Pearl sugar; process for preparing pearl sugar

Abstract

Disclosed is pearl sugar, having a biggest dimension between 5.6 and 8.0 mm, and a dissolution time at 20° C. lying between 3 minutes and 8 minutes, or a biggest dimension of smaller than 5.6, and a dissolution time at 20° C. lying between 1 minute and 3 minutes and 30 seconds. The invention further relates to a process for the preparation of pearl sugar, using a sugar-containing raw material which is brought to a moisture content lying between 0.5 and 4.0 wt. %, an average size of between 0.40 and 1.20 mm, and whereby at most 2 wt. % of particles have a size of at most 0.20 mm.

Claims

1. A pearl sugar, comprising an agglomerate of sugar crystals of a monosaccharide, a disaccharide or a mixture of a monosaccharide and a disaccharide selected from the group consisting of glucose, fructose, isomaltulose, tagatose, trehalulose, trehalose and sucrose, and mixtures thereof, wherein the agglomerate has an irregular shape having a maximum linear dimension of between 5.6 and 8.0 mm, and bulk density of between 600 and 700 kg/m.sup.3 wherein the agglomerate further has a pore radius of at least 10 μm and at most 70 μm, a grain density of between 1.20 and 1.35 g/cm.sup.3, and a dissolution time in demineralized water at 20° C. of between 3 minutes and 8 minutes and exhibits improved crunch when used in a baked food product.

2. A pearl sugar comprising an agglomerate of sugar crystals of a monosaccharide, a disaccharide, or a mixture of a monosaccharide and a disaccharide selected from the group consisting of glucose, fructose, isomaltulose, tagatose, trehalulose, trehalose and sucrose, and mixtures thereof, wherein the maximum linear size is smaller than 5.6 mm, wherein the agglomerate has a bulk density of between 600 and 700 kg/m.sup.3, wherein the agglomerate further has a pore radius of at least 10 μm and at most 70 μm, a grain density of between 1.20 and 1.35 g/cm.sup.3, and a dissolution time in demineralized water at 20° C., of between 1 minute and 3 minutes and 30 seconds and exhibits improved crunch when used in a baked food product.

3. The pearl sugar as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sugar in the sugar crystals consists essentially of crystals of sucrose and/or isomaltulose.

4. The pearl sugar as claimed in claim 1, having a pore volume of between 120 mm.sup.3/g and 155 mm.sup.3/g.

5. A process for the preparation of a pearl sugar comprising an agglomerate of pearl sugar crystals useful for providing improved crunch to a baked food product comprising the steps of: (A) a preparatory step, in which a raw material containing crystals of a monosaccharide, a disaccharide or a mixture of a monosaccharide and a disaccharide selected from the group consisting of glucose, fructose, isomaltulose, tagatose, trehalulose, trehalose and sucrose, and mixtures thereof is brought to a moisture content between 0.5 and 4.0 wt. %, whereby the raw material has an average crystal size dimension of between 0.40 and 1.20 mm and contains at most 2 wt. % of crystal particles having a crystal size of at most 0.20 mm; (B) a pressing step, wherein the raw material from step (A) is pressed into briquettes; (C) a drying step, wherein the briquettes of step (B) are dried; (D) a maturation step, wherein the dried briquettes from step (C) are subjected to the action of air having relative humidity between 30 and 70% and a temperature between 15 and 35° C. for a residence time of at least 12 hours; and (E) a breaking step, wherein the briquettes from step (D) are milled or broken to form particles of agglomerates of said sugar crystals having an irregular shape having a maximum linear dimension of between 5.6 and 8.0 mm and a bulk density of between 600 and 700 kg/m.sup.3, and wherein each agglomerate has a pore radius of at least 10 μm and at most 70 μm, a grain density of between 1.20 and 1.35 g/cm.sup.3, and a dissolution time in demineralized water at 20° C., of between 3 minutes and 8 minutes, and exhibits crunch; and (F) optionally a sieving step, wherein the agglomerates of pearl sugar crystals from step (E) is brought to a defined range of agglomerate particle sizes.

6. The process according to claim 5, wherein the raw material consists essentially of sucrose and/or isomaltulose.

7. The process according to claim 5 wherein the standard deviation of an average size of the agglomerate particles, expressed as percentage of the average size, is at most 40%.

8. The process according to claim 5, wherein in the preparatory step (A) the raw material is brought to a moisture content between 0.8 and 1.6 wt. %.

9. The process according to claim 5, further comprising a recirculation step (B1) wherein a portion of a side stream, comprising raw material which was not converted into briquettes during the pressing step (B), is used again in the preparatory step (A) by mixing the portion of the side stream with fresh raw material to form a feeding mixture, whereby in the pressing step (B) the feeding mixture is pressed into briquettes.

10. The process according to claim 5, wherein the drying step (C) is executed in an infrared oven or in a microwave oven.

11. The process according to claim 5, wherein the preparatory step (A), the pressing step (B), the drying step (C), and the maturation step (D) are executed such that the resulting briquettes have a hardness between 150 N and 350 N.

12. The process according to claim 5, wherein the maturation step (D) is executed with air having a relative humidity between 40 and 60% and a temperature between 20 and 30° C.

13. The agglomerate of pearl sugar crystals as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sugar in the pearl sugar crystals consists essentially of sucrose and/or isomaltulose.

14. The agglomerate of pearl sugar crystals as claimed in claim 2, having a bulk density lying between 620 and 680 kg/m.sup.3.

15. The agglomerate of pearl sugar crystals as claimed in claim 2, having a pore radius of 10 μm.

16. The agglomerate of pearl sugar crystals as claimed in claim 2, having a pore volume of between 120 mm.sup.3/g and 155 mm.sup.3/g.

17. A process for the preparation of an agglomerate of pearl sugar crystals formed by the steps of: (A) a preparatory step, in which a raw material containing crystals of a monosaccharide and a disaccharide selected from the group consisting of glucose, fructose, isomaltulose, tagatose, trehalulose, trehalose and sucrose, and mixtures thereof is brought to a moisture content between 0.5 and 4.0 wt. %, whereby the raw material has an average crystal size dimension of between 0.40 and 1.20 mm and contains at most 2 wt. % of crystal particles having a crystal size of at most 0.20 mm; (B) a pressing step, wherein the raw material is pressed into briquettes; (C) a drying step, wherein the briquettes are pre-dried; (D) a maturation step, wherein the pre-dried briquettes are subjected to the action of air having relative humidity between 30 and 70% and a temperature between 15 and 35° C. for a residence time of at least 12 hours; and (E) a breaking step, wherein the dried briquettes are milled or broken to form particles of agglomerates of pearl sugar crystals having an irregular shape having a maximum linear dimension, wherein the maximum linear dimension is smaller than 5.6, and wherein each agglomerate has a pore radius of at least 10 μm and at most 70 μm, a grain density of between 1.20 and 1.35 g/cm.sup.3, and a bulk density of between 600 and 700 kg/m.sup.3, and a dissolution time in demineralized water at 20° C. of between 1 minute and 3 minutes and 30 seconds, and exhibits crunch; and (F) optionally a sieving step, wherein the agglomerates of pearl sugar crystals from step (E) is brought to a defined range of agglomerate particle sizes.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In the figures,

(2) FIG. 1 shows an scanning electron microscope (SEM) picture of a section of a pearl sugar according to the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a SEM picture of a section of a known pearl sugar, namely pearl sugar type P4 (supplier: Tiense Suikerraffinaderij NV); compared to the pearl sugar of the invention, the known pearl sugar shows a significant higher degree of very fine particles and also significantly more breakdown of the main crystal structures;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a briquette according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(5) The invention will be illustrated by means of the following Examples and Comparative Experiments, without being limited to it.

Example 1

(6) A raw material consisting of sucrose having an MA of 0.67 mm, a CV of 29%, 0.3 wt. % of particles of at most 0.20 mm, and 0.03 wt. % moisture was brought to a moisture content of 1.2 wt. %. The raw material was pressed in a roll press to briquettes having an average weight of 13.5 grams. The briquettes were pre-dried in a microwave oven to a moisture content of 0.6 wt. %, immediately after which they were left—in a relaxation step—in ambient air and at room temperature for about 20 minutes, leading to a further reduction of the moisture content to 0.35 wt. %. At that point, the hardness of the briquettes was on average 90 N. The pre-dried briquettes were now subjected to the maturation step, in which the briquettes were exposed to air of 25° C. and having a relative humidity of 50% during 7 days, after which the moisture content of the dried briquettes was 0.05 wt. % and their hardness was 225 N. The dried briquettes (see FIG. 3) were then subjected to a breaking step in a lump breaker, whereby pearl sugar was formed. The pearl sugar had a dissolution time in Test A of 5 minutes and 45 seconds, a pore radius of 28 μm, a pore volume of 149 mm.sup.3/g, a bulk density of 670 kg/m.sup.3, and a grain density of 1.27 g/cm.sup.3. A SEM-picture of part of one individual pearl sugar is shown in FIG. 1.

Comparative Experiment A

(7) Measurements were done on commercially available pearl sugar of type P4 (Tiense Suikerraffinaderij). The known pearl sugar had a dissolution time in Test A of 10 minutes and 30 seconds, a pore volume of 104 mm.sup.3/g, a pore radius of 7 μm, a bulk density of 730 kg/m.sup.3, and a grain density of 1.36 g/cm.sup.3.

(8) A measurement was furthermore done on a dried briquette, made not according to the invention and leading to the known P4-type of pearl sugar. The known briquette had a hardness of 413 N.

(9) From Example 1 and Comparative Experiment A it follows that the pearl sugar according to the invention exhibits significantly different properties as compared to the known pearl sugar.

Example 2

(10) The pearl sugar as prepared in Example 1 was sieved to the size specifications of pearl sugar type P4 (Tiense Suikerraffinaderij), i.e.: at least 70 wt. % is between 5.6 mm and 8 mm, at most 20 wt. % is smaller than 5.6 mm, and at most 15 wt. % is bigger than 8 mm. This portion was used to prepare Liége Waffels. The following ingredients were used:

(11) TABLE-US-00001 Ingredient Amount Pastry flour 750 g Milk (lukewarm) 270 ml Fresh yeast 70 g Eggs 3 Egg yolks 2 Vanilla sugar 4 g Butter 400 g Pearl sugar 500 g Salt a pinch of salt

(12) All ingredients except for the butter and the pearl sugar were mixed together to form a dough. The dough was left to rest for 30 minutes. The butter and pearl sugar were then kneaded into the dough: first the butter, then the pearl sugar. The dough was divided into portions of about 100 grams; these portions were left to rest for 15 minutes, after which waffles were baked in a standard electrical waffle iron. The baking time was three minutes.

(13) The waffles were evaluated by slicing them in two (along the plane surface) and determining how many of the pearl sugars were hard or soft. A pearl sugar in a Liége waffle was considered ‘hard’ when it exhibited a brittle-crunchy behaviour when probed with a toothpick and only a very small degree of melting. A pearl sugar in a Liége waffle was considered ‘soft’ when it had melted somewhat but still showed some crunchy behaviour.

(14) Of the pearl sugars in the waffles, 41% was considered to be hard, while 59% was considered to be soft. No pearls had melted away completely.

Comparative Experiment B

(15) Liége waffles were prepared according to the method as described in Example 2, with however the difference that the pearl sugar used was not pearl sugar according to the invention but was pearl sugar type P4 (supplier-Tiense Suikerraffinaderlj). Upon evaluation of the waffles, 60% of the pearls sugars were considered to be hard, while 40% were considered to be soft. No pearls had melted away completely.

(16) From Example 2 and Comparative Experiment B it follows that the pearl sugar according to the invention can exhibit a significantly different behaviour in use as compared to the known pearl sugar.

Example 3

(17) During preparation of the pearl sugar as given in Example 1, the breaking step led also to a fraction ‘S’ of pearl sugar having smaller dimensions. The ‘S’ fraction pearl sugar met the size requirements of the P1 pearl sugar product from Tiense Suikerraffinaderij NV, and was thus suitable as such for Test B. Fraction ‘S’ was submitted to Test B. The resulting dissolution time was 2 minutes and 23 seconds.