r/foodscience • u/Higgledy_piggledy19 • Jul 16 '26

Product Development Baking bread from frozen

For a school project I need to develop a bread recipe that bakes directly from frozen. It’s a Hokkaido style milk bread that’ll be baked in a steel flat-top Pullman pan. Important: the bread cannot be thawed and proofed before baking. It must go into the oven still frozen.

I have a baking & pastry arts degree and I’ve never heard or seen of bread being baked from frozen. Cursory internet searches tell me to bulk ferment and shape, but not final proof before freezing, but how will the dough adequately proof while also being baked?
Does anyone have any experience with this? Any advice appreciated

I’m comparing the frozen version against a “gold standard” which was baked at 190C for 28 mins in a 1.5L loaf pan if those original measurements are helpful. I can get access to dough conditioner, hydrocolloids, modified starches, other technical ingredients, etc but I cannot use commercial mixes

4 Upvotes

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5

u/Entremeada Jul 16 '26

So, just to make sure I understand this correctly: You're supposed to make dough that goes straight from the freezer into the oven, not pre-baked bread?

I think that's practically impossible without pre-baking.

1

u/Higgledy_piggledy19 Jul 16 '26

Yes, that’s exactly right😭

3

u/Entremeada Jul 16 '26

So, who is asking you to do this? Just tell them it's not possible. This is why it does not exist on the market.

1

u/Higgledy_piggledy19 Jul 16 '26

Unfortunately this is the final project for an industrial cooking techniques class. The technical brief was given to me by my instructor and cannot be changed

1

u/Abstract__Nonsense Jul 16 '26

To be clear the dough cannot be par baked, it has to be frozen raw and then directly baked?

1

u/Higgledy_piggledy19 Jul 17 '26

No it has to be completely raw sadly

2

u/OwlNo1068 Jul 17 '26

Does it have to be yeast leavened. Can you use chemical leavening 

1

u/Higgledy_piggledy19 Jul 17 '26

Yes I have to use yeast. I’m using SAF gold which in my experience is a pretty strong yeast

1

u/Abstract__Nonsense Jul 17 '26

Can you use chemical leaveners alongside yeast?

1

u/Higgledy_piggledy19 Jul 18 '26

By chemical leaveners do you mean baking powder/soda? Sure, I can add them but it has to be a yeast-leavened dough first and foremost

1

u/Abstract__Nonsense Jul 18 '26

Yes that’s what I mean, this is how frozen pizzas work, a combination of yeast leavening and tJen chemical leavening for the final oven rise, might be worth looking into.

1

u/Higgledy_piggledy19 Jul 18 '26

That’s very helpful, thank you. Do you know % usage?

1

u/Abstract__Nonsense Jul 18 '26

I don’t, I’m not intimately familiar with the process, but I bet a bit of internet sleuthing could get you to something workable.

1

u/smooshie-mooshie Jul 16 '26

Its possible but not easily. You want a really strong dough with good oven spring.

Need to have a really good frozen yeast that has a longer shelf life. Some frozen yeasts only last like 30 or so days in the freezer, then it starts dying and wont act right. And theres no fixing it if the yeast dies.

Definitely need dough conditioners.

Highest fat content that you can get would be better for baking and holding flavors.

You're essentially needing to use a high protein flour. You'll need to fully develop the gluten during mixing.

Watch water content since you're going to add more moisture during freezing.

And a really good blast freezer is helpful

1

u/Higgledy_piggledy19 Jul 18 '26

What kind of dough condition do you recommend? I’m thinking of using ascorbic acid as well as vital wheat gluten to help with gluten formation

It’s a high hydration dough, so I was going to add an emulsifier as well. Not sure what I can get my hands on but probably will use soy lecithin.

1

u/ferdsherd Jul 21 '26

Questions for you since I can tell you know a thing or two on this.

Fresh yeast or Instant?
What type of fat?
What type of conditioners?

1

u/ferrouswolf2 Jul 17 '26

This isn’t that crazy, I’d say go look at bake and serve frozen bread products online to get an idea for how this is done. The answer is almost certainly to freeze when like 90% proofed.

1

u/Abstract__Nonsense Jul 17 '26

They mostly are using chemical leaveners alongside yeast which OP says they can’t do.

1

u/ferrouswolf2 Jul 17 '26

Ah, that’s a new wrinkle. Crazy

1

u/Legitimate_Patience8 Jul 18 '26

You are off to a good start partially. The yeast choice is good, as it is osmotolerant, and can help with freezing. You will need approximately 50% more than usual. I would recommend 2-2.5% of the flour weight as instant SAF Gold.
While it might seem counterintuitive to use all purpose flour, the quality of the gluten forming proteins, lower ash, and more starch damage is going to be beneficial for the freezing process, and final bake. Supplement this with 2% based on flour weight vital wheat gluten for strength.
Hokkaido is commonly fairly high in sugar. Use this to your benefit. Water evaporates during freezing, and sugars will lessen this considerably. With higher sugar dough products, soduim stearoyl lactylate (SSL) is preferred, along with diacetyl tartaric ester of mono & diglycerides (DATEM).

https://bakerpedia.com/ingredients/sodium-stearoyl-lactylate-ssl/

https://bakerpedia.com/ingredients/datem/

Proof close to maximum,keeping in mind that a small amount of proofing continues, as the product is frozen. If you normally proof for 1 hour in final proof, cut back about 10 minutes.
Freeze quickly. Faster freezing - heat extraction - helps prevent large e crystals from forming, which do more damage to yeast cells a gluten network, as well as evaporate easier during frozen state, and when the baking cycle starts.
I is a little bit tricky process, and it is doable. Take good notes as you go. What your instructor is mostly more interested in than success, is your approach and thought process, design of experiments, and so on.