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I like to bake cookies, and this time of year gives me the perfect excuse to bake a lot of cookies. One of my favorite recipes uses a cookie press, which made me curious about cookie press patents. There are only a few granted U.S. patents with “Cookie Press” in the title, but U.S. Patent 6,708,853 seems to claim technology that I put to good use every December.
The Cookie Press Patent
U.S. Patent 6,708,853 names Hugh Melling asthe inventor and is assigned to Wilton Industries, Inc. Claim 1 recites:
1. An apparatus for dispensing a food substance comprising: a) a housing; b) a barrel connected to the housing and adapted to receive the food substance; c) a plunger slidably positioned within the barrel; d) a rod having teeth thereon and connected to the plunger; e) an advancing mechanism movably positioned within the housing and including: i) an escapement body; ii) a driver slidably positioned within the escapement body; iii) a spring engaging the driver and the escapement body so that the driver is biased toward said rod so that the driver engages a tooth of said rod; f) a lever pivotally attached to the housing and engaging said advancing mechanism so that when said lever is pressed towards said barrel, the driver moves said rod so that said plunger is advanced to dispense the food substance from the barrel.
According to the description in the specification, the spring may be a feature that distinguishes this cookie press over prior art cookie presses.The spring is located in the “escapement assembly 50″ but is not identified in Figure 3, reproduced below.
As explained in the patent “a disc 20 is positioned at the bottom of the cookie barrel. The disc 20 includes openings 21 arranged in a variety of patterns to form a template for dispensing cookie dough. A bottom cap 16 with an opening 17 therethrough secures the disc 20 to the bottom of the cookie barrel. … [C]ookie dough is dispensed through the openings 21 of the disc 20 when the lever 22 of FIGS. 1 and 2 is manipulated.” This makes it easy to make fancy-looking cookies like these:
