisting of unchlorinated flour, chlorinated flour, heat treated flour, aged flour and mixtures thereof.
- 3. The flour of claim 2
- wherein the flour is unchlorinated.
- 4. The flour of claim 3
- wherein the flour has a protein content of about 4% to 8%.
- 5. The flour of claim 1
- wherein the flour is a cake flour.
- 6. The flour of claim 5
- wherein the flour has been reduced in moisture content to about 2% to 5%.
- 7. The flour of claim 6
- wherein the flour has been reduced by radio frequency heating to a moisture content of about 2.5%.
- 8. The flour of claim 1
- wherein the flour is a bread flour.
- 9. The flour of claim 1
- wherein the flour is an all-purpose flour.
- 10. The flour of claim 9
- wherein the flour is bleached.
- 11. The flour of claim 6
- wherein the flour has a peak pasting viscosity of at least 350 Stir Number Units.
- 12. The flour of claim 11
- wherein the flour has a peak pasting viscosity of at least 400 Stir Number Units.
- 13. The flour of claim 12
- wherein the flour has a peak pasting viscosity of at least 450 Stir Number Units.
- 14. A cake flour providing improved volume and texture to batter based baked food products having a peak pasting viscosity of greater than 450 Stir Number Units.
- 15. The flour of claim 14
- wherein the flour is radio frequency heat treated from an initial moisture content of greater than 8% to a final moisture content of less than 6%.
- 16. An unchlorinated cake flour prepared by the process comprising:
- heating an unchlorinated cake flour having a moisture content of at least 8% by weight to dry the flour to a less than 6% by weight by exposure to a high intensity dielectric heating at a frequency ranging from 10 GHz to 3 MHz and at a field intensity of at least 50 V/cm.
- 17. The flour of claim 16 having a peak pasting viscosity of greater than 450 Stir Number Units.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This is a continuation-in-part application to U.S. Ser. No. 07/903,384, filed Jun. 24, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,388.
US Referenced Citations (15)
Foreign Referenced Citations (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
2110065 |
Oct 1971 |
FRX |
2442552 |
Sep 1974 |
DEX |
1499986 |
May 1974 |
GBX |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (2)
Entry |
Effects of Microwave Radiation and Storage On Hard Red Spring Wheat Flour, Cereal Chemistry 58(1):53-56, 1981. |
Chemical Abstracts, 77(23): 150661 v, abstracting Aref et al. "Inactivation of alpha amylase in wheat flour with microwaves," J. Microwave Power, 7(3), 215-21 (Eng) 1972. |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
903384 |
Jun 1992 |
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