Extruded Cheese Snack Dough Texture Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for producing cheese crackers or snacks in pasta shapes fail to achieve a non-glassy, crispy texture and leavened, uniform cell structure, especially when using low gluten flours, and often require high gluten content or specific starch compositions.
Innovation Solution
A dough composition including wheat flour, cheese, and pregelatinized waxy starch, extruded at low pressures and temperatures to prevent starch gelatinization, resulting in shaped cheese crackers or snacks with a pasta shape that are baked or fried to achieve a crispy texture and uniform cell structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If high gluten content flour is used to produce pasta-shaped cheese snacks, then the dough can be extruded and retain shape, but the product achieves a glassy texture instead of crispy texture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical composition parameters of the dough by using low gluten flour combined with specific starch types and ratios, along with dairy ingredients, to achieve both shape retention and crispy texture without requiring high gluten content
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite dough system combining low gluten flour, starch (preferably waxy maize or potato starch), and dairy ingredients (cheese, cream, or milk) to compensate for low gluten content while achieving desired textural and structural properties
2Ease of manufacture
If starch-based compositions with little or no gluten are used, then the product can achieve crispy texture, but the dough cannot be machinable or sheetable at room temperature
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the dough formulation by incorporating dairy ingredients (cheese, cream, or milk) alongside starch and low gluten flour, which changes the rheological properties to enable machinability at room temperature without requiring thermal processing
Solution Approach 2:
The patent formulates a composite dough using starch, low gluten flour, and dairy components that work together to provide both machinability and crispy final texture, eliminating the need for elevated temperature processing
3Shape
If extrusion is performed at high pressure and temperature, then the dough can be shaped, but the starch gelatinizes and the product puffs excessively losing uniform cell structure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reduces extrusion pressure and temperature parameters to below starch gelatinization thresholds, which prevents excessive puffing and maintains uniform cell structure while still achieving proper shape formation through optimized low-pressure extrusion
4Ease of manufacture
If low gluten flours are used to avoid glassy texture, then crispy texture can be achieved, but the dough lacks cohesiveness for extrusion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a composite dough system combining low gluten flour with starch and dairy ingredients that provide cohesiveness and binding properties, enabling extrusion of low gluten doughs while maintaining crispy final texture
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adjusts the compositional parameters of the dough by optimizing the ratios of low gluten flour, starch, and dairy ingredients to achieve sufficient cohesiveness for extrusion without requiring high gluten content
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The method enables the production of cheese crackers or snacks with a non-glassy, crispy texture and leavened, substantially uniform cell structure, maintaining pasta shapes without puffing, and allowing for high cheese content for intense flavor, while using low gluten flours and avoiding excessive expansion.
Implementation Method 1
The extrusion is at a pressure and temperature which avoid substantial gelatinization of starch and expansion of the dough
Implementation Method 2
The shaped dough rope may be cut into shaped pieces, which may be baked or fried to obtain shaped cheese crackers or snacks
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~8
AI summary
Cheese crackers or snacks having a pasta shape are produced by admixing at least one flour, cheese, and water to obtain a dough having a real cheese content of from about 5% by weight, to about 60% by weight, based upon the weight of the dough, extruding the dough at a pressure and temperature which avoid substantial gelatinization of starch and expansion of the dough. The dough is extruded through a die to obtain a shaped dough rope, which may be cut at the die into shaped dough pieces. The shaped dough pieces may be baked or fried to obtain shaped cheese crackers or snacks in the form of a pasta shape, such as a hollow, grid, helix or spiral shape. Additionally, the crackers or snacks exhibit a non-glassy crispy or crunchy, texture, and a leavened, non-puffed cell structure.