The bake-off sector is on the rise, and that places more demands on the quality of frozen croissant dough.

Particularly fully fermented pastry dough, baked straight from the freezer, is expected to give light, crisp and high volume croissants for up to nine months of frozen storage.

It’s a tall order whichever way you look at it. The gluten network, yeast-produced gas and optimal water distribution all come under increasing pressure the longer the dough is in the freezer.

But, if you use these key ingredients, you can come a long way towards achieving a successful result:

• A strong flour, supplemented with extra ascorbic acid, to develop a strong gluten network for dough lamination prior to freezing
• An emulsifier and enzymes to support the gluten network and maintain the dough’s gas-holding capability in the freezer
• A stabiliser to manage water movement and minimise ice crystal growth over time

Much about volume
Improving the quality of frozen pastry dough is something we’ve worked with for a long time at Nutrition & Biosciences.

And, when we talk about it, volume is a word that crops up again and again.

The reason is that volume maintenance during frozen storage is critical, not just to the size but also to the overall quality of croissants after baking. Where volume is severely compromised, croissants become more compact, less crisp and less flaky – an outcome with a direct impact on their consumer appeal.

All-in-one performance
A solution that we find works very well rolls the ascorbic acid, emulsifier, enzyme complex and stabiliser into one multifunctional system. Because croissants baked from frozen need more stability, a higher dosage is required than in dough that is fermented after freezing.

In our trials, this combined solution has shown the best baking performance in frozen pastry dough after nine months in the freezer, with the smallest reduction in volume.

We used POWERFreeze 406 Stabiliser System from the DuPont™ Danisco® range.