TARTSHELL MAKER

MOULE POUR LA FABRICATION DE CROUTES A TARTE

English Abstract

A method of manufacturing tart shells uses a manually
operated hinged die and press arrangement in which the die is shaped
with a female receptacle for receiving a foil tart case and the press
has a male portion for compressing dough into the tart case and
squeezing the dough to form a continuous constant thickness layer
across the inside of the tart case. To prevent adhesion of the mate
portion in the dough, a sheet of plastic film is placed over the tart
shell and the dough bail when inserted into the case. The plastic film
prevents adhesion of the dough to the male portion and the plastic
film can be readily removed after the compression is complete.

Claims

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Claims:
(1) A method of forming a tart shell comprising providing a mold bottom having
a
flat base and a frusto-conical wall diverging upwardly and outwardly from the
base so
that the base and frusto-conical wall define a recess, placing into the recess
of the mold
bottom a tart case, placing onto the flat base of the tart case a piece of
cold uncooked
pastry dough in an initial shape to be formed into the tart shell, placing
over the dough
and across the recess of the mold bottom a sheet of non-stick plastics film,
and pressing
into the mold bottom a mold top having a flat base and a frusto-conical wall
diverging
upwardly and outwardly from the flat base thus defining a male portion for
extending into
the recess of the mold bottom, compressing the mold top into the mold bottom
so as to
deform the piece of dough from the initial shape and to squeeze the dough from
the flat
base onto the frusto-conical wall, shaping the recess and the male portion
such that the
dough therebetween defines a layer inside the tart case of substantially
constant
thickness, removing the mold top from the mold bottom and, prior to effecting
any
heating of the tart shell, removing the plastics film from an inside surface
of the tart shell.
(2) A method of forming a tart shell comprising providing a mold bottom having
a
flat base and a frusto-conical wall diverging upwardly and outwardly from the
base so
that the base and frusto-conical wall define a recess, placing into the recess
of the mold
bottom a tart case, placing onto the flat base of the tart case a piece of
cold uncooked
pastry dough in an initial shape to be formed into the tart shell, placing
over the dough
and across the recess of the mold bottom a sheet of non-stick plastics film,
and pressing
into the mold bottom a mold top having a flat base and a frusto-conical wall
diverging
upwardly and outwardly from the flat base thus defining a male portion for
extending into
the recess of the mold bottom, compressing the mold top into themold bottom so
as to

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deform the piece of the dough from the initial shape and to squeeze the dough
from the
flat base onto the frusto-conical wall, shaping the recess and the male
portion such that
the dough therebetween defines a layer inside the tart case of substantially
constant
thickness, removing the mold top from the mold bottom and, prior to effecting
any
heating of the tart shell, removing the plastics film from an inside surface
of the tart shell,
the compressing of the mold top into the mold bottom including mounting the
mold
bottom on a base plate and mounting the mold top on a top plate, providing a
hinge
between the base plate and the top plate for pivotal movement of the mold top
relative to
the mold bottom and applying downward force on the top plate at a position
spaced from
the hinge to apply a leverage effect on the top plate relative to the bottom
plate.
(3) The method according to claim 2 including providing a single mold bottom
and a single mold top on the base plate and top plate respectively.
(4) The method according to claim 1 including providing on the mold bottom a
horizontal support surface at a top edge of a frusto-conical wall thereof the
horizontal
support surface at a top edge of a frusto-conical wall thereof the horizontal
support
surface extending outwardly around the frusto-conical wall in an annular shape
and
including a vertical shoulder at an outer edge of the support surface and
providing on the
mold top a horizontal surface for lying across the support surface and spaced
therefrom
by the vertical shoulder.

Description

CA 02098035 2002-06-10
METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING TARTSHELLS~
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENT10N
The present invention relates to a method for
manufacturing tart shells and is particularly but not exclusively
directed to the small scale manufacturing of such tart shells for home
use or in small bakeries or restaurants.
Conventionally the home baker or ,mall manufacturer has
to press tart dough into the conventional tart case by initially rolling
the dough into a flat sheet, cutting the dough into circular pieces and
then placing the circular pieces into the tart case by hand. This
process is very slow and the results are unfortunately not uniform
since the thickness of the tart shell can vary ia:ading to difficulties in
further processing and leading to an inconsistent product.
It is also known in large commercial establishments to
manufacture dough cases of this type using a large mufti piece
molding system which requires heat applied to the upper part of the
mold to ensure that the dough does not stick to the male parts of the
mold which press the dough into the female tart cases. Such a
heating system is of course entirely impractical in the small scale or
on the home baker situation and accordingly up till now no method
has been available to assist the small scale or home baker with the
manufacturing of tart cases.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

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It is one object of the present invention, therefore, to
provide an improved method of manufacturing tart shells.
According to one aspect of the invention there is
provided a method of forming a tartshell comprising providing a mold
bottom having a flat base and a frusto-conical wall diverging
upwardly and outwardly from the base so that the base and frusto-
conical wall define a recess, placing into the recess of the mold
bottom a tart case, placing into the tart case a piece of dough to be
formed into the tart shell, placing over the dough and across the
recess of the mold bottom a sheet of non-stuck plastics film, and
pressing into the mold bottom a mold top having a flat base and a
frusto-conical wall diverging upwardly and outwardly from the flat
base thus defining a male portion for extending into the recess of the
mold bottom, and shaping the recess and the male portion such that
the dough is squeezed therebetween to form a layer inside the tart
case of substantially constant thickness, removing the mold top from
the mold bottom and removing the plastic film from an inside surface
of the tartshell.
With this method, therefore, the tart case generally of
foil is placed into a female die which can be manufactured of either
wood or plastic. The dough is inserted into the foil case, covered
with a small sheet of plastic film and the top press is pushed down
into the die by manual actuation to squeeze the dough into the
required shape within the foil case.

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The device of the present invention is simpler to use than
the commercial press in that it is entirely manual and does not require
heat to release the dough from the top die.
This new idea overcomes the difficulties of previous
methods in that an exact die is made of the various sizes of tart cases
available. The mold bottom or die is arranged to be the same shape
as the foil case and the top press is arranged as the inverted shape of
the case but with a 'l l8 inch reduction so that when pressed together
the dough is squeezed into the i 18 inch space to obtain a constant
thickness throughout the interior of the foil case as a constant layer.
This therefore provides uniform results each time the device is used.
The thickness of the dough layer can of course be varied in
accordance with requirements.
It is not therefore necessary to roil the dough into the flat
sheet and to manually insert the cut pieces of rolled dough into the
cases. Instead the dough is simply cut into balls or pieces of dough
and generally a piece which is formed into a spherical bail of the order
of 1 inch diameter is adequate for a 3 inch diameter tart case. The
piece or ball is then placed into the tart shell with a piece of plastic
film for example Saran Wrap or Cling film and the top press is pressed
down into place.
The plastic film allows the device to operate without the
dough being adhered to the top press. With the plastic film in place,
the top press can be readily removed from the pressed tart shell since

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there is no adhesion to the plastic film. With the top press removed,
the plastic film can very easily be pulled away from the pressed tart
shell while the shell is being removed from the die.
One embodiment of the invention will now be described
in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the tart press using
the method of the present invention.
Figure 2 is a cross sectional view along the lines 2-2 of
Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a cross sectional view similar to that of Figure
2 showing a preliminary step in the method.
Figure 4 is a similar cross sectional view of that of Figure
2 showing the completed tart shell of the method of the present
invention.
In the drawings like characters of reference indicate
corresponding parts in the different figures.
DETAILED DESCRIPT10N
The tool with which the present method is performed
comprises a top plate 10 and a base plate 11. The base plate 12
includes at one end an upstanding end wail 12 with a hinge 13
positioned at the top of the upstanding wail 12 and at one end of the
top plate 10 allowing pivotal movement of the top plate about a
horizontal axis transverse to the top and based plates. The proper

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base plates are preferably manufactured fronn wood or may be
manufactured by molding from plastics material and in one example
the top plate may have a transverse width of the order 3 inches and a
length of the order of 8 inches so that is easily manually movable
about the hinge 13, The top plate 10 carries a male press 14 and the
base plate 11 carries a female die 15. The mold parts 14 and 15
comprise a single mold structure mounted on the tool for
manufacturing a single tart shell in each actuation of the device.
In an alternative arrangement a number of tart shells can
be manufactured simultaneously by providing a plurality of such
molds and generally this will be used in the type of tartshell which is
relatively small.
The male press 14 includes a flat base 16 and a frusto-
conical wall 17 diverging upwardly and outwardly from the flat base
to an annular surface 18 which lies in a horizontal plane at the top of
the male press portion.
The female die is similarly shaped including a flat base
19 and a frusto-conical wall 20 diverging upwardly and outwardly to
an annular support surface 21 which is terminated at its outer edge
by a vertical shoulder 22 extending upwardly to a top surface 23
which engages the surface 18 of the male mold portion in the closed
position thereof shown in Figure 2. There is a space between the
base 16 and the base 19 and a similar space between the frusto-
conical wall 17 and the frusto-conical wall 20 which is sufficient to

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receive the required thickness of the layer of dough for manufacturing
the tart shell.
As shown in Figure 3, a tart case 25 is placed on the
female mold part and is shaped so that an outside surface of the tart
case lies directly in contact with the inside surface of the recess of
the female mold part. A ball 26 of the dough is then placed into the
tart case and is covered with a sheet of plastic film 27 which is of
sufficient dimension to cover the whole of the tart shell when the
plastic sheet is deformed into the shape of the tart shell by the male
mold part.
As shown in Figure 4, after the male mold portion is
inserted into the female receptacle, the plastic film is compressed
onto the dough which is itself squeezed into the space between the
male and female mold parts. The thickness of the film and the
thickness of the foil tart case are very thin in comparison with the
thickness of the dough when compressed so that substantially the
whole of the space between the male and female mold part is filled
With the dough.
Since various modifications can be made in my invention
as herein above described, and many apparently widely different
embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims
without departing from such spirit and scope, it is intended that ail
matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be
' interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

Representative Drawing