Production of snacks having an expanded, crispy, chip-like textured coating

Abstract

A savory or sweet snack having an expanded, crispy, chip-like textured, substantially uniform, homogeneous, cellular coating is obtained by tumbling an edible core material, such as nuts or dried fruit, and alternately applying an aqueous component and a preblended dry mixture on the tumbling edible core material to form a dough coating on the edible core material. The dough-coated core material may be heated by frying or baking to substantially reduce the moisture content of the dough, and to substantially expand the dough. The thick, expanded coating has a substantial amount of wheat yet it possesses a crispy, crunchy texture of a chip, rather than a leavened, mealy or flaky texture. Use of a pregelatinized waxy starch, which is not chemically modified, provides crispness and a high degree of expansion Use of a pure, raw potato starch which is not chemically modified promotes crunchiness and a chip-like texture and reduces oil pick-up or absorption during frying. The tumbling is preferably performed in a continuous belt coating device to achieve high production rates and uniform coating of individual core material pieces without agglomeration or sticking of pieces to each other.