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Wheat Starch Effects on the Textural Characteristics of Puffed Brown Rice Cakes

¹USDA-ARS, Western Regional Research Center, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710. Names are necessary to report factually on available data; however, the USDA neither guarantees nor warrants the standard of the product, and the use of the name by the USDA implies no approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may also be suitable. ²Corresponding author: Phone: 510-559-5730. Fax: 510-559-5936. E-mail: orts@pw.usda.gov

A process was described for creating puffed wheat starch based or hybrid starch and rice snack foods processed in a rice cake puffing machine. Puffed cakes consisting of wheat starch and whole grain brown rice, created by mixing wheat starch beads with brown rice before processing and puffing for 10 sec (cooking time) at 210°C, exhibited greater flexibility and fracture strength than traditional rice cakes. The density of puffed wheat starch cakes decreased with increasing moisture content independent of particle size for particles 0.8–5 mm in diameter. The addition of sucrose and shortening promoted the formation of lower density puffed cakes at lower moistures, while salt had little effect.