JPH0685680B2 - Method and device for kneading wheat flour - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for kneading wheat flour, which is an ingredient of udon noodles, bread, etc., and which can easily produce dough for these in a short time by kneading wheat flour with water.

BACKGROUND ART Dough for udon, soba, bread, etc. is made by thoroughly kneading raw material flour such as wheat flour or buckwheat flour with predetermined amounts of water and additives. A common conventional method for kneading such powdery materials with water is to place predetermined amounts of raw material flour, water, and additives in a kneading vessel and then knead the mixture manually or mechanically.

However, in such conventional kneading methods, it takes a long time to mix the raw material flour and water etc. uniformly and to make a good quality dough that is as soft as an earlobe. In particular, when kneading by hand, it takes a considerable amount of time, and there are problems such as the quality of the finished dough varying depending on the amount of force used even if the same amount of time is spent.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-12242, a method for producing dough for bread, noodles, etc. has been proposed in which water is mixed and stirred with a powdered food ingredient, and then ice in the mixture is melted.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional method, when ice is mixed with food ingredients, it is done at room temperature, not in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius. Therefore, when ice is mixed with food ingredients, the surface of the ice is covered with a liquid layer, which causes the ice particles to bond together, forming ice blocks, and there is a drawback in that the distribution of the food ingredients and ice is easily uneven.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to make it possible to knead wheat flour and water easily in an extremely short time and to obtain a dough of good quality with almost no difference in the finished product.

<Disclosure of the Invention> Therefore, the method for kneading wheat flour according to the present invention is characterized by comprising a mixing step of mixing wheat flour, which has been cooled to below zero degrees Celsius, with finely divided ice in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius, a melting step of melting the finely divided ice mixed with the wheat flour, and a pressurizing step of applying pressure to the mixture of wheat flour and finely divided ice.

As shown in FIG. 1, the wheat flour kneading device of the present invention is characterized by comprising a mixing step A in which wheat flour, which has been cooled to below zero degrees Celsius, is mixed with fine ice particles in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius; a melting step B in which the fine ice particles mixed with the wheat flour are melted; and a pressurizing step C in which pressure is applied to the mixture of wheat flour and fine ice particles.

In this way, the finely divided ice particles are mixed with the flour by the mixing means A.
When mixing, no liquid layer forms on the surface of the ice, and moisture is not generated until the flour and fine ice particles are completely mixed.
The ice can be uniformly mixed with the flour. After that, the fine particles of ice in the mixture of flour and fine particles of ice are melted by the melting means B, and after or simultaneously with the melting operation, the pressurizing means C is pressed.
This makes it easy to produce even, homogeneous dough by simply applying pressure to remove air.

The finely divided ice particles include snow. The mixing operation is preferably carried out in an atmosphere having a temperature ranging from -30°C to -5°C.

The pressure for de-airing may be applied when melting the fine ice particles or after melting, and the pressure applied is sufficient to remove the air inside.

The particulate ice mixed in the wheat flour may be melted naturally by leaving it in the atmosphere at a temperature higher than zero degrees Celsius, or may be melted by heating it with a pressurizing means.

Furthermore, the finer the particle size of the finely divided ice, the better, and by using powder snow in particular, the finished kneaded product can be made even more homogenous.

Furthermore, when mixing wheat flour and finely divided ice, additives may be mixed in at the same time. When mixing the additives, the additives may be mixed in advance with the wheat flour, or may be contained in the finely divided ice in advance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wheat flour kneading apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an ice-making vessel used in an example of the method for kneading wheat flour according to the present invention.

3(A) and 3(B) are diagrams showing a slicing machine for producing powder snow used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure for attaching the claws to the claw-equipped drum of the slicing machine.

FIG. 5 shows a container for mixing flour and snow powder used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a container used in the powder snow melting process of the embodiment of the present invention.

<Examples of the Invention> Examples of the present invention are described below.

Example 1 Ingredients: Wheat flour 500g Salt water (salt concentration 10%) 230g First, the salt water was mixed with the mixture shown in Figure 2, a = 350mm, b = 250mm, c = 350mm.
The ice was made by placing it in a dish-shaped container made of iron plate with dimensions a = 200 mm, b = 400 mm, e = 280 mm and leaving it still in a freezing chamber at -25°C.

The resulting ice was sliced in a refrigerator at -5°C using a slicing machine as shown in Figures 3(A) and 3(B) to produce powdered snow.

Here, the production of powder snow using the slicing machine will be briefly explained.

After the ice 2 has been placed on the chain conveyor 1, the chain conveyor drive motor 3 is driven. This causes the chain conveyor 1, which is looped around a pair of chain wheels 4, 4, to move, and the ice 2 is sliced into powdery snow by the claws 7 of a claw drum 6, which is driven to rotate by a motor 5 in the direction of the arrow in the figure. The finished powdery snow is blown out of the machine from a discharge port 10 by a blower 9, which is driven by a blower drive motor 8.

As shown in Fig. 4, the claws 7 of the claw-equipped drum 6 are flat, roughly triangular in shape, similar to the tips used in carbide cutting tools, and a large number of such claws 7 are fixed in a row to a long, narrow plate 7a having a length roughly the same as the axial length of the drum 6. The plate 7a is then fitted and fixed into grooves 6a formed at equal intervals around the circumference of the drum 6. In this case, the claws 7 of the front and rear plates 7a are positioned so that they are located between the claws 7 of one side.

The driving conditions of the slicing machine used in this example are as follows:

Electrical capacity of each drive unit: Claw drum 5.5KW, Blower 2.2KW, Chain conveyor 0.2KW Powder snow production conditions: Claw drum outer diameter 550mm, Drum rotation speed (50Hz) 816rpm, Drum peripheral speed 1400m/min, Chain conveyor feed speed 0.4m/min. Separately from the production of powder snow, flour was cooled in advance in a refrigerator at -5°C for 2 hours.

Next, mix 500g of cooled flour with saltwater ice to make the powder snow mixture.
230 g was placed in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius at a temperature of a = 30
The flour and snow powder were mixed in a wooden container with a lid, measuring a = 0 mm, b = 200 mm, and c = 150 mm, using a mixing device.

After mixing, the mixture of flour and snow powder was placed in a dish-shaped container with a wide opening (a = 400 mm, b = 200 mm, c = 30 mm) as shown in Figure 6, and moved to a room heated to 30°C and left for about 90 minutes to melt the snow powder. Then, when the snow powder had mostly melted, a transparent film was placed on the mixture and 16 sheets of paper were placed on top of it.
A weight W of 1000 kg was placed on the mixture and pressure was applied for approximately 30 minutes. The pressure applied was set to a level sufficient to remove the air from inside the mixture, and in this example, it was 0.02 kg/ ^{cm² and} 0.66 kg/ ^cm³ . This pressure removes the air from inside the mixture. When the powder snow inside had completely melted under these conditions and had evenly permeated the wheat flour, the resulting udon dough was just the right softness, about the same as an earlobe.

Example 2 Ingredients 1000g wheat flour 400g water First, the water was frozen in a freezing chamber to make ice.

The resulting ice was sliced in a refrigerator at -10°C using a slicing machine similar to that used in the first embodiment to produce powdery snow.

Meanwhile, wheat flour is pre-cooled in a refrigerator at -5°C, separately from the production of powder snow.

Next, the cooled flour and snow powder were placed in a container in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius and mixed with a mixer.

After mixing, the mixture of wheat flour and snow powder was placed in the same dish-shaped container as in Example 1, as shown in Figure 5, and moved to a room at 20°C. A transparent film was placed on top of the mixture, and a weight was placed on top of that, and a pressure of 0.02 kg/ ^cm² was applied to remove air, and the mixture was left for about an hour. After the snow powder inside had completely melted and permeated the wheat flour evenly, the mixture was removed, and udon dough with just the right softness, about the thickness of an earlobe, was produced.

The reason why salt water is used when kneading udon dough is
Although it is said that salt water is used not for flavoring but to give the dough stickiness, there was almost no difference in the stickiness of the finished udon dough when comparing Example 1, which used salt water, with Example 2, which did not. This is thought to be because mixing powdered materials with other powdered materials is superior to mixing powdered materials with liquid, and by mixing water into wheat flour as finely divided ice, preferably powdered snow, and then melting it, the water penetrates the wheat flour very evenly.

Also, the grain size of the snow is more like washed granular snow (grain size about 0.5m) than powder snow.
When using the granulated sugar snow method, if you mix 45 to 46 parts by weight of zarameyuki with 100 parts by weight of flour and then melt the zarameyuki, there will be areas of the flour where the water has penetrated and areas where it has not, and you will not be able to make a uniform dough if you leave it like this, but by applying pressure and kneading it a little, you can make a dough that is just right.

Example 3: Ingredients: 200g wheat flour, 5000cc lukewarm water (35°C), 700g sugar, 100g salt, 600g egg yolk, 170g dry yeast. First, the sugar, salt, egg yolk, and dry yeast were thoroughly dissolved in the lukewarm water, placed in a container, and frozen in a freezer at -25°C for 24 hours to make ice. Since the ice made with the additives does not become very hard, the resulting ice was finely crushed in a grinder in the freezer at -25°C to form snow. The resulting snow had a viscous consistency due to the molasses covering the surface of the particles.

Meanwhile, 200 g of wheat flour was placed in a freezer at -25°C for about 1 hour to pre-cool it to -10°C.

Next, 140 g of snow was added to 200 g of cooled wheat flour, and the mixture was stirred thoroughly in the freezer using a stirrer to prevent lumps from forming.

The mixture obtained by mixing as described above was divided into approximately 40g portions, placed in transparent film, and wrapped in a thin layer approximately 10mm thick. By creating a thin layer, the difference in melting time between the snow inside and outside the mixture could be reduced. This was then left in a room heated to 30°C for 120 minutes to melt the snow. When the temperature of the mixture rose to 25°C, it was lightly pressurized using a pressure device to remove air. This resulted in bread dough that smelled of fermentation before the first rise.

Since the mixture of flour and snow is frozen, the fermentation of yeast is suppressed, so that the mixture of flour and snow can be stored for a long time in a container, and when you want to bake bread, you can simply thaw the stored mixture to make bread dough in a short time and easily.

The dough prepared in the above example was baked at 30°C.
Place the dough in the oven for about 40 minutes for primary fermentation. At this stage, the volume of the dough will increase by about 2.5 to 3 times. After the primary fermentation is complete, remove the dough from the oven, release the gas, and leave it for about 10 minutes, then place it in a 40°C oven for secondary fermentation for about 30 minutes. At this stage, the volume of the dough will have approximately doubled. Next, raise the oven temperature to 200°C and bake for about 10 minutes to finish the bread.

Example 4 Ingredients: Wheat flour 500g Powdered snow (brine ice) 230g First, salt powder (brine powder) made by dissolving sodium, potassium, carbonate, phosphate, etc. in water in a ratio of 3 parts by weight to 100 parts by weight of water, and then adding salt to make brine. Heat the brine to -25°C.
This ice was then sliced into powder snow using the slicer shown in FIG.

On the other hand, apart from the production of powder snow containing brine, wheat flour is also
Pre-cool in a freezer at 10°C.

Next, the cooled wheat flour and Konayuki were placed in a container shown in Figure 5 and mixed in a refrigerator at -5°C, then melted in a room at 30°C and pressurized, resulting in a ramen dough with the appropriate softness.

As described above, according to the present invention, by uniformly mixing finely divided ice particles with wheat flour that has been cooled to below zero degrees Celsius in advance in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius, and then melting the finely divided ice particles, no liquid layer is formed on the surface of the ice particles when the wheat flour and the finely divided ice particles are mixed, and no moisture is generated until they are completely mixed.
It is possible to make high-quality dough for udon noodles, bread, etc., and the time-consuming kneading process used in the past is no longer necessary.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the wheat flour kneading method and kneading device according to the present invention are extremely effective in improving production efficiency, cost, quality, etc. in the food industry, such as the noodle manufacturing industry and the bread manufacturing industry.

Claims (18)

[Claims] [Claim 1] A method for kneading wheat flour, comprising the steps of: a mixing step in which wheat flour, which has been cooled to below zero degrees Celsius, is mixed with finely divided ice in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius; a melting step in which the finely divided ice mixed with the wheat flour is melted; and a pressurizing step in which pressure is applied to the mixture of wheat flour and finely divided ice. 2. The ambient temperature during the mixing step is -30°C to
2. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein the temperature is in the range of -5°C. 3. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein the melting step is natural melting by leaving the mixture in the atmosphere at a temperature higher than zero degrees Celsius. 4. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein the melting step is carried out by heating using a heating means. 5. Claim 1, wherein the pressurizing step is carried out during the melting step.
The method for kneading the wheat flour described above. 6. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein the pressurizing step is carried out after the melting step is completed. 7. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein the pressure step applies pressure to the extent that air is removed from the mixture of wheat flour and finely divided ice. 8. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein an additive is added to the wheat flour and the finely divided ice in the mixing step. 9. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 8, wherein the additive is premixed with the wheat flour. 10. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 8, wherein the additive is incorporated into finely divided ice in advance. 11. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein the wheat flour is for making noodles. 12. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 11, wherein when the wheat flour is for making noodles, finely divided ice containing salt in advance is used. 13. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 11, wherein when the wheat flour is for making noodles, finely divided ice containing kansui (water syrup) is used. 14. Claim 1, wherein said wheat flour is for bread making.
The method for kneading the wheat flour described above. 15. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 14, wherein when the wheat flour is for bread production, finely divided ice containing sugar, salt, egg yolk and dry yeast is used. 16. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, wherein the finely divided ice is powdered snow. 17. The method for kneading wheat flour according to claim 1, further comprising a step of kneading the mixture of wheat flour and finely divided ice during or after the pressurizing step. [Claim 18] A flour kneading device comprising: a mixing means for mixing flour that has been cooled to below zero degrees Celsius with finely divided ice in an atmosphere below zero degrees Celsius; a melting means for melting the finely divided ice mixed with the flour; and a pressure applying means for applying pressure to the mixture of flour and finely divided ice.