Rice-based snack chip and method of making same

Abstract

A rice-based snack chip made from a dough including the dry ingredients of bumped rice kernels, long-grain pregelatinized rice flour, medium-grain course white rice flour and in which the bumped rice kernels are partially hydrated, bumped, partially dehydrated and fried as the chip is made.

1 . A, crisp, rice-based commercial snack chip of fried dough comprising dry materials of which an operative component is a combination of pregelatinized long-grain rice flour and medium-grain coarse rice flour in an amount and proportion whereby the dough formed thereby can be processed on known commercial sheeters without sticking thereto.  
     
     
         2 . The snack chip of  claim 1  produced by forming a dough from said dry materials, sheeting the dough, cutting the dough into chip-size pieces, partially dehydrating the chip-size pieces and then frying the chip-size pieces to obtain a crisp snack chip.  
     
     
         3 . The snack chip of  claim 1  wherein the amount by dry weight of pregelatinized long-grain rice flour is approximately 3 times that of medium-grain coarse rice flour.  
     
     
         4 . A fried rice-based commercial snack chip comprising dry materials formed into a dough, wherein said dry materials comprise a combination of pregelatinized long-grain rice flour, medium-grain coarse rice flour and other rice products and wherein said pregelatinized long-grain rice flour and medium-grain coarse rice flour and other rice products are a major component by weight of the dry materials of the dough; 
 wherein the dough is sheetable on known sheeting equipment without sticking thereto; and    wherein the rice-based commercial snack chip product is obtained by sheeting the dough, partially dehydrating the sheeted dough and then frying the partially dehydrated sheeted dough after it is cut into chip-sized pieces.    
     
     
         5 . A rice-based snack chip dough comprising: 
 dry materials comprising rice products wherein said rice products are a major component by weight of said dry materials and wherein said rice products comprise a combination of pregelatinized long-grain rice flour and medium-grain coarse rice flour in amounts whereby the dough can be sheeted on known sheeting equipment without sticking thereto; and    water in an amount sufficient to form the dough.    
     
     
         6 . The dough of  claim 5  wherein said dry ingredients further include corn flour.  
     
     
         7 . A crisp, rice-based commercial snack chip comprising expanded bumped rice, which expanded bumped rice has a structure different than crisp rice.  
     
     
         8 . The snack chip of  claim 7  wherein said expanded bumped rice is brown rice.  
     
     
         9 . The snack chip of  claim 7  wherein said expanded bumped rice is formed by a process that includes rebumping the bumped rice.  
     
     
         10 . The snack chip of  claim 7  wherein said expanded bumped rice is formed by a process that includes hydrating the bumped rice, partially dehydrating the hydrated bumped rice and frying the partially dehydrated bumped rice.  
     
     
         11 . The snack chip of  claim 10  wherein the process by which said expanded bumped rice is formed further includes rebumping the bumped rice after it is hydrated and before it is partially dehydrated.  
     
     
         12 . The snack chip of claim f  1  wherein said bumped rice is in a dough and the step of rebumping the bumped rice is performed during the step of sheeting the dough.  
     
     
         13 . A crisp, rice-based commercial snack chip made from a mixture of dry ingredients comprising a combination of bumped rice kernels, pregelatinized long-grain rice flour and medium-grain coarse white rice flour.  
     
     
         14 . The snack chip of  claim 13  wherein the combination of dry ingredients further includes corn flour.  
     
     
         15 . The snack chip of  claim 13  wherein said bumped rice is brown rice.