Improving performance of croissant dough during processing and frozen storage

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Croissants are high-value baked products made of layered yeast-leavened dough. They are very popular when sold as frozen dough to be baked at home or retail outlet. Freezing of croissant dough, however, leads to deterioration of product quality. This issue poses a big technological challenge to manufacturers. In croissants processing, sheeting and blocking/forming/moulding are very important steps which determine the quality of the end product. Sheeting and resting the dough are the major constraints in croissant process, through which the dough is gradually reduced to very thin sheets before it is folded into three or four layers. In the food industry time is money, and thus resting time during sheeting is very short and the dough has to be able to overcome the stress and remain as a continuous film to function as a barrier to fat. The possibility of the gluten network being damaged by an excessive pressure during sheeting could have a significant effect on the quality and functionality of the protein as well as the quality of the final product. The main concern of the collaborating company is the low freezing intolerance of their croissant' dough, its low intolerance to overcome the excessive pressure during sheeting and the overall functional properties of the flour which have significant impact on dough plasticity and consequently the quality of the final product. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to investigate the possibility of using a combination of enzymes at different concentrations to modify the wheat flour functionality and rheological properties (extensibility, elasticity and plasticity) to withstand the stress during sheeting and block the fat. Also to alleviate some of the detrimental effects of the frozen storage on the dough properties. The outcome of the research will help better understand the action of enzymes in protein crosslinking to produce dough that would withstand freezing storage and sheeting process. This should result in high quality croissant.