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Abstract

The present invention teaches how to make high moisture shaped cereal foods from cereal flour and fluid-milk and/or water; said cereal foods having a higher than 40% moisture content, a thin surface skin, and a soft, smooth, homogenous interior texture. The shaped cereal and milk foods of the present invention taste similar to the traditional cereal and milk that have always been consumed from a bowl with a spoon while also having the added benefit of being able to be eaten hand-held, on-the-go. The process of the present invention can also be used to make high moisture rice fries from rice flour and water. Having a higher than 40% moisture content is important because it provides the moisture and lubricity that both fat-fried and oven-baked rice fries products need. In the process of the present invention, cereal grains from one cereal genera or mixtures of different cereal genera are milled into a cereal flour. Fluid-milk and/or water is then infused into the starch granules of the cereal flour at temperatures above 170 F inside a cooker until the fluid-infused cereal flour thickens into a viscous, smooth and homogenous consistency. Additional food ingredients that impart flavor, color, water-binding and freeze-thaw stability properties to the finished product can also be infused into the cereal flour. Outside the cooker and with the retained heat and fluid from the cooking step, the starch granules of the fluid-infused cereal flour continue to both absorb some of the retained fluid and increase to a viscosity that is thick and firm enough to maintain a formed shape. Said fluid-infused cereal flour is then formed into shaped units with low-shear forming systems or cut into individual units with cutters. The individual units are spaced apart in a mono-layer before they are conveyed into either a continuous fat-fryer or oven which further heat the units thereby fully gelatinizing the starch granules of the fluid-infused cereal flour and developing a thin surface skin while retaining a higher than 40% moisture level and a soft, smooth, homogenous interior texture.

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First Claim