September 16, 2019 - 5:20am
What makes industrial frozen croissants rise during baking
This is a thing I don't understand. When I make croissants and freeze them right after shaping, there is no way I can put them into an oven straight from the freezer. But in the store you can buy them, rip open the bag and 18 minutes later you have proofed, baked croissants with a minimum of effort.
What is the secret ingredient they put into the dough? The bag only mentions four, eggs, yeast and enzymes.
Is there something I can mix into the dough that ables me to bake my own dough straight from the freezer?
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Well I am going to chime in with a simple suggestion. What if the frozen croissants are partially proofed before freezing. The one thing that commercial bakers have access to is temperature control. And perhaps at two temperatures ? But this is only a guess from a home baker with no formal training...hope its only a matter of time before somebody else chimes in...
I knew my ridiculous baking bible might proof worthy some day.
TruthSerum is right. In a nutshell, those products are proofed about 75%, then blast-frozen and sent to the customer, who only needs to put them into the oven. The last 25% proofing happen in the beginning of the bake.
However, this process of pre-proofed frozen products includes a lot of science and trickery. That's also the reason why you often find unusual ingredients like thickeners, enzymes etc. in them.
If you wanna replicate this at home, I would proof the shaped croissants maybe 50%, maybe 67% (I guess you know how long they usually take), then put them into the freezer. You have to account for your freezer needing longer than a blast-freezer to cool them down, so don't take them as far as in the bakeries.
This might be plausible, but they don't look pre-proofed. During baking the double in size.
When freezing, is adding more yeast an option?
Completely unbaked croissant from frozen to baked with only 4 ingredients? I'd like to read that label because it's kind of magic.
What is normally found in refrigerated croissant or crescent rolls are hydrogenated vegetable fats (which have a higher melting point, enzymes, ascorbic acid (E300), and often no yeast but chemical leaveners such as baking soda and backing powder and really a lot of other stuff.
Which country are you in that ready to bake frozen croissant only contains 4 ingredients?
This is (surrealistic) Belgium, and the croissants are fabricated in France.
I read the ingredients:
Weatflour, butter (24%), water, sugar, yeast, eggs, gluten, whey powder, malt, nonactivated yeast, (and yes) E300, enzymes (alpha-amylases, xylanases, hemicellulase, cellulase, transglutaminase)