Cereal Chem. 70:109-111   |  VIEW ARTICLE

NOTE: Freezing Experiments on Yeasted Dough Slabs. Effects of Cryogenic Temperatures on the Baking Performance. O. Neyreneuf and B. Delpuech.

Cereal Chem. 70:109-111. Yeasted dough slabs were frozen under very controlled and different cooling velocities (conventional mechanical refrigeration at -40 C, used as a reference, and cryogenics from -40 to -120 C). Cooling velocity at the core of the dough slabs was about seven times higher with cryogenics at -120 C than with blast- freezer treatment at -40 C. Throughout three months of storage, the baking performance of dough slabs was not affected by the -40 and -60 C cryogenic treatments, whereas decreasing the freezing temperature successively to -80, -100, and -120 C involved a gradual drop in bread volumes (about 15% per operation). Freezing at -60 C yielded the best results in terms of quality (bread volumes) and productivity (freezing time). Cryogenics in closely controlled conditions should permit a gain in productivity without affecting baking performance.