Patent Application
20220104506
The invention pertains to the art of food production and, more particularly, to the mass production of freezer-to-oven, multi-layered, varying density dough products.
A number of methods have been employed in order to make various types of bread products, such as loaves, buns, rolls, biscuits, and breadsticks. In commercial systems, a bread dough may typically be extruded, reduced and provided to a conveyor which conveys the dough along a dough travel path. The dough then encounters one or more cutting apparatus, such as slitter wheels, guillotine-type cutters, reciprocating head cutters, rotatable drum-type cutters or the like. The resulting dough products can then be frozen and shipped for resale, such as to grocery stores for purchase directly by consumers, restaurants, bakery stores, or the like.
Regardless of the destination, the frozen dough product must be cooked prior to consumption. When looking to bake frozen dough products, it is common to initially thaw the dough products prior to baking. However, it is also known to have frozen dough products which are intended to go directly from a freezer to an oven, i.e. freezer-to-oven (FTO) dough products. Certainly, the baking times increase when the frozen dough products are not thawed prior to baking.
Freezer-to-oven (FTO) dough products can be particularly advantageous to retail bakers, so long as the quality of the resulting baked product mimics both the visual and taste characteristics of fresh baked dough products. Typically, a trade-off is made between the relative ease of producing baked products from FTO dough products versus a seemingly inherent loss in at least product size and appearance. The present invention overcomes the need for such a trade-off through the specific formation of a frozen, ready-to-bake, dual density dough product.
In accordance with certain product aspects, the invention is directed to producing a frozen, ready-to-bake dough product including an expanded dough core and an un-proofed dough veneer enveloping the expanded dough core. The un-proofed dough veneer covers at least 70%, and up to 100%, of the outer surface area of the expanded dough core. The frozen, ready-to-bake dough product is particularly characterized by the un-proofed dough veneer having a greater density than the expanded dough core, with the density of the un-proofed dough veneer being in the order of 2-3 times greater than the density of the expanded dough core. In a preferred form, the expanded dough core has a density of 0.5 g/cc or less, and the un-proofed dough veneer has a density of 0.8 to 1.1 g/cc.
In accordance with method aspects of the invention, the dough core is proofed before being enveloped by the un-proofed outer dough veneer to form a dual density dough product having an inner, lower density body portion and an outer, higher density body portion, with the outer body portion constituting more than half of the overall body mass. The dual density dough product is frozen into the ready-to-bake dough product. Upon baking directly from the frozen state, a surface area of the dough product expands less than 60%, while a volume of the dough product basically doubles due to expansion of the dough veneer. Overall, the cooked dough product substantially mimics both visual and structural characteristics of a traditional baker's bread product made from a homogeneous, partially or fully proofed dough mass which has not been frozen, with the dough veneer of the invention establishing a crust for a light and airy inner bread body.
In any case, additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views.
With initial reference to
Important in connection with the invention is that inner dough core 10 constitutes an expanded dough, i.e., a dough which has already been fully proofed, while outer dough veneer 20 is dough which has not been proofed. In accordance with the invention, proofing of inner dough core 10 can be achieved in various ways known in the art, including extrusion expansion, chemical leavening and yeast fermentation. On the other hand, outer dough veneer 20 is un-proofed which, in accordance with the invention, means that outer dough veneer 20 has not expanded by more than 10% prior to freezing. Therefore, inner dough core 10 is proofed prior to being enveloped by outer dough veneer 20. Thereafter, the entire dough product 5 is frozen.
As the outer dough veneer 20 has not been proofed, the frozen, ready-to-bake dough product 5 is particularly characterized by the un-proofed dough veneer 20 having a greater density than the expanded inner dough core 10, with the density of the un-proofed outer dough veneer 20 being in the order of 2-3 times greater than the density of the expanded inner dough core 10. In a preferred form, the expanded inner dough core 10 has a density of 0.5 g/cc or less, and the un-proofed outer dough veneer 20 has a density of 0.8 to 1.1 g/cc. At the same time, the un-proofed outer dough veneer 20 has a mass which is greater than a mass of inner dough core 10 such that outer dough veneer 20 constitutes more than half, i.e., a majority, by mass of the overall dough product 5. More preferably, outer dough veneer 20 establishes approximately 60% of the mass of dough product 5.
As indicated above, the dual density dough arrangement is frozen to establish the ready-to-bake, freezer-to-oven, multi-layered, varying density dough product 5. At this point, it should again be realized that the invention enables dough product 5 to be mass produced, shipped and delivered such as to a retail baker in a frozen state, and then baked from the frozen state to replicate a hand or fresh made dough product. By way of example, dough product 5 can be baked from a frozen state to make a finished dough product 30 as shown in
Certainly the dough masses establishing the inner core and the outer veneer of the dough product can be formed in various ways. For instance, the dough masses can be created at the same or different times, as well as from many common ingredients or vastly different formulations. In one form of the invention, the core dough piece and the core dough piece are coextruded, with only the core dough piece being expanded upon extrusion through pressure differential. Although disclosed with reference to making a loaf of bread, the invention can be employed in making a wide variety of baked dough products, including loaves, buns, rolls, biscuits, breadsticks, and the like. Therefore, although described with reference to certain embodiments, it should be readily understood that various changes and/or modifications may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as encompassed by the following claims.
