Dough retarding and freezing

Abstract

Over the years, bakers have sought ways to extend the working life of dough, which is otherwise largely limited by the natural processes of yeast fermentation, enzymic activity and structural relaxation of the gluten. Improvements in production efficiency have been the main driving force for the baker to seek such extensions in dough life. For example, some products are required in small numbers, which necessitates mixing small batches of dough, but maximum production efficiency is more often achieved by producing larger quantities of dough than those needed for a single day's product sales. Other driving forces for extending dough shelf-life have included the avoidance of unsocial working hours and local restrictions on night baking. Since yeast fermentation is significantly slowed down by lowering the dough temperature, it was only natural that attention would be focused on the application of refrigerated and deep-freeze temperatures to yeasted doughs. If the dough temperature is reduced low enough, yeast fermentation will cease altogether and the dough can be held in what approximates to a state of suspension. Early experiments with the refrigeration of yeasted doughs was to lead eventually to the development of the process which has become known as 'dough retarding' and which utilizes specialist refrigeration equipment. There are both similarities and significant differences between retarded and frozen doughs. They share the common problems associated with the poor conductivity of dough but require quite different equipment if both processes are to run under optimized conditions. Retarding and deep freezing of yeasted doughs are not necessarily the 'convenience' products that they are sometimes claimed to be. For example, the early introduction of retarding and deep freezing techniques into UK craft bakeries during the 1950s met with some success but gradually the limitations of the technology and the equipment reduced their impact on the baking industry. The evolution of the 'in-store' bakery resulted in a revival of interest in retarded doughs in the UK. In other European countries the use of retarders has remained more common since their introduction, perhaps in part because of the continued survival of large numbers of small, craft bakers where there are limitations on working practices, or where the retarding process is seen to be making a positive contribution to product quality. The production of frozen doughs had less appeal to the craft baker and was more suited to centralized production of the frozen units, with distribution to satellite storage and bake-off. The popularity of frozen dough products has always been less in Europe than that in the USA, where there are significant numbers of bake-off units using frozen dough technology. With improvements in technical understanding and process control, the use of frozen dough in Europe has increased. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.