AU2005256151B2

AU2005256151B2 - Process for producing nut products, beverages, liqueurs, desserts and food products therefrom

Info

Publication number: AU2005256151B2
Application number: AU2005256151A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Giuseppe Santo; Paolina Santo
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2004-06-23
Filing date: 2005-06-23
Publication date: 2011-01-27
Anticipated expiration: 2025-06-23
Also published as: AU2005256151A1

Description

I PROCESS FOR PRODUCING NUT PRODUCTS, BEVERAGES, LIQUEURS, DESSERTS AND FOOD PRODUCTSTHEREFROM Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a process for producing nut products. In particular, the present invention relates to a process for producing a dough-like nut product from which beverages, desserts, liqueurs and other edible products can be made therefrom. Background of the Invention Nut pastes are known primarily to be used as spreads and butter. Known nut pastes include peanut pastes which are commonly used as a spread for breads and the like. These nut pastes are known to be produced by grinding nuts together with t6 processing aids and surfactants. A disadvantage of the use of processing aids and surfactants is that the oils in the nuts are dispersed during the grinding stage of the nuts. The loss of nut oils in the paste subsequently requires the use of thickeners such as gums in the residual nut paste if the nut paste is to be used in the production of food products. It would be desirable to produce nut products without the use of processing aids or 20 surfactants since the loss of nut oils from the nut products due to the use of surfactants and processing aids results in a corresponding loss of nut flavour. It would also be desirable to produce nut products without the use of processing aids or surfactants since the nut products would be considered as a more health conscious food product due to the absence of the processing aids and/or surfactants. .25 The present invention seeks to provide an alternative nut product to known nut pastes and preferably a process for producing alternative nut products which preferably do not require the use of processing aids or surfactants as previously known in the prior art. The present invention also seeks to provide beverages, liqueurs, desserts and food products made from the alternative nut products, ac Summary of the Invention In a first aspect of the invention there is provided a process for producing a nut product comprising the steps of: a) forming a blend comprising a first portion of nuts, a first portion of a source of sugar, and a first portion of flavouring agents; La b) mixing said blend to form a mixture; c) passing the mixture between rollers a plurality of times so as to produce a sheet of the mixture; d) combining the sheet with a second portion of the source of sugar and of the 5 flavouring agents and optionally of the nuts, and mixing the resulting combination so as to form the nut product having a dough-like consistency. In a second aspect of the invention there is provided a process for producing a nut milk comprising the step of combining a nut product made by the process of the first aspect with water. In a third aspect of the invention there is provided a process for producing a marzipan comprising producing a nut product according to the first aspect wherein at step d) sorbitol is added. In a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a process for producing a nut spread comprising the steps of combining a nut product made by the process of the first t5 aspect with milk and then blending the resulting combination to a smooth consistency. In a fifth aspect of the invention there is provided a process for producing a granita comprising the step of mixing a nut product made by the process of the first aspect with water in mixing machine until the mixture becomes a solid. In a sixth aspect of the invention there is provided a process for producing an ice 20 cream comprising combining a nut product made by the process of the first aspect with water and then blending the resulting combination in an ice-cream making machine. In a seventh aspect of the invention there is provided a process for producing a liqueur comprising combining a nut product made by the process of the first aspect with water and ethanol and blending the resulting combination. 213 According to a first embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for producing a nut product comprising the steps of: a) forming a blend comprising nuts, a source of sugar, and flavouring agents; b) mixing the nuts together with a portion of the source of sugar in the blend; c) grinding in a plurality of passes the mixture of nuts and the source of sugar in 3Q step b) so as to form a paste; WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 2 d) mixing the paste with the remaining portion of the blend from step a) so as to form a nut product. The step of mixing in step d) may further include kneading the resultant mixture from step d) so as to form a nut product with a dough like nut product. The dough like nut 5 product may have a dough-like consistency. The step of kneading may be achieved by way of hand by a mixing machine. The step of mixing or kneading may also be achieved by way of other shaping means whereby the nut product is shaped so as to be suitable for being stored and wrapped in to suitable portions. Further, the process of the present invention may further comprise the step of 10 cutting the nut product or the dough-like nut product to form individual portions which may be sized such that they are suitable for use in preparation of nut beverages, nut liqueurs, nut desserts and nut food products. The process may also include the step of cooling the nut product or the dough-like nut product to a temperature of between about 0 0 C to about 10 C, or about 0 0 C to about 5'C in order to store the nut product or the is dough-like nut product. Preferably, the blend in step a) comprises nuts, a source of sugar and flavouring agents does not comprise a processing aid or a surfactant. In another embodiment of the present invention, the blend in step a) comprises: about 10 to about 70wt% of nuts; 20 about 30 to about 89wt% of a source of sugar; and up to lwt% of natural preservatives, essences and/or flavoring agents. Alternatively, the amount of nuts in the blend may be from about 15 to about 65wt%. from about 20 to about 60wt%, from about 25 to about 55wt%, from about 30 to about 50wt%, from about 30 to about 45wt% and from about 30 to about 40wt%. 25 Further, the amount of the source of sugar in the blend may be from about 35 to about 85wt%, from about 40 to about 75wt%, from about 45 to about 70wt%, from about 50 to about 70wt%, from about 55 to about 75wt%, from about 60 to about 75wt% and from about 65 to about 75wt%. Preferably, in step b) of the process of the present invention, the amount of the 30 portion of the source of sugar used is from about 25 to about 75 wt%, from about 30 to about 70wt%, from about 35 to about 65wt%, from about 40 to about 60wt%, from about 45 to about 60wt%, from about 45 to about 55wt%, and from about 48wt% to about 52wt%. In a particular example, about 50% of the source of sugar is used in step b) of the process of the present invention.

WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 3 The step of mixing the nuts together with a portion of the source of sugar may also include adding water as desired to assist in the grinding step. The source of sugar is preferably crystalline or particulate sugar and it is believed that the addition of the source of sugar before the grinding step assists in the grinding of the nuts 5 and also absorbs the nut oils thereby acting as an emulsifying agent. The resultant paste thus has an enhanced flavour and texture. In another embodiment of the present invention, the process may comprise a blend comprising nuts, a source of sugar, and flavouring agents together with honey. Alternatively, honey may be substituted for the source of sugar or blended with the source 10 of sugar. The honey may also be added after the grinding step. The honey used in the process of the present invention may include 80% natural sugars including mainly levulose, dextrose and glucose. Alternatively, commercial honeys in either a solid or liquid form could be used. However, a liquid form of honey is preferred. 15 The process may also comprise a step of cooling the nut product or the dough like nut product so as to assist in the storage of the dough-like product. The step of grinding in a plurality of passes may be performed through a multi roller apparatus. The multi-roller apparatus may comprise a plurality of rollers which are preferably placed alongside each other in a horizontal direction. The number of rollers 20 used in the multi-roller apparatus may be two or more and is preferably three. The step of grinding in a plurality of passes may further comprise adjusting the distance between the rollers so as to form a nut product of suitable consistency. The adjusting of the distance between the rollers may be by way of reducing the distance between adjacent rollers. The adjustment of distance between the rollers may occur after 25 the first or subsequent pass and depends on the consistency of the nut product required. In one embodiment for grinding nuts, the step of grinding involves at least two passes where the distance between the rollers is reduced after each of the multiple passes. In this embodiment, there may be three rollers placed alongside each other where the distance between a first roller and a second roller is selected from a range of about 5mm 30 to 10mm, about 5.5mm to about 9.5mm, about 5.5mm to about 9.0mm, about 5.5mm to about 8.5mm, about 5.5mm to about 8.0mm, about 5.5mm to about 7.5mm, about 6.0mm to about 7.00mm and about 6.0mm to 6.5mm before the first pass. The distance between the second roller and a third roller may be selected from a range of about 0.01 to about 0.15mm, about 0.02 to about 0.14mm, about 0.02 to about WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 4 0.13mm, about 0.02 to about 0.12mm, about 0.02 to about 0.11mm, about 0.02 to about 0.10mm, about 0.02 to about 0.09mm, about 0.03 to about 0.09mm, about 0.04 to about 0.09mm, about 0.04 to about 0.08mm, about 0.04 to about 0.07mm, about 0.04 to about 0.06mm, about 0.04 to about 0.05mm before the first pass. 5 After the first pass, the distance between the respective first and second rollers may be selected from a range of about 0.05 to about 1.0mm, about 0.05 to about 0.9mm, about 0.05 to about 0.8mm, about 0.05 to about 0.7mm, about 0.05mm to about 0.6mm, about 0.05mm to about 0.5mm, about 0.05mm to about 0.4mm, about 0.05 to about 0.3mm, about 0.1mm to about 0.3mm, about 0.1mm to about 0.2mm, about 0.12 to about 10 0.18mm, and about 0.14 to about 0.16mm before a second pass. After the first pass, the distance between the second roller and the third roller may be selected from a range of about 0.01 to about 0.15mm, about 0.02 to about 0.14mm, about 0.02 to about 0.13mm, about 0.02 to about 0.12mm, about 0.02 to about 0.11mm, about 0.02 to about 0.10mm, about 0.02 to about 0.09mm, about 0.03 to about is 0.09mm, about 0.04 to about 0.09mm, about 0.04 to about 0.08mm, about 0.04 to about 0.07mm, about 0.04 to about 0.06mm, about 0.04 to about 0.05mm before the first pass. The step of grinding may involve further passes with the distance between the rollers at the same distances as before the second pass. The step of grinding for this embodiment results in a fine nut paste of smooth consistency. 20 The distances between the rollers may be adjusted to obtain nut pastes of different consistency e.g. medium and coarse nut pastes by adjusting the distances between the respective rollers. The rollers used in the multi-roller apparatus are usually made of a hard wearing material. The rollers may be made of a solid hard wearing material or may have a hard 25 wearing coating on the outer surface of the roller. In one aspect, the roller is made of corundum stone as a solid material or has an outer coating of corundum stone. The length of each of the respective first, second and third roller may range from about 5 to about 120cm, about 10 to about 110cm, about 15 to about 105cm, about 20 to about 100cm, about 25 to about 95 cm, about 30 to about 90cm, about 35 to about 90cm, 30 about 35 to about 85cm, about 35 to about 80cm, about 35 to about 75cm, about 35 to about 70cm, about 35 to about 65cm, about 35 to about 60cm, about 35 to about 55cm, about 35 to about 50cm, about 35 to about 45cm, about 35cm to about 40cm and in a particular example of this invention may be about 3 8cm.

WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 5 The diameter of each of the respective first roller, second roller and third roller may range from about 5 to about 100 cm, about 5 to about 90cm, about 5 to about 85cm, about 5 to about 80cm, about 5 to about 75cm, about 5 to about 70cm, about 5 to about 65cm, about 5 to about 60cm, about 5 to about 55cm, about 5 to about 50cm, about 10 to 5 about 45cm, about 10 to about 40cm, about 10 to about 35cm, about 10 to about 30cm, about 10 to about 25cm, about 10 to about 20cm, about 10 to about 15 cm and in a particular example is about 14cm. The circumference of the respective first, second and third roller may vary and range from a value of 7c multiplied by the value of the diameter selected for the particular 10 roller. In a particular example of this invention, the first, second and third rollers may each have the same dimensions of length, width and circumference. The speed of the first, second and third rollers in an embodiment of the multi roller apparatus used in the process of this invention may be in the following ranges: 15 First Roller 2 to 20rpm; 3 to 19rpm; 4 to 18rpm; 20 5 to 17rpm; 5 to 16rpm; 5 to 15rpm; 6 to 14rpm; 7 to 13rpm; 25 8 to 12rpm; 8 to 11rpm; 8 to 10rpm and preferably 9rpm. 30 Second Roller 20 to 70rpm; 20 to 65rpm; 20 to 60rpm; 20 to 55rpm; WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 6 20 to 50rpm; 20 to 45 rpm; 20 to 40rpm; 20 to 35rpm, 5 21 to 3 4 rpm; 22 to 33rpm; 23 to 32rpm; 24 to 31rpm; 25 to 30rpm; 10 26 to 29rpm; 27 to 29rpm; and preferably 28rpm. Third Roller 15 70 to 150rpm; 70 to 145rpm; 70 to 140rpm; 70 to 135rpm; 70 to 130rpm; 20 70 to 125rpm; 70 to 120rpm; 70 to 115rpm; 70 to 110rpm; 70 to 105rpm; 25 70 to 1OOrpm; 70 to 95rpm; 70 to 90rpm, 71 to 89 rpm; 72 to 88rpm; 30 73 to 87rpm; 74 to 86rpm; 75 to 85rpm; 76 to 84rpm; 77 to 83rpm; WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 7 78 to 82rpm; 79 to 81rpm; and preferably 80rpm. In other embodiments of the present invention, the rollers may be shaped such 5 that there are adjacent arcuate surfaces which allow nuts to be ground therebetween. Some examples of suitable shaped rollers include but are not limited to the group consisting of conically shaped rollers, cylindrically shaped rollers, spherically shaped rollers, helically shaped worm rollers which allow intermeshing of the nuts therebetween, rollers containing corrugations on the arcuate surface, and the like. 10 The multi-roller apparatus may also comprise an entry port located above the rollers in the multi-roller apparatus. The entry port is designed for the mixture of nuts and sugar which is fed into the entry port and ground between the rollers as previously described above. The multi-roller apparatus may also comprise a scraping means at an end of the rollers so as to remove the nut paste from the rollers in use. 15 The process may also be conducted in a non-oxygen containing inert atmosphere selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and a mixture thereof. In a preferred embodiment of the process of the present invention, the nut product or the dough-like nut product is formed from a blend comprising whole almonds and almond kernels where the whole almonds:almond kernel ratio is from about 8:1. The 20 blend of whole almonds and almond kernels may form in this embodiment about 30 to 40 wt% of the blend. Then, a source of sugar preferably crystalline sugar may be added to the blend of whole almonds and kernels in a about 60 to about 69wt% of the blend. The remaining amount of the blend comprises flavouring agents and a natural preservative of up to about lwt%. 25 In this preferred embodiment, the blend of almonds and almond kernels are mixed with between about 30 to about 70% of the source of sugar for a period of time until most of the source of sugar sticks to the mixture of almonds and almond kernels. Water may also be optionally added as required. Once the blend of almonds and almond kernels are suitably mixed with the 30 source of sugar then the mixture is ground at least twice through a multi-roller apparatus as described herein. After the mixture passes through the grinding step, the mixture is in sheet like form and is returned to a mixing vessel where it is mixed with the remainder of the source of sugar and optionally honey and flavouring agents. The mixing may be in the form of WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 8 kneading by hand or in a machine where the mixture is worked up into a dough-like consistency. The temperature of the process may be carried our between about 0 0 C to about 40'C, 5*C to about 35'C or preferably 15'C to about 30*C. 5 Once the nut product or the dough-like nut product is formed then the nut product may be cut in to individual portions which may be wrapped and stored at either room temperature or alternatively cooled in a refrigerator between 0 0 C to about 10 C. According to a second embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a dough-like nut product obtained by the process of the first embodiment. 10 According to a third embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for producing a nut milk comprising dissolving the nut product or the dough-like nut product of the second embodiment of the present invention into water. Preferably, the blend comprising nuts, a source of sugar and flavouring agents does not comprise a processing aid or a surfactant. 15 According to a fourth embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a nut milk produced by the process of the third embodiment. According to a fifth embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for producing a marzipan comprising the steps of: a) forming a blend of nuts, a source of sugar, and flavouring agents; 20 b) mixing the nuts together with a portion of the source of sugar in the blend; c) grinding in a plurality of passes the mixture of nuts and source of sugar in step b) so as to form a paste; and d) mixing the paste with the remaining portion of the blend from step a) together with an effective amount of sorbitol to form the marzipan. 25 The step of mixing in step d) preferably further includes kneading the resultant mixture from step d) so as to form a dough-like nut product. The step of kneading may be achieved by way of hand by a mixing machine so as to form the marzipan. The marzipan may be stored at room temperature or cooled before being cut into suitably sized portions. 30 Preferably, the blend comprising nuts, a source of sugar, and flavouring agents does not comprise a processing aid or a surfactant. The blend may also comprise honey. The step of mixing the nuts together with a portion of the source of sugar may also include adding water as desired to assist in the grinding step.

WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 9 According to a sixth embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a marzipan produced according to the fifth embodiment. According to a seventh embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for producing a nut spread comprising blending the nut product of the second 5 embodiment with milk. The blending of the nut product may be continued until a nut spread of smooth consistency is formed. Preferably, the blend comprising nuts, a source of sugar and flavouring agents does not comprise a processing aid or a surfactant. The blend may also comprise honey. The milk used in the seventh embodiment of the present invention may be 10 selected from the group consisting of evaporated milk, skim milk, full cream milk, condensed milk, and other milk products. According to an eighth embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for producing a food product comprising dissolving the nut product of the second embodiment in water and then blending the dissolved nut product in a high speed mixer. 15 The blending is conducted until the food product is substantially solid. The high speed mixer may be an apparatus such as an ice cream maker or an apparatus to make slushies. The nuts used in the present invention may be selected from the group consisting of almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, brazil nuts, chestnuts, walnuts, peanuts, pistachio nuts, 20 pecan nuts, macadamia nuts and cashew nuts. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is the use of almond nuts. The nuts used in the present invention may be in the form of whole nuts or nut kernels or a mixture thereof. The nuts may be roasted or unroasted, skinned or unskinned and whole or in portions such as nut kernels. 25 A mixture of whole nuts and nut kernels is preferred and a preferred ratio of whole nuts to nut kernels is 10:1, still preferred 9:1, still preferred 8:1, still preferred 7:1, still preferred 6:1, still preferred 5:1, still preferred 4:1, still preferred 3:1, still preferred 2:1, and still preferred 1:1. The whole nuts include nuts with their outer skin intact. The source of sugar may provide assistance in the grinding of nuts by absorption 30 of the fat content eg the nut oils and the emulsification of the components. Various sources of sugar may be used in the invention which may be in any suitable form such as for example sugars selected from the group consisting of raw sugar, brown sugar, white sugar, maple sugar, palm sugar, beet sugar, sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, inverted WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 10 sugar, isomerised sugar, xylose, or any other sweet monosaccharide or disaccharide, or sweet polyhydric alcohol. Alternatively, the honey may also be used in the blending of nuts with sugar or alternatively could be substituted for the sugar. The honey may also help in the binding 5 of the nut product or the dough-like nut product prior to cutting and/or use in the preparation of nut beverages, desserts, liqueurs and food products. The honey may be added after the step of grinding. The nut product formed by the present invention is fine in texture and has a dough-like consistency which is able to be kneaded and further worked up. The nut 10 product or the dough-like nut product of the present invention retains the natural oils during the process of the present invention and produces nut milks and nut products with an enhanced taste and flavour. Some examples of flavourings which may be used in the present invention include but are not limited to fruit essences, fruit flavourings, cinnamon essence, bitter is almond essence, sweet almond essence, vanilla essence, apricot, lemon, strawberry, passionfruit, cherry, coffee, tiramisu, caramel, chocolate, orange and lime. The process may be conducted at a temperature from 0 0 C to 40 0 C, preferably 10 C to 35 0 C, more preferably 154C to 30*C and still more preferably 15*C to 25 0 C. Brief Description of the Drawings 20 The present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings; in which: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a process in accordance with an embodiment of this invention; and Figure 2 is a longitudinal cross-section view of a multi roller apparatus used in the 25 embodiment of this invention. Description of Preferred Embodiment(s) The present invention is hereinafter described specifically by way of Examples and with reference to the accompanying drawings. The examples and drawings serve merely to illustrate the invention and should not be construed as limiting the scope and generality of 30 the claims. In the following Examples, the amount of each component used in the following compositions is parts by weight unless otherwise specified. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, reference is made to Fig. 1 which illustrates the process of the invention in a schematic representation. Preparation of Nut Products WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 11 Fig. I shows a schematic view of a process for preparing a nut production accordance with the invention where a blend A comprising nuts, sugar and flavouring agents are formed. A mixture of nuts and approximately half of the sugar in blend A is blended in a mixing vessel (10). The mixture of nuts and sugar is mixed for a period of 5 time of from about 5 to about 10 minutes before being subjected to a multiple grinding step. The multiple grinding is conducted by way of a multi-roller apparatus such as a raffinator (12). The details of a preferred raffinator as used in an embodiment of the invention are shown in Fig.2 of the accompanying drawings. 10 Fig. 2 is a longitudinal cross section view of a multi roller apparatus used in an embodiment of this invention which shows the raffinator (12) which comprises a first roller (18), a second roller (20) and a third roller (22) located alongside each other in a horizontal direction. An entry port for the mixture of nuts and sugar is shown as a hopper (23) which is located in this particular embodiment above and between the first roller (18) 15 and second roller (20). The first roller (18) is a feed roller which rotates in an anti-clockwise direction. The second roller (20) is a centre roller which rotates in a clockwise direction. The third roller (22) is an apron roller which rotates in an anti-clockwise direction. A scraping means in the form of a scraper (24) is positioned towards an end of 20 the raffinator (12) closest to the third roller (22). The scraper is preferably shaped as a blade and acts to remove the nut paste adhered to the third roller (22). The grinding of the nuts and sugar is achieved by feeding the nuts and sugar in to the hopper (23) where the mixture is ground between the first roller (18) and the second roller (20). The mixture of nuts and sugar is then ground between the respective rollers 25 (18 and 20) and adheres to the outer surface of the first roller (18) and second roller (20). Since the first roller (18) rotates in an anti-clockwise direction and the second roller (20) rotates in a clockwise direction, the ground nut product moves from between the first roller (18) and the second roller (20) to the space between the second roller (20) and the third roller (22). Since the third roller (22) rotates in an anti-clockwise direction, the 30 adhered nut product moves towards the scraper (24) where the ground nut product is removed from the outer surface of the third roller (22) and falls down towards a collection tray (26) which is sloped downwardly so as to allow for the nut product to fall towards a collection area (not shown).

WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 12 In a particular embodiment, the distance between the first feed roller (18) and the second centre roller (20) may be approximately 6.45mm before the first pass in the grinding of nuts step. The distance between the first feed roller (18) and the second centre roller (20) may be reduced to a distance of approximately 0.15mm before the 5 second or subsequent pass in the grinding of nuts step. The distance between the second centre roller (20) and the third apron roller (22) may be in the range of about 0.04 to about 0.09mm for all passes in the grinding step. The first roller (18), the second roller (20) and the third roller (22) may be each made of corundum stone which is a hard wearing material which grind the nuts in the 10 grinding step to a fine paste. The length of the first roller (18), the second roller (20) and the third roller (22) may range from about 25 to about 45 cm, preferably about 30 to about 40cm and in this particular example about 38cm. The width of the first roller (18), the second roller (20) and the third roller (22) is may range from about 10 to about 20cm, preferably about 10 to about 15cm and in this particular example about 14cm. The diameter of the first roller (18), the second roller (20) and the third roller (22) may range from about 65 to about 85 cm, preferably about 70 to about 80cm and in this particular example about 75cm. 20 In this particular example, the first, second and third rollers (18, 20 and 22) may have the same dimensions of length, width and diameter. The speeds of the rollers in this example are as follows: First Feed Roller (18) - 5 to 10rpm, preferably 8 to 10rpm and preferably 9rpm; Second Centre Roller (20) - 25 to 30rpm, preferably 27 to 30rpm and preferably 28rpm; 25 Third Apron Roller (22) - 70 to 90rpm, 75 to 85 rpm and preferably 80rpm. The initial paste from the mixture of nuts and sugar from the collection area is kneaded and mixed with the remaining portion of Blend A and placed back in to the hopper (23) where the mixture is blended again as described above. The step of mixing may be by way of hand where the remaining portion of sugar 30 and flavouring agents in Blend A is thoroughly mixed with the initial paste by compacting and turning the mixture over by hand until a dough-like consistency is achieved. Alternatively, the step of mixing may be achieved by adding the remaining portion of sugar and flavouring agents to the initial paste in a commercial mixing machine and thoroughly mixing the mixture until a dough-like consistency is achieved.

WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 13 This step is shown in Fig. 1 as step (14) in the schematic representation. After the nut product or the dough-like nut product has been ground through the raffinator (12) at least twice as described above, the nut product may be refrigerated either before or after further mixing, kneading and being wrapped into suitable portions for 5 storage and for use in production of beverages, liqueurs, food products, milks, granitas, ice creams as will be shown below. In another embodiment, honey may be added to the Blend A as described above in order to provide sweetening properties to the nut product or the dough-like nut product and act as a binder for the final nut product. 10 A further example showing the production of almond paste is shown below. Almond Paste Using almonds as a first example, a nut product of the present invention is produced as follows. 15 A blend (1) is used in the process of the present invention and which comprises: 800gm sugar 400gm whole almonds 50gm almond kernels I drop of cinnamon essence 20 2 drops of bitter almond essence 3 drops of sweet almond essence I mg of sorbic acid 20 ml of water (variable) Stage 1: 25 A mixture of almonds and almond kernels of Blend (I) is placed into a mixer using a mixing hook with approximately half of the amount of sugar and the water. The mixture of almonds and almond kernels is continued to be mixed for 5 minutes until about 75% of the sugar sticks to the mixture of almonds and almond kernels. If required, more water may be added to the mixture. 30 Stage 2: The mixture of almonds and almond kernels is passed through a raffinator three times until the mixture passes through the rollers in sheet form. The details of the raffinator are shown in Fig. 2.

WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 14 Stage 3: The mixture of almonds and almond kernels is returned to the mixing bowl and the remaining ingredients of Blend (I) are added. Using a dough hook, the Blend (I) is kneaded and mixed until a dough-like consistency is formed, for approximately 10 5 minutes. If required more water may be added and typically up to about 10ml may be required. The temperature of the process is carried out from a range of from 0' to 40 0 C, preferably 150 to 30'C. Stage 4: The resulting nut product is turned onto a marble surface and kneaded for about 5 10 minutes. The nut product is then formed into 250gm portions and wrapped. In another example, the same procedure as for the above example is followed except that honey is added in an amount of approximately 20 to 1 00ml at Stage 3 above in addition to the sugar so to provide a dough-like nut product with improved consistency and texture. 15 The nut product or the dough-like nut products are then preferably cooled in a refrigerator and then cut into small portions for either storage at room temperature or in the refrigerator. The quantity of nut products should yield 5 to 6 pieces. Following the same process as for Almond nut products, the following nut pastes are also 20 produced using the same ingredients, quantities and processing technique. The type of nuts and flavourings used in the process, however are changed in the following examples. Hazelnut Pine nuts Brazil Chestnuts Walnut Peanuts 25 Pistachio Pecan Macadamia Cashews A combination of equal parts almond, hazelnut, cashews, brazil, walnut, pecan, macadamia and peanuts can also be made into a suitable dough-like nut product. 30 From these dough-like nut products, other combinations and flavours which have been produced are: ALMOND: apricot WALNUT: coffee WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 15 lemon tiramisu strawberry chocolate cherry caramel coffee HAZELNUT: coffee PISTACHIO: lemon tiramisu chocolate BRAZIL: coffee PECAN: chocolate tiramisu caramel coffee CASHEWS: coffee CHESTNUTS: chocolate caramel coffee PINENUTS: lemon All of these combinations can also incorporate about 10% of almonds to the quantity of nuts used. Nut Milks The nut milks are produced from 250gm of the dough-like nut product formed according 5 to the examples of the present invention and dissolved into I litre of filtered water. These nut milks are to have the descriptive commercial name specified in Italian with an English subtitle. Latte di Madorla: (Almond Milk) Latte di Nociola: (Hazelnut Milk) 10 Latte di Brasile: (Brazil Nut Milk) Latte di Noce: (Walnut Milk) Latte di Pistacchio: (Pistachio Milk) Latte di Macedonie: (Macadamia Milk) Latte di Acagiu: (Cashew Milk) is Latte di Pignoli: (Pinenut Milk) Latte di Castagne: (Chestnut Milk) Latte di Arachidi: (Peanut Milk) WO 2006/000030 PCT/AU2005/000913 16 Latte di Noce Combinate: (Mixed Nuts combination Milk) Marzipans Marzipans are produced by proceeding as described above for the nut product or the dough-like nut product, but then adding 5ml of sorbitol at stage 3. 5 Nut Spreads Nut spreads are made by placing 500gm of a dough-like nut product into a food processor with 200ml of evaporated milk and then blended for 1 minute to a smooth consistency. All of these products are pasteurised and homogenised. Granitas (Slushies) 10 250gm of a dough-like nut product are placed into an ice-cream maker or commercial machine used to produce slushies with 1 litre of filtered water. The mixture is processed until the mixture becomes solid. Liqueurs 250 gm of the nut product is dissolved in 400ml of filtered water. The mixture is heated is to a temperature of about 75 0 C and then allowed to cool to about 20'C. 250 ml of ethanol (in a particular embodiment 95 proof ethanol) is then added to the cooled solution at 20*C. At this stage, flavourings or essences may be added and in particular those flavourings and essences as mentioned in previous examples. The mixture is then thoroughly blended and then sealed into sterilized bottles. 20 Ice Creams 250gm of the nut product is dissolved into 1000ml of filtered water. The mixture is then placed into a commercial ice-cream maker for a time required by the size and model of the particular ice-cream making machine. The advantages of the nut product or the dough-like nut products of the present 25 invention are that these nut products do not require the use of processing aids or surfactants since the process does not lead to the separation of the nut oils from the nuts in the grinding process due to the use of the source of sugar. This leads to the production of nut products with enhanced flavour and texture which also results in milks, marzipans, nut spreads and granitas (slushies), liqueurs and ice creams which have enhanced flavour 30 and texture when compared with prior art nut products. Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the scope of the present invention. It is also understood that the present invention should not be restricted to the particular embodiment(s) and example(s) described above.

Claims

1. A process for producing a nut product comprising the steps of: a) forming a blend comprising a first portion of nuts, a first portion of a source of sugar, and a first portion of flavouring agents; 5 b) mixing said blend to form a mixture; c) passing the mixture between rollers a plurality of times so as to produce a sheet of the mixture; d) combining the sheet with a second portion of the source of sugar and of the flavouring agents and optionally of the nuts, and mixing the resulting combination so as 10 to form the nut product having a dough-like consistency.

2. A process according to claim 1, further comprising adding honey.

3. A process according to claim 2, wherein the honey is present in the nut product in an amount of up to 25wt% of the weight percentage of the source of sugar.

4. A process according to any one of claims I to 3, wherein the step of mixing in i5 step d) includes kneading the combination so as to form the nut product.

5. A process according to claim 4 wherein the kneading is achieved by way of hand or by a dough-mixing machine

6. A process according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein step d) comprises passing the combination between rollers a plurality of times, wherein, if step d) comprises 20 both passing the combination between rollers and kneading the combination, said kneading is conducted after said step of passing the combination between rollers.

7. A process according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein step c) employs a multi-roller apparatus. .25

8. The process of claim 7 wherein the multi-roller apparatus comprises a first, a second and a third roller placed alongside each other.

9. A process according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising adjusting the distance between the rollers after at least one pass.

10. A process according to claim 9, wherein the adjusting comprises reducing said ,5 distance. 1 8

11. A process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the nuts are selected from the group consisting of almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, brazil nuts, chestnuts, walnuts, peanuts, pistachio nuts, pecan nuts, macadamia nuts and cashew nuts.

12. A process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the nuts are 5 in the form of whole nuts, nut kernels or a mixture thereof

13. A process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the source of sugar is selected from the group consisting of raw sugar, brown sugar, white sugar, maple sugar, palm sugar, beet sugar, sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, inverted sugar, isomerised sugar, xylose, a sweet monosaccharide, a sweet disaccharide, a sweet j 0 polyhydric alcohol and mixtures thereof.

14. A process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the flavouring is selected from the group consisting of cinnamon essence, bitter almond essence, sweet almond essence, fruit flavourings, fruit essences, coffee, tiramisu, chocolate, caramel, orange, lime, apricot, lemon, strawberry, cherry and passionfruit. )5

15. A process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein water is added in the mixing of nuts together with a portion of the source of sugar.

16. A process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the process is conducted at a temperature in the range of about 0 0 C to about 40'C.

17. A process according to any one of claims 1 to 16, wherein the amount of the 2C source of sugar added in step d) is about the same as the amount of the source of sugar in the blend of step a).

18. A process for producing a nut milk comprising the step of combining a nut product made by the process of any one of claims 1 to 17 with water.

19. A process for producing a marzipan comprising producing a nut product .23 according to any one of claims 1 to 17 wherein at step d) sorbitol is added.

20. A process according to claim 19, wherein the step of mixing further comprises kneading the nut product to form the marzipan.

21. A process for producing a nut spread comprising the steps of combining a nut product made by the process of any one of claims 1 to 17 with milk and then blending the 2V resulting combination to a smooth consistency, 19

22. A process according to claim 21, wherein the milk is selected from the group consisting of evaporated milk, skim milk, full cream milk, condensed milk, and other milk products.

23. A process for producing a granita comprising the step of mixing a nut product 5 made by the process of any one of claims I to 17 with water in mixing machine until the mixture becomes a solid.

24. A process for producing an ice cream comprising combining a nut product made by the process of any one of claims I to 17 with water and then blending the resulting combination in an ice-cream making machine. o

25. A process for producing a liqueur comprising combining a nut product made by the process of any one of claims 1 to 17 with water and ethanol and blending the resulting combination.

26. The process of claim 25 wherein said combining comprises combining the nut product with the water and subsequently adding the ethanol. 5

27. The process of claim 25 or claim 26 additionally comprising adding one or more flavourings and/or essences when or after adding the ethanol and before the blending.

28. A process according to any one of claims 1 to 27 wherein no processing aid or surfactant is added. 20

29. A process according to any one of claims I to 28 and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the examples. Dated 7 January, 2011 Paolina Santo Giuseppe Santo -25 Patent Attorneys for the Applicant/Norninated Person SPRUSON & FERGUSON