Maintaining Volume and Texture after the Freeze – Grindsted PowerFreeze 406

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With consumers eating more frequently at home the demands for fresh baked goods which can be stored in the freezer and quickly prepared in the oven have been growing since the start of the pandemic. But these consumers are not only seeking the convenience of a freezer to oven solution but also the fresh taste, light texture and nostalgic joys of a croissant or pastry.

Under FSL’s partnership with IFF, we are offering the Grindsted POWERFreeze 406 bakery improver solution to address these needs of manufacturers and discerning consumers.

Introduction to Freezer to Oven Solutions

Freezer to Oven (FTO) solutions are non-proofed / fermented frozen pastries which require no thawing and no proofing. The products are simply trayed up straight from the freezer and baked in the oven. Hence in less than 30 minutes these pastries are ready to be sold – making them the ideal solution for coffee shops, petrol stations and individual consumers at home.

The Challenges

Fully fermented pastry dough, baked straight from the freezer, is expected to give a light, crisp and high-volume pastry or croissant for up to nine months of frozen storage.

It’s a challenging task to say the least; The gluten network,yeast-produced gas and optimal water distribution all come under increasing pressure the longer the dough is in the freezer.

However, if you use certain 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

Maintaining Volume

Improving the quality of frozen pastry dough is something which the IFF team and its legacy partners have worked with for a long time. The word that crops up over and over again in these projects is “volume”.

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

All-in-One Performance

A solution which we find works very well rolls the ascorbic acid, emulsifier, enzyme complex and stabiliser into one multifunctional system.

Because croissants and pastries 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.

GRINDSTED POWERFreeze 406 Bakery Ingredient System in Non-Proofed Pastries offers:

  • Extended Freeze storage life up to 12 months
  • Improves the Volume and Shape
  • Improves the Crispiness and Crumb structure of Frozen Pastries
  • R&D driven solution with decades of research to develop aunique Freezer-to-Oven solution
  • No thawing required for end user means shorter processingtimes and more convenience
  • Non-proofed croissants means more croissants per box thanproofed
  • Improved Dough Handling