Commercial bakers and their foodservice customers are feeling the heat — whether it be from labor shortages, supply chain disruptions or rising ingredient costs. The use of frozen dough, however, is allowing these businesses to stay cool in more ways than one. 

“Frozen dough can be pulled out of the freezer, put on a pan, and depending on the product, either put directly in the oven or thawed and proofed for a period of time before baking,” explained Aaron Reed, senior food technologist, Cargill. “Given all the challenges in today’s skilled labor market, that simplicity is a significant benefit.”

Frozen doughs are also big time savers for operators. 

“By eliminating processes like scaling ingredients, mixing, shaping and forming — all the things that go along with dough preparation — you save bakers’ valuable time, making it easy for bakers and consumers to have a convenient ‘baked fresh’ item,” Reed added.

These doughs additionally let manufacturers expand their reach geographically and tap into new markets, while also providing customers greater flexibility to produce a wide variety of products, said Amr Shaheed, technical services and applications development manager, Innophos.

“Overall, frozen dough helps streamline bakery operations, reduce costs and ensure product consistency while providing customers with fresh, high-quality baked goods,” he added. 

Frozen doughs have proven to be what a growing number of bakers and their customers need to help business thrive. However, the freezing process can spell disaster for these doughs and final product texture if managed improperly.

“A percentage of water in the dough is ‘free water,’ meaning that it is not bound or absorbed by traditional ingredients,” explained Chris Bohm, technical director, Corbion. “This ‘free water’ will crystalize during freezing and perforate protein strands, disrupt disulfide bonds and damage yeast cells. This reaction will lead to a baked product that will have an increase in proof time, decrease in volume, coarse texture, poorer eating quality and a less-than-appealing finished look.”

Fluctuations in temperature during shipping and storage, which can cause multiple freeze-thaw cycles, can further harm dough quality. Shaheed noted that freezing may also negatively impact flavor and lead to freezer burn, staling and the separation of ingredients such as fats and emulsifiers.

The freezer can leave the quality of baked goods out in the cold, but bakers today are drawing from a growing toolbox of ingredients to ensure frozen doughs maintain their integrity. These ingredients include hydrocolloids, enzymes, emulsifiers, phosphates and more.

This article is an excerpt from the September 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Texture, click here.