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Compositions and methods relating to freezer-to-oven doughs

Compositions and methods relating to freezer-to-oven doughs description/claims

The invention is generally directed to compositions and methods useful for producing dough compositions and baked dough products. These include methods and compositions useful for producing “freezer-to-oven,” “FTO” doughs that can be stored frozen without proofing and that can be baked without being thawed or proofed. Preferred embodiments can be packaged without modified atmosphere packaging, and do not require chemical leavening agents.

Frozen doughs are desirable for commercial and home baking because they minimize preparation time and are easy to use. Such ready-to-bake doughs should be storage stable when frozen and should provide baked products having good organoleptic qualities and aesthetic appeal. Examples of frozen doughs include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,847,104; 4,966,778; 5,447,738; 5,560,946; 5,254,351; and in PCT Application WO 96/34530.

Frozen doughs come in a variety of different product types, e.g., based on the steps required to prepare a baked product from the dough. As background, dough products can require expansion during baking, and can also require proofing, i.e., allowing the dough to sit to allow yeast to produce carbon dioxide that expands the dough prior to and during baking. Many frozen doughs operate on this principle, with yeast as a leavening agent. When using typical yeast-leavened frozen doughs, a consumer will thaw the bread out of the freezer, allow the bread to sit (i.e., proof) for a time sufficient for the bread to produce carbon dioxide that will expand during baking, and then, finally, be the bread. The steps of thawing and proofing can be very time-consuming. When preparing these types of frozen doughs, designed for preparation by a consumer by thawing, proofing, and then baking, it is generally preferred to avoid allowing yeast to metabolize prior to freezing, to enhance storage stability and to allow substantial leavening during baking.

Other types of frozen doughs are designed to remove or reduce the amount of tune a consumer spends between freezer and oven. Some frozen dough products are sold “pre-proofed,” which means that the dough is allowed to rise before freezing. Preproofed doughs have several drawbacks. Pre-proofed doughs can be expensive because a proofing step must be performed during the manufacturing process, and, such doughs can require a significant amount of storage space. Moreover, pre-proofed doughs can be susceptible to damage by temperature fluctuations, the formation of ice crystals, and mechanical stresses.

As another alternative, some frozen doughs are not pre proofed but include chemical leavening agents and do not require a proofing step. These dough compositions use chemical leavening agents instead of yeast. The chemical leavening agent operates differently from yeast. While yeast requires time after thawing and prior to baking, for sitting at ambient temperature to produce carbon dioxide, a chemical leavening agent produces a gas at baking temperature, during baking, to expand the dough. The dough may or may not require thawing between the freezer and oven.

Some types of frozen dough products, especially pr-proofed, yeast-leavened, frozen dough products, are sometimes sold in modified-atmosphere packaging. The packaging can include an inert gas such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide to prevent oxidation of the frozen dough and to maintain a high concentration of carbon dioxide in the frozen dough to loss of carbon dioxide from the dough during storage and for expansion of the dough during baking. Modified atmosphere packaging has drawbacks such as added cost and complexity.

There is a continuing need to provide new methods and compositions useful in producing frozen dough products. Especially desirable would be methods and compositions capable of producing a frozen dough composition that can be stored frozen without first being proofed or partially baked, especially that can also provide a desirable baked dough product without being thawed or proofed after freezing and before being baked. Most preferably, either or both of these goals might desirably be met without the need for chemical leaveners or modified atmosphere packaging.

The embodiments of the present invention described below are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed in the following detailed description. Rather, the embodiments are chosen and described so that others skilled in the art may appreciate and understand the principles and practices of the present invention.

Generally, the invention relates to the discovery that selection and optimizing of ingredients of a dough composition, also in combination with selection of processing steps and conditions, allows otherwise standard dough ingredients to be processed into a frozen dough composition having freezer-to-oven convenience, without the necessity for chemical leavening agents, partial baking before freezing, pre-proofing before baking, or the use of modified atmosphere packaging.

The invention involves techniques of producing a frozen dough composition that exhibits these useful properties, including: combining general dough ingredients; allowing for metabolizing of a portion of yeast of the total dough composition to produce bubbles in a developed dough matrix; maintaining the bubbles through processing to be present at baking; and allowing for the presence of non-metabolized yeast in the dough composition, especially when frozen and at baking. Allowing a portion of the total amount of yeast to metabolize produces nucleation sites, e.g., bubbles, in the dough composition. The bubbles are retained by the developed dough composition into baking, to expand during baking to leaven the dough. Yeast which has not been allowed to metabolize prior to baking is also present for metabolization and leavening upon baking. The dough, including the bubbles and non-metabolized yeast, can be directly frozen and baked without thawing. The combination of bubbles and non-metabolized yeast combine their leavening effects during baking to leaven the dough composition to a desired baked specific volume. The developed dough composition matrix can withstand freezing while maintaining the bubbles.

Specific ingredients, processing steps, and features of a dough composition that can be selected to achieve the described performance include those that will provide the following.

Ingredients to provide a strengthened or developed gluten matrix or network dough matrix that can maintain bubbles before and during freezing. Flour may contribute toward a developed matrix, and a dough composition may contain ordinary flour, high protein flour, or both, optionally with added gluten to strengthen and stabilize the dough matrix to maintain bubbles through processing and into baking, where the bubbles can be available to leaven the dough. Preferred developed dough compositions may be produced by allowing yeast to metabolize during processing, e.g., using a rest or cooling step, such as a discrete floor-time resting or cooling step, by using a pre-fermented or rested sponge for a time sufficient to develop gluten, resting or cooling time between processing of the dough composition after mixing but before freezing, such as between lamination steps, or another step that allows development of gluten; through the use of strengtheners (e.g., transglutaminase or others); or by including re-work dough composition that has been processed for a time sufficient to allow the matrix to develop. Nucleation sites, e.g., bubbles, which contain gas that will leaven the dough composition during baking. Bubbles can be introduced in a pre-fermented sponge, in a re-work composition, or using processing steps such as mixing or post-mixing processing such as folding, laminating, lapping, or another method of incorporating gas or bubbles into a dough composition. The type and amount of yeast included in the metabolized dough portion can be selected to become metabolically active during processing to produce a useful amount of bubbles that can be retained trough processing and frozen storage for leavening during baking. An amount of non-metabolically active yeast. Yeast is included in the dough composition, at least a portion of which will non-metabolically active into and through frozen storage for availability during baking, to leaven the dough composition.

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