The present disclosure relates to food products having a dough component with a unique appearance and texture. The food product may be a pizza product. In a general embodiment, the dough component of the food product includes malted barley flour in an amount greater than 1% to about 3%, which helps to create and maintain the unique appearance and texture of the food product. Methods for making a dough-based food product are also provided and include mixing a dough having malted barley flour in an amount from about 0.5% to about 3.0%, fermenting the dough, pressing the dough with a die having unique characteristics, and baking the dough to form a baked dough.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming a stuffed crust pizza on a continuous high speed basis. The invention can form and deposit a cheese rope in either an ellipse or circular shape, onto a moving sheet of dough with multiple lanes using a waterwheel flow divider. An encoder is mounted to the conveyor feeding the dough to the apparatus. This provides both position information and speed of the dough to a motion controller to guide the movement of the nozzles. A stamping device initially presses an indentation of the cheese shape into the dough sheet and provides a natural resting location for the cheese to be deposited. A set of two nozzles per lane is utilized to form the cross sectional shape of the cheese. Each nozzle forms one half of the total shape of the cheese and the flow to each nozzle is controlled by a waterwheel flow divider.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming a stuffed crust pizza on a continuous high speed basis. The invention can form and deposit a cheese rope in either an ellipse or circular shape, onto a moving sheet of dough with multiple lanes using a waterwheel flow divider. An encoder is mounted to the conveyor feeding the dough to the apparatus. This provides both position information and speed of the dough to a motion controller to guide the movement of the nozzles. A stamping device initially presses an indentation of the cheese shape into the dough sheet and provides a natural resting location for the cheese to be deposited. A set of two nozzles per lane is utilized to form the cross sectional shape of the cheese. Each nozzle forms one half of the total shape of the cheese and the flow to each nozzle is controlled by a waterwheel flow divider.

Squeezeeta is a method of producing pizza dough more quickly and conveniently, for both consumers and manufacturers. It is particularly useful in manufacturing—enabling a shorter assembly line than in current set-ups, faster speeds, and reductions in energy consumption and cost of production. The method produces a packaged good in the form of a squeezable pizza dough in a pouch (sac-à-poche), marketable to both retail consumers and food services. The method can also be used for bread, pasta, croissant, crepes etc. Squeezeeta also enables consumers to create pizza at home from scratch, which is fully customizable in shape, size and crust thickness, and greatly surpasses competitors for freshness, quality and taste. Requiring no special expertise or professional pizza-maker skills, the Squeezeeta method also allows food services operations to achieve huge savings. The Squeezeeta method can be applied, with proper adjustments, to other popular dough-based products (including bread and pasta).

A pizza saucer having a housing in which components may be mounted. The housing includes a base having an upwardly facing deck, a neck that extends from the base to a head, and a manifold mounted to the head facing the deck. The housing contains at least one pump to convey pizza sauce from a source to the manifold, and a computer that controls a rotary prime mover in the base with a driveshaft extending through the deck to a tray drivingly linked to the driveshaft. An input, such as a touchscreen, is mounted to the head and faces the user during operation. With the touchscreen, the user may input the crust size. The computer actuates the pumps and the rotary prime mover, simultaneously causing the crust to rotate 360-370 degrees and the manifold to dispense sauce onto the crust until the crust is coated.

A pizza saucer having a housing in which components may be mounted. The housing includes a base having an upwardly facing deck, a neck that extends from the base to a head, and a manifold mounted to the head facing the deck. The housing contains at least one pump to convey pizza sauce from a source to the manifold, and a computer that controls a rotary prime mover in the base with a driveshaft extending through the deck to a tray drivingly linked to the driveshaft. An input, such as a touchscreen, is mounted to the head and faces the user during operation. With the touchscreen, the user may input the crust size. The computer actuates the pumps and the rotary prime mover, simultaneously causing the crust to rotate 360-370 degrees and the manifold to dispense sauce onto the crust until the crust is coated.

A process of producing a frozen sheeted dough, which can be prepared without using stress-free sheeting process and transferred directly from the freezer to oven without a proofing step. The process comprises mixing the dough ingredients comprising yeast and chemical leavening agents; resting the dough to form air cell structure; subjecting the dough to high stress sheeting compressions and freezing the dough. The frozen dough can be directly transferred to an oven without a proofing step. The resulting baked product has desirable texture and taste.

A process of producing a frozen sheeted dough, which can be prepared without using stress-free sheeting process and transferred directly from the freezer to oven without a proofing step. The process comprises mixing the dough ingredients comprising yeast and chemical leavening agents; resting the dough to form air cell structure; subjecting the dough to high stress sheeting compressions and freezing the dough. The frozen dough can be directly transferred to an oven without a proofing step. The resulting baked product has desirable texture and taste.

A three-dimensional (3D) printer system is disclosed. The 3D-printer system comprises an extruder, a housing configured to house the extruder, a 3D-printer base including a print bed, the print bed configured to receive material extruded from the extruder, and a first sensor configured to detect a location of an object on the print bed. In some embodiments, the 3D-printer system further comprises a plurality of sensors coupled to the housing or to the extruder, the plurality of sensors including the first sensor, wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to obtain data for detection of the location of the object. In yet some embodiments, the 3D-printer system of claim further comprises a processor and a non-transitory, computer-readable medium having stored thereon logic, the logic when executed performs operations including receiving data from the first sensor and detecting the location of the object on the print bed based on the data.

A three-dimensional (3D) printer system is disclosed. The 3D-printer system comprises an extruder, a housing configured to house the extruder, a 3D-printer base including a print bed, the print bed configured to receive material extruded from the extruder, and a first sensor configured to detect a location of an object on the print bed. In some embodiments, the 3D-printer system further comprises a plurality of sensors coupled to the housing or to the extruder, the plurality of sensors including the first sensor, wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to obtain data for detection of the location of the object. In yet some embodiments, the 3D-printer system of claim further comprises a processor and a non-transitory, computer-readable medium having stored thereon logic, the logic when executed performs operations including receiving data from the first sensor and detecting the location of the object on the print bed based on the data.