Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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PREPROOFED, UNBAKED AND FROZEN
~ RQI~SA~T AND PROC~S~ OF M~KING S~ME
BACKG~Q~ND OF THE INV~NTIQ~
The present invention is directed to a method of manufactur-
ing a preproofed, unbaked frozen croissant product and the actual
croissant product itself. The art of creating and baking a
croissant, from raw ingredients is g2nerally reerred to as
viennoiserie. In today's current market, huge commercial
potential e~ists for the manu~acturer of frozen croissant
products which can be sold to the consuming public. Today, two
general methods of manufacture e~ist for providing a croissant
product to the consuming public, both of which methods, o
course, require that the croissant be shipped in the frozen stage
to the consuming public. Upon receipt, depending upon which
method of manufacture is employed, the frozen croissant is either
merely reheated, since it may hav~ already been baked or thawed,
proofed, egg washed and then freshly baked. In this csnnection,
it should be appraciated, that the consuming public as used
herein is ei~her a family household which purchases the fro~en
product or, alternatively, a stors which purcha~es the frozen
product for reRale to ultimate consumers.
Th~ f irst ~nown basic method of manufacture of a croissant
product i8 a~ ~ollows: The croissant pro~uct is prepared in th~
normal manner by combining and mising the following flour, yeast,
sugar, salt, water and butt~r, th~n the product is proofed,
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i.e., allowed to enlarge in volume in a temperakure and humidity
controlled atmosphere, eg~ washed, i.e., brushed with a eg~ yolk
and egg white mixture to create a golden coloring upon baking,
actual baking and final freezing. In this method of providing a
croissant product to the consuming public the fro~en croissant,
having already been manufactured, proofed and actually baked is
merely selectively reheated in an oven or toaster for ultimate
consumption. This method suffers from the commercial
disadvantage that it appears to the consuming public that it is
not freshly baked, but rather, is merely reheated. Obviousl~, it
should be appreciated that a store which can advertise that
croissants are ~freshly baked on the premisesU i~ at a tre~endous
business advantage over thos~ establishment~ whsrein the
. croissant is merely reheated on the premises, having been baked
elsewhere and then frozenO
The second referred to method of pro~idi~g a croissant
product, on the other hand, while it allow~ the commercial
establishment to advertise its products as being "freshly baked
Il on the premises~ requires, prior to baking, a controlled thawing
I of the croissant product, a proofin~ o the product, which
I require~ th~ placement of the croissant in a humidity and
temperature controlled atmosphera for a predetermîned period of
I time in order to allow the croissant to enlarge in volume, a
I¦ manual egg wash process and then a controlled ~aking at a set
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temperature for a set time. Obviou51y, it should be appreciated
that the difficulty, variety and number o steps which are
required to be performed to the unbaked frozen croissant product
prior to it assuming its final ~eady-to-ba~e configuration is
subject to much mishandling and, consequently, an often poor
quality and certainly a not-perfect final product often results.
The present invention contemplates the manuf acture of a
frozen, preproofed, yet unbaked, croissant product which is able
to be immediately placed into an oven for fresh on-pxemises
baking without the necessity of prethawing, proofing and the egg
wash steps which are o~herwise necessary for the baking of a
frozen yet unbaked croissant.
In prior art processes, proofing prior to freezing was either¦
I not fully considered because of the delicate nature of the
I layered croissant or, if considered, r~sulted in a croissant
product, which, after proofing, and upo~ reezing substantially
decreased in volume. Ths latter is a re~ult to be avoided. In
this connection, the decreaæe in volume of the proofed product
refers to the dierence in voluma size between the product,
after proofing in ths controlled temperature-humidity atmosphere
and the volume of the croissant after blast fre~zing.
I SU~MARY OF TH~ I~VENTIO~
The present invention is directed to the method of
¦ manufacture and final product of a preproofed, unbaked frozen
¦ croissant which is capable of being selectively simply remo~ed
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from a freezer and placed directly into a pr~heated oven for
baking and serving. The croissant of the present invention is
already proof~d, prior to freezing and, therefore, the proofing
step which is normally requiring ater dethawing of a frozen
croissant product is eliminated as well as the potential for
mishandling the thawing and egg wash steps. The presen~
invention allows for proofing, before freezing, without any
volume decrease, upon freezing. The present invention is
accomplished by utilizing a precise mi~ture of the ingredients of
the croissan~ dough ~known by e~perts in tha field a the
detrempe). The manner of m~sing the detremp~ and the individual
component ingrsdi~nts of the detrempe is controll~d in order to
maintain a predatermined consistency and temperature of th~
composition. The detrempe is then cut into pieces; refrigerated;
removed therefrom, ater a predet~r~ined time; butter is addad in
a predetsrmined weight percentaga; and the product is then
flattened and laminated. Subsaquent to the lamination step, the
product is allowed to re t for a predetermined time at a
prede~ermined temperature. Relamination i~ then accomplished by ;
usa o~ the standard lamination machine to achieve the ~inal
desired thickness. The product i~ than pas~ad through a standard
croissant cutting and forming machine to form tha croissants in
individual shapes, praferably triangle~. AftQr bsing formed, the~
individual croissants sre panned onto a cooki~ shee~. The
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croissant~ are then directed into a fermentation room for a
predetermined time which serves to allow the croissant to enlarge
in volume, i.e., proof, since the room is maintained at a
predetermined temperature and at a predetermined humidity
atmosphere. After the fermentation step is completed such that
the croissants enlarge two to two and a half times, in volume,
the croissants are blast frozen until the core of the croissant
reaches a predetermined temperature. Upon removal from the
freezer, a thin film of egg wash is then applied and the
croissants are then packaged and stored. Final baking takes
place where and whsn desired. Thus, according to the pre~ent
invention, a preproofed, unbaked and fro~en croissant is provided
which allows the purchaser to merely preheat an oven and place
the frozen croi~sant therein for baking, without the preparer
being required to thaw, proof nor apply egg wash, to baks, on the
premiæes, a freshly baked psrfect croissant.
It should be appreciated that ths present application allows
for proofing, i.e., expansion in volume o~ the croissant product
prior to feezing and, of course, before baking, without any
appreciable shrinkage of ~ize of the crois~ant product during
freezing. Hereto~ore, as mentioned, according to the prior art,
it wa~ not even considered to proof a croissant product prior to
freezing since ~hrinkage alway~ occurred when the croissant
product was blast rozen. The present invention, however, allows
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for a preproofed, unbaked frozen croissant product to be provided
which does not exhibit any signficant shrinkage during the
freezing step.
It should also be appreciated that the e~tremely fragile
layering of a croissant product is signficantly different from
the relative sturdy product formed in the breakmaking field.
Thus, the processes which one mi~ht use in the field of
breadmaking would not be applicable to the fi~ld of croissant
making and, indeed, one of ordinary skill in the art of croissant
making would certainly not consider the steps of the field of
breadmaking in attempting to improve on a croissant product
inasmuch as the two fields are totally dissimilar to one another
e~cept that they both involve baking.
DETAIL~D DE~CRIPTIQN OF TH~ IEY~TION
As previously mentioned, the present invention is directed to
the manufacturs of a preproofed, frozen, egg washed yet unbaked
croissant product and the process o~ manufacturing the same. The
purchaser upon desirlng a freshly baked crois~ant merely has to
remove the croissant from tha freez0r and place th~ same in a
preheated oven ~375F) for about 15 17 mi~utes or until golden
crispy.
¦ The detrempe of the croissant product, in the preferred
embodiment, comprises as ingredients, flour9 yeast, sugar, salt
~¦ and water. In connection with the preparation o a commercial
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batch of the croissant product of the present invention,
100 pounds of total flour is standard and percentaye~ of
ingredients are based thereon, i.e., a total of 100 pounds of
flour is used per batch. The preferred embodi~tent of the
invention contemplates that tne 100 pounds of flour comprise 78% ,
or 78 pounds of patent flour, i.e., flour having a high
percentage of ashes and 22% or 22 pound~ of clear flour t~a weak
flour). The yeast is added to the flour mistuxe, described
above, in a two to four percent quantity which, in accordance
with the embodiment now disclosed, ranges from two to four
pounds. Sugar is added to the flour and yetast ingredients in an '
eight percent or eight pound quantity. To the flour, yeast and
sugar mi~ture is added salt, which in the preferred embodiment,
weighs one pound and twelve ounces. The dry ingredient~ (flour,
yeast, suqar and salt) are thoroughly mi~ed together. A total of
58 pounds of 58~ watar is add~d to the mi~ture with the addition
of the water being preferably done in threte separate step~,
i.e., appro~imataly one-third or ninetteQn and one-third pounds o
water being ~irst added to the dry ingredients, followed by
mi~i,ng, a second third or ninetteen and onet third pound~ of water
being added followed by a second mising and the addition o~ the
final one-third of th~ total 58 pounds of water being added ~ith
a final mi~ing. This produce~t a desired consistency of the
detrempe.
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i According to the presant invention, the temperature of the
mi~ing of the dry ingredients with the water is done so as to
maintain all of the mi~ed ingr~dients i.e., the detrempe
composition at 35F. This is preferably accomplished by having
the water comprised of cold water and/or ice such that the
detrempe mixture is maintained at 35F. According to the
preferred embodiment of the invention, the temperature of the
composition is ascertained after the second one~third water
addition, i.e., after a total of thirty-eight and two-third
pounds of water has been added. Depending upon the temperature
of the detrempe mi~ture at that po~nt, the final one-third water,
i.e., nineteen and one-third pound consisting o~ ice and water
., is adjusted in ratio such that the total nineteen an~ one-third
pounds of required water is added such that, upon addition to the
mi2ture, a temperature of the entire detrempe mi~turs i~
preferably maintained at approzimately 35F.
j The total time of mi~ing the detrempe which, as mentioned, is
;¦ mi~ed three separate times after each addition of the one third
i total quantity of water is about 22 minutes.
After tho detrempe is fully mi~ed, it i5 cut into pieces of
about twelve pounds each and placed on trays, two to a tray. The
tra~s are then refrigerated ~t 35F for approsimately si~ hours.
After the refrigeration, but~er is folded into the detrempe
~ pieces. Approximately 30~ of the weight of the detrempe pieces
I of butter is folded into each pieca. In th0 preferred e~ample,
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therefore, 30% of the twelve pound pieces results in an addition
of appro~imately 3.6 pounds of butter to each of the detrempe
pieces. The butter, too, has been previously maintained at about
35F and is added to the detrempe pieces at that temperature.
The butter is simply spread on one-half o~ the piece~ with the
other half of the piece bein~ folded-over the butter so that a
butter-type sandwich is provided with half of the twelve pound
detrempe piece on the bottom and hal the twelve pound detrempe
piece on the top of the evenly spread 3.6 pound butter layer.
The piece is now appro~imately five inches high. According
to the invention, the piece is flattened and laminated through a
standard laminating machine to appro~imately one and one quarter
inches in height whil~ maintaining the width at the original
width such that, in order to maintain volume, the length of the
piece incr~ase~ appro~imately ourfold. After initial flattening
and laminating, the detrempe i~ divided in thirds and folded with
a first outside one-third layer over the middle o~e-third layer
and the second opposite outside one-third layar folded on top of
the first outside one-third layer. The entire 1attening and
laminating process, i.e., the ~tours~ of tha process is conducted
at appro~imately room temperature and cer~ainly a~ a temperature
not greatsr than 65F. ~ter folding, as de~cribed above, the
product i~ pas~ed through the flattening an~ laminating machine
to again produce a product one and one quarter inchQ~ in height.
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, ~ second folding in thirds and passage through the flattening and
laminating machine is accomplished. The passage through the
laminating machine and folding is called a ~tour~ in the art of
viennoiserie. After the two tours have been fully accomplished,
the product formed thereby is allowed to rest at 35F for
approximately one and one half hours.
After the rest time, the detrempe composition is once again
laminated through the standard laminating machine to a final
thickness of appro~imately one quarter to three eighth o f an inch
in height. After final lamination or the final, third tour of
the product, the croissant is passed to a standard cutting a
forming machine which forms croissants in the conventional three
cornered trianyle shape. According to the preferred embodiment
of the invention, fifteen such triangally shaped croissants are
panned onto a singla sheet which is approsimately 18 inches by
26 inche~.
The panned croissants are then placed into a ~ermentation or
proofing room which room is maintained at a con~tant t0mperature
o~ 85F with an atmospheric humidity of 70~. The panned
crois~ants are maintained in the fermentation room for
appro.~imately 45 to 75 minutes for proofing purposes. In
connection with the proofing of the crois~ants in the
fermantation rocm, the volume of the croi sa~t3 enlarge by
appro~imat~ly two to two and a half tirnes their original volume.
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During the proofing process, the yea~t of the dough increas~s in
activity to generate CO2 which results in th~ e~pansion of the
volume of the croissant.
After full proofing in the fermentation room, the croissant
products are blast froze~ in a blast re~zer which i~ itself
maintained at appro~imately -30F. The croissants are placed in
the blast freezer for about thirty minutes or until the central
core of the croissants reach a temperature of between about 0F
to about 10F. After the blast feezing of the croissant they are
removed and a thin film of egg wash, i.e., an egg yolk and egg
white standard composition, is applied which egg wash almost
instantly freezes on the surface of ~he croissant since ~h0
croissant is of a surface tamperature which i~ v~ry cold in
comparison to the egg wash temperature.
After the egg wash process, the croissants ~till frozen, are
packaged and stored at 0F, until desirably baked. In thi~
manner, as described, a preproofed, already, egg washed, yet
unbaked frozon croi~sant is provided which can then, as desir~d,
be removed from the freezer and placed into a preheated oven at
350F fro about fifta~n to seYentean minute~. ~ beautiful, flaky
goldon croi~ant i~ thu8 obtained. The present process disclosed
herein allows for a proofed unbaked and frozen crois~ant product
to be provided which does not exhibi~ any shrinkage. The f rozen
croissant product can be freshly baked on the premises.
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