Hydrated fat compositions and dough articles

Abstract

Disclosed are hydrated fat compositions comprising a water-in-oil emulsion comprising (a) a continuous phase comprising: a solid fat comprising a fully-hydrogenated vegetable oil, a stearine fraction of a vegetable oil, or a mixture thereof, in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 40 wt. % of the hydrated fat; and a low trans-fat liquid vegetable oil in an amount ranging from about 20 wt. % to about 80 wt. % of the hydrated fat composition; (b) a dispersed phase comprising water in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 60 wt. % of the hydrated fat composition; and (c) an emulsifier.

1 . A hydrated fat composition comprising a water-in-oil emulsion comprising:
 (a) a continuous phase comprising:
 a solid fat comprising a fully-hydrogenated vegetable oil, a stearine fraction of a vegetable oil, or a mixture thereof, in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 40 wt. % of the hydrated fat; and 
 a low trans fat liquid vegetable oil in an amount ranging from about 20 wt. % to about 80 wt. % of the hydrated fat composition; 
   (b) a dispersed phase comprising water in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 50 wt. % of the hydrated fat composition; and   (c) an emulsifier.   
     
     
         2 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 2 , wherein the solid fat has an iodine value of less than about 10. 
     
     
         3 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 2 , wherein the solid fat has an iodine value of less than about 5. 
     
     
         4 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the solid fat is present in an amount ranging from about 15 wt. % to about 30 wt. %. 
     
     
         5 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the solid fat comprises a fully-hydrogenated vegetable oil. 
     
     
         6 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 5 , wherein the fully-hydrogenated vegetable oil is selected from fully-hydrogenated cottonseed oil, fully-hydrogenated soybean oil, fully-hydrogenated palm oil, fully-hydrogenated palm kernel oil, fully-hydrogenated coconut oil and mixtures thereof. 
     
     
         7 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the solid fat component comprises a stearine fraction of a vegetable oil. 
     
     
         8 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 7 , wherein the vegetable oil stearine comprises soybean oil stearine, cottonseed stearine, palm stearine, and mixtures thereof 
     
     
         9 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the liquid fat comprises canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, olive oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, rice bran oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, or a mixture thereof. 
     
     
         10 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the liquid fat comprises canola oil. 
     
     
         11 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the liquid fat comprises soybean oil. 
     
     
         12 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the liquid fat comprises less than about 5 wt. % trans fatty acids. 
     
     
         13 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the liquid fat is not hydrogenated. 
     
     
         14 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the emulsifier is present in an amount ranging from about 1 wt. % to about 10 wt. %. 
     
     
         15 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the emulsifier is present in an amount ranging from about 1 wt. % to about 5 wt. %. 
     
     
         16 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the emulsifier comprises alpha-monoglyceride stearate (AMGS), sorbitan monostearate, diacetyl tartaric acid esters of monoglycerides (DATEM), polyglycerol monostearate (PGMS), polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR), propylene glycol monoesters, sucrose esters, monos/dis, SSL, lecithin, phospholipids, polysorbate esters, monoglyceride blends, or combinations thereof. 
     
     
         17 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the water is present in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 30 wt. %. 
     
     
         18 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the water is present in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 15 wt. %. 
     
     
         19 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the hydrated fat has a hardness that ranges from about 3 kg to about 18 kg when measured using the margarine spreadability test using a texture analyzer (TA-XTplus). 
     
     
         20 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the hydrated fat has a hardness that ranges from about 30 mm to about 220 mm when measured using AOCS cone penetrometer method (Cc 16-60). 
     
     
         21 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the hydrated fat has a hardness that ranges from about 5 kg to about 14 kg when measured using the margarine spreadability test using a texture analyzer (TA-XTplus). 
     
     
         22 . The hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 , wherein the hydrated fat has a hardness that ranges from about 80 mm to about 140 mm when measured using AOCS cone penetrometer method (Cc 16-60). 
     
     
         23 . A hydrated fat composition comprising: (a) about 20 wt. % to about 30 wt. % of a solid fat comprising fully-hydrogenated cottonseed oil; (b) about 60 wt. % to about 70 wt. % of liquid oil comprising soybean oil; (c) about 1.0 wt. % to about 3.0 % wt. of an emulsifier comprising alpha-monoglyceride stearate; and (d) about 5 wt. % to about 20 wt. % water; wherein the hydrated fat composition is a water-in-oil emulsion. 
     
     
         24 . A food composition comprising the hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         25 . The food composition of  claim 24 , wherein the food composition comprises less than 0.5 grams trans fat per serving. 
     
     
         26 . A dough article comprising the hydrated fat composition of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         27 . The dough article of  claim 26 , wherein the dough article comprises:
 a plurality of layers of a dough composition; and   a plurality of layers of hydrated fat composition;   wherein the layers of the dough composition are each separated by a layer of the hydrated fat composition.   
     
     
         28 . The dough composition of  claim 27 , wherein the dough composition is a puff pastry, biscuit, crescent, croissant, Danish, cinnamon roll, turnover, roll, strudel, breadstick, or corn stick. 
     
     
         29 . A method of making a laminated dough comprising the steps of:
 (a) combining a solid fat, a liquid oil, water, and an emulsifier to form a hydrated fat composition in the form of a water-in-oil emulsion comprising:
 (i) a continuous phase comprising:
 a solid fat comprising a fully-hydrogenated vegetable oil, a stearine fraction of a vegetable oil, or a mixture thereof, in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 40 wt. % of the hydrated fat; and 
 a low trans-fat liquid vegetable oil in an amount ranging from about 20 wt. % to about 80 wt. % of the hydrated fat composition; 
 
 (ii) a dispersed phase comprising water in an amount ranging from about 5 wt. % to about 50 wt. % of the hydrated fat composition; and 
 (iii) an emulsifier; 
   (b) cooling and crystallizing the hydrated fat composition;   (c) applying a layer of the hydrated fat composition to a layer of a dough composition that comprises flour and water to form a hydrated fat-coated dough layer; and   (d) folding the hydrated fat-coated dough layer one or more times to form a laminated dough comprising alternating layers of the dough composition and the hydrated fat.   
     
     
         30 . The method of making a laminated dough of  claim 29 , wherein the cooling and crystallizing step is conducted by passing the hydrated fat composition of step (a) through one or more scrape-surface heat exchangers, pin-workers, or resting tubes. 
     
     
         31 . The method of making a laminated dough of  claim 29 , wherein the hydrated fat composition flows continuously, without a tempering step, from the pin-worker, scrape-surface heat exchanger, or resting tube to a dispensing device for applying a layer of hydrated fat composition to a layer of a dough composition. 
     
     
         32 . The method of making a laminated dough of  claim 31 , wherein the hydrated fat composition flows from the pin-worker, scrape-surface heat exchanger, or resting tube to the dispensing device in a time period that is about 15 minutes or less. 
     
     
         33 . The method of making a laminated dough of  claim 31 , wherein the hydrated fat composition flows from the pin-worker, scrape-surface heat exchanger, or resting tube to the dispensing device in a time period that is about 5 minutes or less.