MXPA98009344A - A food product with a filling and a method of producing it - Google Patents

Abstract

The product, formed essentially as a praline, comprises a shell (1, 5) which encloses a creamyfilling with very low viscosity (4, 8), possibly enhanced by a nut (3). The shell, which is covered with one or more coating layers (9, 11), possibly with the addition of a sprinkled substance (10) and decorative elements (12, 13), is constituted by two half-shells (1, 5) coupled face to face. One (1) of the half-shells is made of a mouldable substance such as chocolate, whereas the other half-shell (5) is made of wafer. The contribution of the half-shell (1) made of a mouldable substance to the weight of the shell is preferably greatly predominant in comparison with the corresponding contribution of the wafer half-shell (5).

Description

FOOD PRODUCT WITH A FILLING AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING IT Description of the invention The present invention relates to a food product according to the preamble of claim 1. Food products of this type, in particular in the form of confectionery products, are known in the technique: for example, we can mention the products sold under the trademarks "Rocher" and "Confetteria" Raffaello "by the companies of the Ferrero group, in which the shell or shell enclosing the filling is constituted by two halves of hemispherical wafer shell The present invention addresses the problem of producing a product of the type specified above which is particularly appropriate for the production in the form of a product cooled from strictly technological and organoleptic points of view In accordance with the present invention, this object is obtained by means of a food product having the features cited in claim 1. The invention is also concerned with a method for producing the product, having the features cited in claim 18. The invention will now be described only by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings R ^ F .: 28783 comprising the figures numbered 1 to 11 schematically showing the production sequence of a product according to the invention, also as a figure 12, corresponding to a section taken on line XII-XII of the Figure 11, on a slightly enlarged scale. In Figure 1, a hemispherical shell generally made of a mouldable substance, such as chocolate, for example, is generally indicated by the number 1. The term "moldable food substance" is intended to indicate any substance in the present invention. food which can be formed in the configuration of a shell half of the type shown, in liquid or viscous state, for example, as a result of being poured into a mold and then can be set to the shape thus reached, usually by cooling. Although reference to a substance such as chocolate indicates a preferred solution, it should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any way. This also applies in particular to the use of the term "chocolate" which is not to be construed herein as being limited exclusively to compositions that may be called chocolate within the meaning of standards for food products which are in effect in some countries. The term "chocolate" used herein, as an indicator of a moldable substance, should therefore be interpreted as any product or substance having rheological characteristics similar or substantially comparable to those of chocolate. A hemispherical shell half of material such as, for example, chocolate can be produced by known molding, pouring and cooling techniques. These are widely known techniques in the confectionery industry and a detailed description of their characteristics is therefore unnecessary in this context. Half shell 1 preferably has its upper or polar portion (for reasons which will become clearer from the following), a hollow portion 2 (which can be seen better and is more noticeable in the section of the figure 12), produced by means of a corresponding form of the mold. Figure 2 shows schematically how a center of filling constituted, for example by a nut, such as for example a hazelnut 3, can possibly (but not necessarily) be placed inside the half of shell 1, which is going to be filled subsequently with a filling 4 constituted for example, by a cream of chocolate flavor. This operation is carried out by means normally employed in the confectionery industry, which need not be described herein.

Figure 4 shows in detail the structure of the other element which, together with the shell half 1, forms the shell of the product according to the invention. This is a half shell 5 made of wafer and preferably has a bowl-like or cup-like shape. Within the half shell 5 (which is formed by normal wafer production techniques) it is therefore possible to distinguish a base wall 6 generally flat and a skirt wall 7 or approximately conical peripheral wall, the mouth of the which has dimensions of the diameter substantially corresponding to the diametrical dimensions of the mouth of the shell half 1 made of a mouldable substance. It can be seen from FIG. 4 in particular that the flange of the mouth of the wall 7 of the skirt of the shell half 5 is preferably produced by a cutting operation carried out in a plane parallel to the general plane of the 6 base wall. This result can be obtained based on the known solutions described for example in EP-B-0 054 229 and EP-B-0 221 033. A similar conformation will be found on the edge or flange of the mouth of the half of shell 1, which extends thus in a "southern" plane with respect to the shell half 1. Figure 5 shows the filling of the wafer shell 5 half (also carried out by known means) with a soft filling 8 preferably similar or substantially similar to the filling 4 in the shell half 1. Figure 6 shows how, after the molded shell 1 half and the wafer shell 5 half are completed by their respective fillers, they can be fitted together face to face by virtue of the substantially corresponding diametrical dimensions of their respective mouth portions. This gives rise to an intermediate product constituted essentially by a shell formed by the two halves of shells 1 and 5 containing a filling formed by the fillers 4 and 8, preferably terminated by the center constituted by the nut 3. The two halves of Cascara 1 and 5 can be adjusted together face to face in the manner described above with the use of solutions known in the art, such as those described, for example, in EP-B-0 083 324 and EP-A-0 583 739. As a result of the closing of the shell, the product acquires a certain solidity resulting mainly from the connection established between the respective fillings 4 and 8, which are preferably constituted by a low melting, anhydrous filling, which contains hazelnuts, formulated with the use of vegetable oils and fats to obtain an ideal creaminess at low temperatures.

The intermediate product shown in Figure 6 can be subjected, in a known manner, to a first covering step (coating), for example, with a substance 9 based on chocolate which is creamy when hot and can be set by cooling. This coating, which is preferably based on milk chocolate with the addition of nuts and vegetable oils, forms a perfect component with the filling of the product. Then, this chocolate based coating substance can be completed by spraying a particulate substance, such as hazelnuts into fragments, coconut gratin, etc., onto the product of Figure 7, before coating 9 has set As can be seen in Figure 9, the spraying operation is preferably carried out in a manner that affects the entire substance of the product, possibly with the exception of gap 2 (if there is one). This result can be obtained in several ways, for example, by protecting the polar or upper portion of the shell half 1 in the region of the hole 2 with a sieve (not shown) during the spraying of the particular substance . Another solution is to arrange for the first coating 9 to be sprayed over the entire surface of the product shell (the shell halves 1 and 5) except for the polar region of the shell half 1 in which the hole 2 is arranged. It is shown in figure 9, the sprayed layer 10 applied in the step illustrated in Figure 8 is preferably coated with an additional coating layer 11 of a substance identical or similar to that of the coating layer 9. Finally, a decoration constituted for example, by means of a cream rosette 12, possibly covered by a disk-like element 12, made of a substance such as for example chocolate is placed in the hole 2 in the upper or polar portion of the half of cascara 1. This results in the finished product having the structure shown in greater detail in the sectional view of figure 12. As can be seen, this is essentially a product similar to praline with a shell constituted by half of shell 1 of a mouldable substance such as chocolate and half of wafer shell 5. The nut 3 and the fillings 4 and 8 are arranged in the shell. The shell is coated with the various coating / spray layers, the application of which is described above with reference to Figures 7 to 9, completed by the decoration 12, 13 on the top.

Although they are made of completely different materials, the shell halves 1 and 5 are joined when they are inserted together face to face, that is with their respective mouth surfaces in frontal contact with each other, with the mouth surfaces extending in a "meridian" plane with respect to the general shape of the shell, that is, in a plane parallel to the plane in which the base wall 6 of the shell half 5 extends. The solution of the invention allows the product to retain a certain amount of wafer-like substances, the presence of which is appreciated from an organoleptic point of view as well as being useful for the purposes of producing the product, while at the same time avoiding the presence of too much wafer which could have an unpleasant effect in relation to the general appreciation of a cooled product. By way of example, (which naturally, should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention) in the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, if the overall weight of the shell constituted by half of the shell 1 and in half of husk 5 is set to a value of 100, half of husk 1 contributes about 70% of this value and half of husk 5 contributes about 30% (the contribution of half of husk 1 is therefore predominantly predominant and preferably by At least twice the contribution of half shell 5): it will be appreciated in this connection that the absolute densities (or specific gravity) of the respective component substances are usually quite different from each other. Again for the purposes of a preferred embodiment of the invention, it has been found particularly advantageous to use for the production of half shell 5, a wafer with a high sugar content (8/9 wt.% With reference to half of shell 5 after cooking) with a wall thickness of half shell 5 of the order of 1.7 ± 0.1 mm. With regard to half of shell 1, the preferred selection on the other hand, is a particular chocolate constituted by a base of "dark milk" to which hazelnuts and cocoa butter are added. Another preferred aspect of the production of the product described above is that the steps of the preparation of shell halves 1 and 5, which include the provision of their fillings 4 and 8, can be carried out at room temperature or from any way without specific temperature control; since a substance such as, for example, chocolate is involved, clearly the temperature values in any case should not be excessive. Starting from the stage of the coupling of the shell halves (figure 6), it is generally preferable to implement a temperature control that maintains the product as a whole at temperatures no higher than 8-10 ° C during the stages of coating, spraying and possibly decoration, in such a way that the normal range of temperatures at which a cooled product is maintained (4 ° C or less) can be reached after the completion of the product. Naturally, with the same principle of the invention, details of construction and forms of embodiment can be varied widely with respect to those described and illustrated, without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention. It is noted that, with regard to this date, the best method known to the applicant, to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following:

Claims (19)

1. Claims 1. A food product comprising. a shell that encloses a soft filling and is externally covered with at least one covering layer, the shell is constituted by at least two shell halves coupled together, characterized in that of the at least two shell halves, one is made of a moldable food substance and the other is made of wafer.
2. 2. The product according to claim 1, characterized in that the contribution of the one half shell to the overall weight of the shell is mostly predominant in comparison with the homologous contribution of the other shell half.
3. 3. The product according to claim 2, characterized in that the contribution of the one half shell to the overall weight of the shell is at least twice the homologous contribution of the other shell half.
4. 4. The product according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the one of the shell halves is hemispherical, while the other shell half has an overall configuration in the form of a basin with a flat base.
5. 5. The product according to claim 4, characterized in that the other of the shell halves has a general conical trunk shape.
6. 6. The product according to any of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the at least two shell halves are adjusted together with their respective mouth surfaces coupled face to face.
7. 7. The product according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the one of the shell halves is substantially made of chocolate.
8. 8. The product according to claim 1, characterized in that hazelnuts and / or cocoa butter are added to the chocolate.
9. 9. The product according to any of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the other of the shell halves is made of wafer having a high sugar content, preferably of the order of 8-9% by weight in relation to Half wafer shell
10. 10. The product according to any of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the filling contains a center constituted by a nut.
11. 11. The product according to any of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that a particulate substance is added to the at least one coating layer.
12. 12. The product according to claim 11, characterized in that the particulate substance is constituted by fragmented hazelnuts or coconut gratin.
13. 13. The product according to claim 11 or claim 12, characterized in that the particulate substance is included between two successive coating layers.
14. 14. The product according to any of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that it also comprises a decorative element applied to one of the shells.
15. 15. The product according to claim 14, characterized in that the one of the shell halves has a recess for housing the decorative element.
16. 16. The product according to claim 11 and claim 14, characterized in that the particulate substance is absent from the region of the decorative element.
17. 17. The product according to any of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that the decorative element is constituted by a rosette of a creamy substance such as whipped cream (or chantilly) on which a disc-shaped element is placed.
18. 18. A method for producing a food product according to any of claims 1 to 17, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: - providing the at least two shell halves and the soft filling, - coupling the shell halves to form the shell enclosing the filling as a result of the union of the shell halves, and - applying the at least one layer of coating to the shell, the steps starting from the coupling of the shell halves are carried out under controlled conditions at a temperature not higher than about 8-10 ° C.
19. 19. The method according to the claim 18, characterized in that it comprises the step of bringing the finished product to a temperature of the order of about 4 ° C or less and keeping it at that temperature, to give the product the character of a cooled product.