Technical field of the invention

The present invention relates to a process for the production of edible receptacles for frozen confections, such as ice cream cones. In particular it relates to a process that provides edible receptacles which are made up of different coloured materials and that have decorated surfaces.

Background to the invention

Ice cream cone products, such as Cornetto™, are popular and well known. These products typically consist of a wafer cone filled with ice cream. These wafers are made from a batter which is largely composed of flour, sugar, fat and/or oil, and water. Once the ingredients have been mixed the batter is poured onto a baking plate, typically a metal surface heated to a temperature in excess of 200°C. During baking most of the water is driven off as steam. Due to the high sugar content of the wafers they are relatively plastic and flexible at the high temperature of the baking plate. Therefore, immediately after baking, the wafers can be formed into a receptacle by shaping the flexible wafer with a forming element such as a mandrel. The receptacle can then filled with a frozen confection on top of which sauces and pieces of biscuit, nut or fruit may be dispensed to provide an attractive appearance to the product.

However, edible receptacles, in particular cones, are a very well known product to consumers who are continually looking for new eating experiences. Conventional edible receptacles may be perceived as somewhat old fashioned and uninteresting. For example, the cones themselves have a plain and uniform appearance. Therefore there have been attempts to make cones that are decorated. For example, it is known to spray cones with one or more food dyes in order to produce single coloured or multi-coloured decorated cones. However adding a post-production spraying step is expensive, inconvenient and adds complexity to the manufacturing process, particularly where space on a factory production line is limited.

WO 2008 / 122486 discloses a multi-coloured baked cone which is made from a dough bi-layer. One layer consists of a sugarless batter which is deposited as continuous lines or waves onto a bottom baking plate. A conventional batter with sugar is then dosed directly on top of the sugarless dough to provide a backing layer to the product. The top baking plate is then closed on top of the batters to spread and bake them to form a wafer sheet which is then rolled to form a cone. When baked, the sugarless batter is a lighter colour than the conventional batter. The cone is rolled such that the sugarless first batter is on the outer surface to provide some contrasting colour to the final cone. However, upon consumption, the inner surface of the cone becomes visible to the consumer, especially when the edible receptacle has not been coated in any way, and it is then apparent to the consumer that such products are merely decorated on their outer surface and may not be considered to be a quality product. Furthermore, because the conventional batter is applied directly onto the top of the sugarless batter and then compressed between the baking plates the two different batters may not be clearly delineated and the interface between the two different batters is not well defined. Another disadvantage of this process is that the detail that can be obtained is rather basic - only blobs, stripes or waves can be provided to the final product and more complex decorations are not possible. Other approaches have endeavoured to use more complex drawing methods to achieve more detailed designs. For example, robotic arms have been used that attempt to deposit a layer of batter onto a baking plate or onto the surface of a product as it moves past but such apparatus is extremely complex and very expensive. It is also difficult to configure for use on a continuous production line such as those now commonly used for the manufacture of edible receptacles. There therefore remains a need for a process of producing an edible receptacle with detailed decorations that overcomes these issues.

Brief description of the invention

We have developed a process which results in edible receptacles having detailed decorations which are very clearly delineated from the rest of the receptacle. Furthermore these decorations and their clear delineation are equally apparent when the edible receptacle is viewed from either the inner or outer surfaces. Accordingly, in a first aspect, the invention provides a process for preparing an edible receptacle comprising the steps of:

a) providing a first batter comprising flour, sugar, fat and/or oil and water;

b) providing a second batter comprising flour, sugar, fat and/or oil and water;

c) adding a colouring agent to one of the batters;

d) depositing an arrangement of droplets of the first and second batters onto a bottom baking plate in the form of a matrix; e) allowing the droplets of the first and second batters to spread and come into contact with each other;

f) placing a top baking plate on top of the deposited batters thereby baking the deposited droplets of the first and second batters together to form a unitary wafer sheet; and

g) forming the wafer sheet into an edible receptacle

Preferably the colouring agent is cocoa powder. Preferably a second colouring agent is added to the other batter.

Preferably the ratio of the first batter to the second batter is from 0.05: 1 to 0.5: 1.

Preferably the receptacle is a cone with a circular cross-section. Alternatively the receptacle has a polygonal cross section such as a triangle, square, rectangle or hexagon.

Preferably the receptacle has a wall thickness of from 0.5mm to 3mm. Preferably the receptacle has a mass of from 5 to 20g, more preferably from 7 to 15g.

Preferably a single batter comprising flour, sugar, fat and/or oil and water is prepared which is then divided into two parts to provide the first and second batters. In a second aspect, the present invention provides a composite frozen confection product which comprises an edible receptacle produced according to the first aspect of the invention and a frozen confection.

In a third aspect, the present invention provides a process for the production of a composite frozen confection of the second aspect, the process comprising the steps of dispensing a frozen confection into an edible receptacle produced according to the first aspect of the invention.

Drawings

The present invention will be further described by reference to the figures wherein: Figure 1 shows an arrangement of droplets of the first and second batters in the form of a matrix on a bottom baking plate.

Figure 2 shows how the droplets combine together if allowed to spread.

Figure 3 shows a cross section of figure 2.

Figure 4 shows a cone formed from a wafer sheet produced according to the invention.

Detailed description of the invention

All percentages, unless otherwise stated, refer to the percentage by weight, with the exception of percentages cited in relation to the overrun.

Wafers are common components of many frozen confections and can be simply be inserted into a frozen confection as a surface decoration or can be formed into receptacles in which a frozen confection can be held. Wafers are typically crisp, sweet, thin, flat, dry biscuit confections containing flour, sugar, fat and/or oil and water. They are manufactured by mixing the ingredients to form a batter which is then poured onto a heated surface (referred to herein as a baking plate) on which they are cooked for a period of time during which most of the water is driven off and the batter cooks. A second baking plate can also be used to accelerate the baking process wherein the additional baking plate is lowered onto the upper surface of the batter. The resulting wafer sheet is thus baked, typically to a golden brown colour due to the sugar in the batter. The sugar also imparts flexibility to the wafer sheet because it remains in a plastic state at the high baking temperatures. The wafer sheet can therefore be formed into edible receptacles while still flexible. This can be achieved using approaches known to the skilled person, for example by moulding the wafer sheet over a forming element. The resulting receptacles can be in the form of dishes, cases, tubs, baskets, and so on. Cones are particularly preferred in the context of this invention.

In the present invention, edible receptacles made from wafers that have detailed decorations that are very clearly delineated the rest of the wafer are obtained by using differently coloured batters. The batters are positioned in a particular way on the baking plate under conditions that allow them to come into contact with each other in a controlled manner.

In the process of the invention a first and second batter are prepared using techniques known to the skilled person. Alternatively a single batter can be made that is then split to provide a first and second batter. To achieve different colours in the final wafer product a colouring agent is added to one of the batters. The colouring agent is preferably cocoa powder which imparts both colour and flavour but any suitable edible colouring agent may be employed. The colouring agent may colour the batter itself and / or may take on a particular colour when subjected to the high temperature of the baking plate. In another embodiment a further colouring agent may be added to the other batter to provide an even more unique product.

As shown in figure 1 , a wafer sheet that has an integral design or decoration can be formed by depositing an arrangement of droplets of a first batter 2 and a second batter 3 onto a bottom baking plate 1. By arranging the droplets in this way a detailed decoration can be obtained. Furthermore, such a process which involves the deposition of small droplets to describe a larger, more detailed design is particularly suitable for creating decorated wafers on a continuous production apparatus such as a moving conveyer belt of bottom baking plates. In such an apparatus the bottom baking plates move past the device that is used to deposit the droplets and the decoration can then be formed one line at a time. The particular advantage of this process would, for example, be realised when laying down the droplets for the undulation of the top part of the motif. In the process according to the invention droplets of differently coloured batters are deposited simultaneously and so, for example, both the lines at the edge of the heart-shaped motif of figure 1 and the downward pointing part of the undulation can be deposited in parallel whereas previous techniques would require the production line to slow, possibly even stop and reverse to achieve this motif, or alternatively the means for laying down the coloured batter would also have to be moved relative to the conveyer of bottom baking plates.

The droplets of the first and second batters can be deposited using various apparatus but particularly preferred is to use at least one linear array of nozzles from which the droplets of batter are pumped. This array of nozzles may be arranged substantially perpendicularly to the relative direction of movement of the bottom baking plate 1.

As can be seen in figure 1 , the droplets may be arranged in the form of rows and columns. In effect, the droplets form a 2-dimensional matrix and the decoration is determined by the location of the differently coloured droplets. In this way a complex decoration can easily be encoded into a set of vectors that describe where the droplets of each colour should be placed on the bottom baking plate. In an alternative embodiment of the invention a hexagonally packed two dimensional matrix may also be used. A preferred embodiment is shown in figure 1 in which the second batter is not arranged in a rectangular form but actually has an ovoid form. This arrangement ensures that the wafer sheet produced from this arrangement of droplets will also have an ovoid form which is preferred for making the edible receptacles of the invention, particularly cones.

The size, volume and diameter of the droplets are determined by the level of detail required for the decoration and the apparatus used to deposit the droplets. Preferably the droplets are small enough to provide very detailed decorations. In a preferred embodiment the droplets are therefore at most 0.75ml in volume, more preferably at most 0.5ml, more preferably still at most 0.25ml, yet more preferably still at most 0.1 ml. It is necessary for the droplets to adjoin one another in the final product and so they should be of a sufficient volume and positioned close enough to their neighbours such that when they spread out after deposition they are able to touch those neighbouring droplets. Figure 2 represents the heart motif of figure 1 in which the droplets of the first batter have spread and joined to form a continuous line 21 and the droplets of the second batter have also relaxed and come into contact with their neighbours to form a continuous portion of batter 31.

The spreading of the droplets of batter may take place very quickly (less than 1 second in some cases) if the batter is of a low viscosity or longer if the batters are particularly thick. As the batters relax they spread outward and towards each other, coming into contact with each other as shown in figure 2. As can be seen in figure 2, the interface between the two batters is very clearly delineated. As the droplets of the differently coloured batters come into contact with each other the edges of the droplets abut and prevent further spreading outwards, creating the clear edge seen between the first batter 21 and second batter 31 in figure 2. Furthermore, the lateral forces of the spreading batters act against one another at the interfaces of the differently coloured batters and a substantially vertical face is formed along these interfaces. This is shown schematically in figure 3 which is a cross section taken along line A-B of figure 2. It can therefore be seen that the process of the invention allows the formation of a decoration that is not only detailed but also clearly delineated within the wafer precursor on the bottom baking plate 1. For typical single-serve edible receptacles the total amount of batter deposited is preferably at least 5g, more preferably at least 10g, more preferably still at least 20g and preferably at most 50g, more preferably at most 40g, most preferably at most 30g. The ratio of the first batter to the second batter is preferably from 0.05:1 to 0.5: 1 , more preferably from 0.1 : 1 to 0.4: 1 , more preferably still from 0.2: 1 to 0.3.: 1. The batters preferably have similar compositions - i.e. they are made from essentially the same ingredients (with the exception of the different colouring agents) and these ingredients are in approximately the same proportions. In addition, the batters are preferably prepared in the same way. This ensures that the rheologies of the batters are similar and that when they are apportioned onto the bottom baking plate 3 they spread out over the bottom baking plate 3 at the same rate, and also bake at the same rate when the come into contact with it. The bottom baking plate 3 is typically at a temperature of from 200 to 250°C. In order to fully bake the wafer a top baking plate is lowered onto the top of the batters. This top baking plate is at approximately the same temperature as the bottom baking plate 1 and serves to drive off the water from the batters and bake the wafer to form the final wafer sheet. Typically the baked wafer sheet will weigh about 25% to 50% less than the mass of the batter deposited. Dependent on the temperature of the baking plates this step takes from about 45 seconds to about 120 seconds. The action of the top baking plate flattens the batters and further bakes them together to form a unitary wafer sheet which, when removed from bottom baking plate 1 will be two-sided, i.e. the decoration achieved and its clear delineation will be discernable to the consumer irrespective of which side of the wafer sheet they are looking at.

Any baking-plate apparatus is suitable for the process of the invention but particularly suitable is a conveyer-belt type baking plate apparatus in which the plates are moved relative to the means for dosing the batters and hence a continuous production process can be employed.

Following baking, the wafer sheet is at a high temperature and the sugar in the wafer remains sufficiently plastic to allow the wafer sheet to be shaped into an edible receptacle. This shaping can be achieved by forming the flexible wafer sheet around a mandrel or a similar forming element. In a preferred embodiment the edible receptacle is a cone which can be formed by passing the flexible wafer into a cone rolling apparatus consisting of a rotating conical mandrel within a conical sleeve. The space between the mandrel and sleeve determines the thickness of the wafer in the final product and the pressure applied forms the wafer sheet into the cone form and acts to seal the adjoining surfaces of the cone together. Figure 4 shows such a final cone product in which the wafer sheet was fed into such a cone roller, the end having the heart motif was fed in last and wrapped around the rest of the wafer sheet to form a decorated cone product.

To prevent the edible receptacle from becoming soggy by absorbing water from a frozen confection dispensed into it, the inside of the edible receptacle may optionally be coated, usually by spraying with a fat-based coating, such as chocolate or couverture, to form a moisture barrier.

Finally, the edible receptacle can be filled with a frozen confection. As used herein, frozen confection means an edible confection made by freezing a mix of ingredients which includes water. Frozen confections typically contain fat, non-fat milk solids and sugars, together with other minor ingredients such as stabilisers, emulsifiers, colours and flavourings. Preferred frozen confections are those that are typically provided in edible receptacles and include ice cream, frozen yoghurt, sorbet, sherbet, and the like. These frozen confections can be prepared using known techniques. Frozen confections are typically aerated. The term aeration means that gas has been incorporated into a product to form air cells. The gas can be any gas but is preferably, particularly in the context of food products, a food-grade gas such as air, nitrogen or carbon dioxide. The extent of the aeration can be measured in terms of the volume of the aerated product. The extent of aeration is typically defined in terms of "overrun". In the context of the present invention, % overrun is defined in volume terms as:

( volume of final aerated product - volume of unaerated mix )

Overrun (%) = x 100

volume of unaerated mix

The amount of overrun present in the frozen confection will vary depending on the desired product characteristics and is preferably at least 25%, more preferably at least 50%, more preferably still at least 75% and preferably at most 200%, more preferably at most 150%. The present invention will now be further described with reference to the following non- limiting example.

Example

Table 1 - Batter formulations

Coloured and non-coloured batters can be prepared according to the formulations of table 1. The water should be heated to 32-33°C into which the salt is dissolved. The sugar, potato starch and cocoa powder (when present) are then added, followed by the wheat flour. The mixture is gently stirred for 2min and then a mixture of the melted oil and lecithin are stirred in for a further 60 sec. The viscosity of the batters can be assessed by measuring the time taken to pour 30ml of each batter into a measuring cylinder under the identical conditions. The time taken should be the same and hence the viscosities should be similar.

Droplets of the coloured batter and plain batters can be applied using a 24 head Foodjet applicator (De Groot Innovation B.V.). The droplets should be applied in rows to a bottom baking plate which is at a temperature of 235°C. The baking plate can be continuously moved past the applicator which deposits the other rows of droplets to form, for example, a heart-shaped motif. After the droplets have been deposited they are allowed to spread out and adjoin their neighbours. A top baking plate at a temperature of 245°C is then lowered onto the batters and left in place for 60 seconds to bake the batters into a unitary wafer sheet. A unitary wafer sheet produced in this way will have a clear and detailed heart decoration and due to the lateral forces created as the droplets spread and abut one another the delineation between the decoration and the rest of the batter will be very clear.

After the top baking plate is lifted, the bottom baking plate can be moved into a position under a suction cup on a swinging arm which can remove the wafer sheet from the bottom baking plate and transfer it to a cone forming apparatus.

As can be appreciated from the foregoing, the resulting wafer sheet will have a very clearly formed decoration and the differently coloured batters will be clearly delineated from each other. Furthermore, because the process doses the two batters at the same time the decoration will be visible from both surfaces of the wafer sheet formed and hence will be visible on both the internal and external surfaces of the cone formed.