Abstract:
An assembly and method for preparing edible items on a stick, from material that may not be particularly pourable, using a mold, a mold compression piece and a stick.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    A plethora of cutting and molding devices that are useful for creating stylishly shaped baked goods and confections have been developed in the prior art. Generally speaking, molding devices, or dies, are configured to be placed onto a flat baking surface, have a liquid dough mixture poured into their one or more segregated molds, and then placed in an oven for baking. Cutting devices, on the other hand, are made to be pressed down into a sheet of dough or prepared food in order to subdivide it into decorative shapes. Consequently, these two different sets of devices require that the edible material which they are used on to be either pourable (e.g., batter, liquefied confectionery material, etc) or roll-pressed into sheet form. 
         [0002]    For example, a. typical cookie cutter is configured to cut a discrete piece of dough from a. broader dough sheet with each press. Obviously, then, the preliminary step of forming a sheet of dough with a rolling pin must be performed. And cutting shapes from a sheet is a process which, typically, leaves some amount of scrap dough that must be gathered and rolled into another sheet for a successive round of cutting, if dough is to not be simply discarded. This process may be repeated until the remaining scrap dough is insufficient to press into a sheet that is desirably thick and expansive enough to receive the entire cutter. 
         [0003]    Molds render unnecessary the step of rolling edible material into sheet form, but they have their own limitation relative to the types of material that they can plausibly be used on. More specifically, they are useful only with edible material that is sufficiently liquid to be poured into them and flow to occupy their defined outlines. Most dough material is not that pourable, however. 
         [0004]    Accordingly, the present inventors recognize an outstanding need to provide an assembly that is effective in molding less liquid forms of edible material (e.g., dough) into desired shapes, but obviate the step of forming sheets from which those shapes must be cut. Furthermore, they recognize a need for such an assembly to enable stick handles to be attached to those shaped food items. The instant invention substantially fulfills these needs. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    The present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for preparing edible items, and it is specifically directed to an assembly for molding dough and other edible material onto a stick, which is useful for handling the prepared item while eating, in preparation for the food material undergoing baking or another temperature-induced state transformation process. The present inventors refer to food items prepared using the instant invention as “snack pops.” For example, where such cookie dough is molded and stick-mounted using the present assembly and method, the resulting food items might be called “cookie pops.” 
         [0006]    In its most basic sense, the invention is formed by three elements: (a) an artistically shaped mold or retainer device within which amorphous edible material is to be placed; (b) a plunging device that fits telescopically within the retainer to compress the dough into the perimeter shape of the retainer and a flat or specifically designed top face; and (c) a stick to be inserted through a slot opening in the perimeter wall of the retainer and serve as a handle for the snack pop item when the dough hardens thereabout. However, the present inventors anticipate that two or more such retainer devices (with at least one of them having two, opposingly aligned such slot openings formed in them) may be used to attached multiple, stylistically shaped edible masses to a single stick (e.g., a “double cookie pop”) within the spirit and scope of the present invention. 
         [0007]    It should be noted that, for ease of discussion purposes, a wide range of “edible material” contemplated for use with the present assembly will often be referred to, hereinafter, as simply “dough,” even though much of that food matter does not fall within the actual definition of “dough” (e.g., confectionary materials, batters, etc.). Similarly, while it is contemplated, within the spirit and scope of the present invention, that such edible material may be exposed to either warmer or cooler air for the purpose of transforming it (e.g., solidifying, leavening, etc.) and bonding it to the stick, the term “baking” will be used, herein, as a shorthand reference meant to encompass all conceivable food preparation processes in which the edible material bonds to the stick, and not simply those involving convection. 
         [0008]    In any event, unlike some snack-on-a-stick preparation assemblies of the prior art many of which are intended to hold liquid material that is to be freeze-molded (or otherwise cooled) onto a stick handle the mold piece of the present assembly is not meant to continue retaining its edible material during the food transformation process. Rather, once dough is placed within the retainer, pressed with the plunger, and impaled by the stick, the retainer is to be lifted from the dough (which remains rested on a cookie sheet or the like) and removed prior to baking 
         [0009]    Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a snack-on-a-stick preparation assembly to be used with more viscous unprepared material (e.g., dough) that need not be retained, during the baking/transformation process, in order to maintain its desired shape or ensure that the inserted stick remains upright while the material is transforming into its edible state. In one aspect of the invention, the dough mold piece is to be lifted and removed from the dough that is pressed into shape within it, prior to baking. Consequently, the entire outer edge and top face surfaces of the dough are to be fully exposed to convective heat during the baking process, and heat does not have to conduct through retainer wall material before conducting through any portion of the dough. This, presumably, reduces the necessary baking time from what it might otherwise be. 
         [0010]    It is another object of the present invention to provide a dough-shaping assembly that eliminates the traditional step of spreading dough into a continuous sheet from which a desired shape must be press-cut using a cutting tool normally creating scrap dough that must be reamassed and, again, spread into a sheet for another round of cutting or is simply rendered waste. In an aspect of the invention, a desired amount of dough is placed into a shaped mold and is downwardly pressed by plunger so that it takes on the shape of the enclosure formed by the mold wall and the bottom face of the plunger without creating any waste product. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]      FIG. 1  is a top perspective view of the primary retainer device of a “two pop” embodiment of an edible item-making assembly according to the present invention; 
           [0012]    FIG,  2  is a top perspective view of the compressing device of said assembly; 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  is a top perspective view of the secondary retainer device of said assembly; 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  illustrates said primary and secondary retainer devices, said compressing device and three alternate sticks of said assembly; 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  illustrates dough being placed within said primary retainer; 
           [0016]      FIG. 6  illustrates said compressing device being pressed against the dough within said primary retainer; 
           [0017]      FIG. 7  illustrates said compressing device and said primary retainer being removed from the dough of a “one pop” edible item; and 
           [0018]      FIG. 8  illustrates said compressing device and said primary retainer being removed from dough of a “two pop” edible item. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0019]    This disclosure, as defined by the claims that follow, relates to an apparatus assembly and a method of use therefor in molding dough into a defined shape, mounting it to a handling stick and baking it into a more edible state. As previously stated, the term “dough” is used in this disclosure to refer broadly to any edible material that is prone to retain the shape that it is molded into even after the molding device is removed from it. And the term “baking” is used to broadly refer to any process in which exposing the dough to a warmer or cooler environment causes it to transform into a more conventionally edible state. 
         [0020]    The components of “one pop” and “two pop” edible item-making embodiments of the present assembly (for preparing one shaped mass and two shaped masses of dough on a stick, respectively) are displayed in  FIG. 4 . The former embodiment comprises a dough-retaining means  10  (or “mold”), a dough-compressing device (or “plunger”)  30 , and a dough-handling stick  40 . The latter embodiment comprises those components as well as an additional, or secondary, dough retainer  20 . 
         [0021]    The primary retainer  10 , as seen in  FIG. 1 , is formed by a closed sidewall  12  having an open top and bottom. Formed along the bottom edge of the sidewall  12  is a slot opening  14 . The top edge  18  of the sidewall  12  is flanged outward to provide a retainer lifting surface. in the figures accompanying this disclosure, the retainer sidewall  12  is depicted in the form of a circle. However, it can be of virtually any shape that one might desire to make a food pop item into and that features a central body area which will completely envelop the portion of the stick  40  to be inserted within the retainer  10  (e.g., heart, tree, star, etc). 
         [0022]    Whatever the retainer  10  shape is to be, the plunger  30 , as shown in  FIG. 2 , must be shaped to telescopically slide into the retainer  10  as shown in  FIGS. 6-8 . Furthermore, the top face  32  of the plunger  30  is, preferably, fiat to best facilitate an even distribution of downward compression force to be applied to it by a preparer&#39;s hand. The plunger&#39;s bottom face (not shown) can be flat or configured to leave a design imprint on dough  60 . 
         [0023]    Finally, the stick  30  is straight and, preferably, has either a flattened cross-sectional profile like those typically found in frozen popsicles or a cylindrical profile like those typically found in confectionery lollipops. In either case, for a reason that will become clear later, the slot  14  formed within the retainer  10  should have a height dimension that is slightly greater than the vertical thickness of the stick  40 . 
         [0024]    Primary and secondary retainers  10 ,  20  are for forming multiple edible masses along the same stick  40 . A secondary retainer  20  is shown in  FIG. 3 . The primary retainer  10  and secondary retainer  20  may have identical or different shapes, but as can be gleaned from comparing  FIGS. 1 and 3 , they are necessarily different in the respect that a secondary retainer  20  includes two slots  24 ,  26 , which are positioned along its sidewall  22  so as to enable a single, straight stick  40  to simultaneously protrude them as it extends entirely through the secondary retainer  20 . These slots  24 ,  26  should be configured identically. 
         [0025]    To prepare a food pop according to the present method, an unshapely lump of dough  60  is placed within the primary retainer  10  as it rests on a flat baking surface  50  (see  FIG. 5 ). The stick  40  is then inserted through the slot  14  and into the dough  60  so that the leading end of the stick  40  resides at the approximate horizontal center of the retainer  10 . The stick  40  should be disposed truly horizontal, and it should be inserted through the uppermost region of the slot  14  (assuming the slot  24  has a vertical dimension greater than the vertical thickness of the stick  40 ) so that it suspends slightly above the baking surface  50 . In fact, depending upon the supportiveness of the pre-baked dough, it may he advisable to continue holding the stick  40  in parallel suspension above the baking surface  50  through the dough compression step that is to immediately follow. 
         [0026]    Nevertheless, as shown in  FIG. 6 , the plunger  30  is then pressed down into the retainer  10 , smashing the dough  60  into conformity with shrinking volume of enclosed space defined by the retainer sidewall  12  and the downward moving bottom face of the plunger  30 . When that space is fully occupied by compressed dough  60 , as is indicated by an increasing degree of resistance posed by the dough  60 , the pressing should cease. When the height of the slot  14  is greater than the vertical thickness of the stick  40 , compressing of the dough  60  will have the effect of ensuring that a layer of dough is formed underneath the stick so that the inserted portion of the stick  40  is completely enveloped by dough  60  for more secure dough-stick bonding. After the pressing step, the retainer  10  and plunger  30  are to be lifted up and away from the molded, stick-mounted dough mass  60  as illustrated in  FIG. 7 . 
         [0027]    Where a second (or more) mass of dough  70  is to be mounted along a stick  40 , as depicted in  FIG. 8 , the process is identical, except that the stick  40  is to be inserted completed though a second (or more) retainer  20  which holds that dough  70  before being pushed halfway through the first retainer  10  which holds another lump of dough  60 . 
         [0028]    After the aforedescribed molding steps are completed, the dough-mounted sticks should be baked to form cookie pops (or whatever type of food pop item that is to be produced from that dough upon its temperature-induced transformation into a more edible form) ready for consumption. 
         [0029]    It is understood that substitutions and equivalents for and combinations of various elements set forth above may be obvious to those skilled in the art and may not represent a departure from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the fill scope and definition of the present invention is to be set forth by the claims that follow.