Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Basic ingredient is starch based batter – dough product – etc.
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-04
2003-09-30
Tran, Lien (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Basic ingredient is starch based batter, dough product, etc.
C426S094000, C426S237000, C426S241000, C426S243000, C426S275000, C426S496000, C426S553000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06627242
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to pizza crusts which can be cooked in a microwave oven in a satisfactory manner. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mesophase-containing pizza crust which rises and forms a palatable, firm crust when prepared in a microwave oven.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Frozen pizza is a large portion (about 7 to about 8 percent) of the $27 billion pizza market in the United States. Generally, oven-rising pizzas are limited to those for use in a conventional oven. Microwaved cereal products such as pizza crusts, cakes, and breads are generally not pleasing to the palate. Frozen microwaveable pizzas generally have either pre-baked or par-baked crusts and use susceptors (i.e., crisping-enhancing products embedded in the packaging of a microwaveable product). Microwaveable pizza presents a number of technical hurdles that are hard to overcome. For example, in microwave cooking of cereal products it is difficult to generate a crisp and brown outer crust. Moreover, microwave heating is generally uneven and, therefore, promotes the rapid onset of staleness and toughness in cereal products. It is for these reasons that susceptors are often required in the packaging of microwave cereal products. However, even use of susceptors can lead to uneven heating and/or uneven crisping of cereal products such as pizza crust.
In order to rise properly, pizza crust must generally contain a substantial amount of trapped air or gas. Such trapped air or gas is introduced in conventional breads and pizza crust through the use of yeast or chemical leavening agents. The amount of aeration of such bread-like products such as pizza crust is normally described by the term “overrun.” Overrun is the relationship of the volume of the aerated food product to that of the unaerated food product and can be calculated with the following formula:
Overrun =(Aerated Volume−Initial Volume)×100 Initial Volume
Thus, an overrun of 100 indicates that the volume of the aerated food product is twice as much as the volume of the unaerated food product (i.e., an increase in volume of 100 percent).
The present invention is directed to providing a pizza crust comprising a mesophase-gel and conventional pizza crust components which, when cooked or baked in a microwave oven, rises in a manner similar to conventional oven-baked pizza crust. The present invention does not rely on conventional leavening agents, such as yeast or chemical leavening agents. Rather, a mesophase gel incorporated into the pizza dough allows the crust to rise and provides a palatable and firm crust when baked in a microwave oven. Moreover, the pizza crust remains palatable for a significant period of time (i.e., an hour or more) after baking.
The present invention provides a pizza crust composition which can be used to provide palatable pizza crust when prepared or heated in a microwave oven. This invention further provides a method for preparation of a microwaveable pizza crust which results in a pizza crust that, upon heating in a microwave oven, (1) rises, (2) is firm and palatable, and (3) remains firm and palatable for at least an hour after heating. These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent upon a consideration of the present specification.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to microwaveable pizza crusts, which, when heated in a microwave oven, rise in a manner similar to conventionally-baked pizza crusts or other baked goods. The pizza crusts of the present invention contain mesophase gels. Moreover, such mesophase-gel containing pizza crusts, when microwaved, rise in a manner similar to that observed with conventional pizza crusts, and also form highly palatable and firm pizza crusts, similar to conventionally pizza crusts. Such mesophase gel-containing compositions for use in pizza crust include, mesophase-containing dispersions for use in fat-free, low-fat, and full-fat pizza crusts.
The mesophase gels formed herein for use in pizza crust are highly viscous, even in the absence of polymeric protein or polysaccharide thickening or bulking agents. The mesophase compositions described herein may be used to prepare desirable pizza crusts which have characteristics such as firmness when baked in a microwave oven. The mesophase gels have the ability to act as leavening agents in the pizza crust so that the pizza dough rises within two to four minutes after heating the crust in the microwave oven. The basic mesophase-containing compositions are more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,876 (May 30, 2000) entitled “Mesophase-stabilized Emulsions And Dispersions For Use in Low-fat And Fat-free Food Products”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,006 (Feb. 15, 2000) entitled “Foam Inducing Compositions and Method for Manufacturing Thereof”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/258,759, filed Feb. 26, 1999, entitled “Use of Mesophase-stabilized Compositions For Delivery of Cholesterol-reducing Sterols And Stanols in Food Products”; and copending U.S. Patent Application entitled “Microwaveable Sponge Cake,” filed on the same day as this present application, all of which are owned by the present assignee and all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
The present invention uses a novel leavening system wherein the pizza dough rises within about 2 to about 4 minutes of microwave heating. Moreover, the present invention utilizes a unique formulation that yields desirable pizza crust texture upon microwaving, and maintains that desirable texture for a significant period after microwave cooking. Thus, the mesophase gel appears to stabilize the pizza crust so that it is relatively more palatable for a longer period after heating than conventional pizza crusts which are heated or re-heated in a microwave oven. The use of the mesophase compositions results in pizza crusts that rise in about 2 to about 4 minutes without use of any yeast or chemical leavening agent and provides acceptable product texture for at least one hour after microwave heating.
The present invention includes mesophase-containing pizza crust comprising about 0.5 to about 10.0 percent of a mesophase gel; 0 to about 25 percent maltodextrin; about 10 to about 40 percent flour; 0 to about 20 percent starch; 0 to about 10 percent fiber; 0 to about 30 percent egg product; 0 to about 10 percent oil; 0 to about 5 percent salt; and about 20 to about 40 percent water, wherein the pizza crust rises and is baked to a palatable state in a microwave oven.
Preferably the mesophase-containing pizza crust of this invention contains about 1.5 to about 4.0 percent of mesophase gel, and more preferably about 3.0 percent mesophase gel; about 21 to about 25 percent maltodextrin, and more preferably about 23 percent maltodextrin; about 16 to about 20 percent flour, and more preferably about 18 percent flour; about 11 percent to about 15 percent starch, and more preferably about 13 percent starch; about 2 to about 6 percent fiber, and more preferably about 4 percent fiber; about 1 to about 5 percent egg product, and more preferably about 3 percent egg product; 0 to about 4 percent oil, and more preferably about 2 percent oil; about 1 to about 3 percent salt, and more preferably 1 percent salt; and about 33 to about 37 percent water, and more preferably about 35 percent water.
The present invention also includes methods for making such mesophase-containing pizza crusts for use in microwave ovens. One such method comprises (a) forming an aqueous composition containing about 23 to about 27 percent maltodextrin; about 17 to about 21 percent flour; about 12 to about 16 percent starch; about 2 to about 6 percent fiber; about 1 to about 5 percent egg product; about 0.5 to about 3.5 percent salt; 0 to about 3 percent liquid oil; and about 30 to about 38 percent water, (b) mixing about 1.5 to about 4.5 percent of a mesophase gel into the aqueous composition to form a pizza dough, and (c) shaping the dough to form a microwaveable pizza crust; wherein the microwaveable pizza cru
Akashe Ahmad
Chen Weizhi
McPherson Andrew E.
Miller Miranda
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.
Tran Lien
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