Corn sticks: how are they made in production and at home?

Some sweets in many people are clearly associated with childhood. It's ice cream, sweet cotton wool, lemonade and, of course, corn sticks. How to make this airy delicacy in the factory and whether it is possible to cook sticks at home, you will learn their presented article.

What are corn sticks made of?

Raw materials for the production of corn sticks come to the plant immediately in large quantities. It is brought to the enterprise literally in tons. The raw materials are corn groats, which are made from corn of hard varieties, sugar powder, salt and refined deodorized vegetable oil. These are all the ingredients that are required for the production of corn sticks, familiar to everyone from childhood.

The composition of the salted rods or with a different taste is similar, but instead of the powdered sugar, simply add salt or an appropriate flavor, for example bacon, cheese, etc.

Equipment for manufacturing corn sticks

The composition of the production line for the production of corn sticks includes several types of equipment: a mixer for the preparation of cereals, a mill for the production of powdered sugar, an extruder, a dragee complex, a sugar powder dispenser and a device that fills corn sticks. How products are manufactured at the factory and at home and in what volume depends on the extruder's power. By the way, the same equipment is used in the production of other breakfast cereals.

The device for the preparation of rods is small, medium and high power. It is suitable for small, medium-sized businesses and large plants, 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 they are made in the factory

Thus, the production capacity and cost of equipment depend on the size of the enterprise. How do corn sticks at the plant?

The entire technological process takes no more than 10 minutes. For an 8-hour shift in production receive about three tons of sweet treats. The process of production itself consists of several stages:

1. First, the corn groats are fed to an extruder, the temperature inside of which is 40 to 150 degrees.
2. Under the influence of high temperature and pressure, the raw material acquires a consistency of dough.
3. The plastic mass falls on a special matrix with holes, when passing through which the dough sharply increases in size, as if it explodes and acquires the structure of a corn bacillus. 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: rounded, square, in the form of asterisks, and so on.

The rods left from the extruder remain too wet, so they do not have their own taste and do not yet crunch on their teeth. To do this, they need to be glazed and dried in a special drum.

How to make corn sticks with flavorings

In the next stage, after the products are left from the extruder, they are dried in a special drum. Then the sticks enter the dragee complex, a device reminiscent of a long drum, with which powdery flavor additives are applied to the products. At the same time, a vegetable oil is fed through the sprinkler. It is heated inside the drum and sprayed evenly into small quantities into corn sticks. How do they glaze? Read on.

After the sticks are impregnated with oil, they fall into the next compartment of the drum. Here they are showered from all sides with powdered sugar. When it hits a warm vegetable oil, it melts, forming a sweet glaze on top of the product. At the next stage, already prepared sticks come out of the drum. Further, they are equipped with special equipment in automatic mode. Ready-made sticks are packed and sent to the warehouse, and then directly to the wholesale buyer.

How do corn sticks at home

Prepare 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 differential pressure. Neither the traditional screw auger, nor even more confectionery bag in this case can not replace the professional equipment.

How to make corn sticks at home? Very quickly in the presence of equipment and raw materials. First of all, this will require a special machine for the production of corn sticks UKP-M. Productivity of the device is 15 kg of products per hour.

For the preparation of sticks, corn groats are first poured into a special funnel on the body, passes through a humidification system and undergoes thermoplastic treatment. The entire process is almost instantaneous in a continuous mode. Then the mass at a certain speed is forced through a special matrix with cutting, which gives the necessary shape to the finished product. The simplest corn sticks are ready! Now they need to be covered with glaze or sprinkled with powdered sugar, and can be served to the table.

In addition to corn sticks, the UKP-M device is used for the production of products from wheat, pearl barley, rice in the form of asterisks, tubes, etc.