Some sweets in many people are clearly associated with childhood. This ice cream, cotton candy, lemonade and, of course, corn sticks. How to make this airy treat at the factory and whether it is possible to make chopsticks at home, you will learn their article submitted.
What corn sticks are made of
Raw materials for the production of corn sticks go to the plant immediately in large quantities. It is delivered to the enterprise in literally tons. The raw materials are corn grits, which are made from durum corn, powdered sugar, salt and refined deodorized vegetable oil. These are all the ingredients that are required for making corn sticks, familiar to everyone since childhood.
The composition of
salted sticks or with a different taste is similar, but instead of powdered sugar, just salt or an appropriate flavoring agent, such as bacon, cheese, etc. are added.
Corn stick production equipment
The production line for the production of corn sticks includes several types of equipment at once: a mixer for preparing cereals, a mill for producing icing sugar, an extruder, a coating pan, a sugar dispenser and a device that packs corn sticks. How the products are made at the factory and at home and to what extent depends on the power of the extruder. By the way, the same equipment is also used in the production of other breakfast cereals.
The device for the preparation of sticks is small, medium and high power. It is suitable for small, medium-sized businesses and large factories, respectively. In the first case, the productivity will be 30 kg of products per hour, in the second - 100 kg per hour, in the third - 250 kg per hour.
Corn sticks: how to make them in a factory
Thus, the production capacity and cost of equipment depend on the size of the enterprise. How to make corn sticks in a factory?
The whole process takes no more than 10 minutes. For an 8-hour shift in the production receive about three tons of sweet treats. The production process itself consists of several stages:
- First, corn grits are fed to an extruder, the temperature inside which is from 40 to 150 degrees.
- Under the influence of high temperature and pressure, the raw material acquires the consistency of the dough.
- The plastic mass falls onto a special matrix with holes, when passing through which the dough increases sharply in size, as if it explodes and acquires the structure of a corn stick. This is due to a sharp change in pressure. The shape and size of the holes on the matrix determine what the corn sticks will be: round, square, in the form of stars, etc.
The sticks that come out of the extruder remain too wet, so they do not have their own taste and have not yet crackled on the teeth. To do this, they need to be glazed and dried in a special drum.
How to Make Flavored Corn Sticks
At the next stage, after the products exit the extruder, they are dried in a special drum. Then the sticks enter the pan-coating complex - this is a device resembling a long drum, with the help of which powdery flavoring additives are applied to the products. At the same time, vegetable oil is supplied through the sprayer. It is heated inside the drum and sprayed evenly on a small amount onto corn sticks. How do they be glazed? Read on.
After the sticks are saturated with oil, they fall into the next compartment of the drum. Here they are sprinkled with icing sugar on all sides. When it gets on warm vegetable oil, it melts, forming a sweet icing on top of the product. At the next stage, ready-made sticks come out of the drum. Then they are packed up with special equipment in automatic mode. Finished sticks are packed and sent to the warehouse, and then directly to the wholesale buyer.
How to make corn sticks at home
Cooking corn sticks at home without special equipment will not work. Products acquire an air structure only when passing through an extruder, which provides the necessary sharp pressure drop. Neither a traditional auger meat grinder, much less a pastry bag in this case can not replace professional equipment.
How to make corn sticks at home? Very fast with equipment and raw materials. First of all, for this you will need a special apparatus for the manufacture of UKP-M corn sticks. The productivity of the device is 15 kg of products per hour.
To make sticks, corn grits are first poured into a special funnel on the body, passed through a humidification system and subjected to thermoplastic processing. The whole process occurs almost instantly in continuous mode. Then the mass at a certain speed is pressed through a special matrix with a sharp, which gives the necessary shape to the finished product. The simplest corn sticks are ready! Now they need to be coated with icing or sprinkled with icing sugar, and can be served.
In addition to corn sticks, the UKP-M device is also used for the production of wheat, pearl barley, rice in the form of stars, straws, etc.