When it comes to puffed foods, people's first reaction is the crispy and fluffy texture. Whether it's snack chips or dried food soaked ingredients, the fluffy tissue structure directly determines the taste when eaten. After microwave puffing, dry powder skin will show significant changes at both the naked eye and microscopic levels, which is also the reason for its greatly altered taste.
The unprocessed dry powder skin has a compact and dense texture, a tight internal structure, few pores, and feels hard and thick to the touch. If directly put into the pot, the soaking speed is slow, and it is easy to become hard and sticky when cooked, with a tough taste.
During the microwave puffing process, the residual moisture inside the material quickly vaporizes upon heating, instantly generating water vapor pressure. The outward expansion of water vapor will open up the tight protein and starch network of the dry powder skin, pulling out a large number of fine and uniform micropores and pores inside.
After puffing, the appearance of the dried powder skin will bulge and the thickness will increase. The interior is no longer a dense hard block, forming a dense and interconnected honeycomb like organizational structure. This honeycomb structure brings two practical benefits: on the one hand, water can quickly penetrate into it when it comes into contact with water, greatly accelerating the soaking and cooking speed, and making it less likely to get caught; On the other hand, the finished product tastes loose and soft, without any hard core, and has a transparent and smooth taste.
It is also necessary to distinguish between microwave puffing and deep frying puffing. Deep frying and puffing rely on high-temperature oil to quickly vaporize water, often resulting in larger pores and the adsorption of a large amount of oil. The microwave puffing of dry powder skin belongs to the internal water vapor driven molding, forming fine and uniform pores with low oil content.
Of course, the process requires controlling the original moisture content. Excessive moisture content can lead to excessive foaming and the formation of holes; If the moisture content is too low and the water vapor pressure is insufficient, it is difficult to expand the tissue, resulting in poor puffing effect and inability to achieve the ideal loose state. So during production and processing, the initial moisture content of the material is a key condition that determines the quality of the expanded tissue structure.
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