Scaling croissant production to industrial levels demands precision, consistency, and total process control, especially in the frozen croissant category, which now rivals fresh-baked in consumer perception. This guide explores the key technical challenges of frozen croissant production, and answers the question: ‘how do bakeries mass produce croissants?’ – while showing how Puratos solutions help overcome them at every stage.
Industrial croissant production – the basics
Making croissants at large scale follows the same core principles as artisanal baking, but every stage is re-engineered to handle large volumes while keeping quality unchanged.
Unlike artisanal bakeries, where mixing, shaping, proofing, and baking happen in one continuous flow, industrial lines often split the process, sometimes freezing dough after fermentation, or even before. Continuous mixing, mechanical lamination, and precise freezing all play a role in meeting today’s consumer expectations, where frozen croissants must match freshly baked ones in flavor, texture, and appearance. So, it’s crucial to optimize each process.
1. Mixing
To begin with, flour, butter/fat, yeast, a touch of sugar, salt, and water are combined and kneaded to form a smooth, elastic dough. Large continuous mixers replace small batches, allowing precise control over dough development and temperature. Even small variations in dough temperature can affect fermentation, lamination behavior, and ultimately performance after freezing.
2. Lamination
A block of fat is then enclosed in the dough, rolled and folded repeatedly to create alternating layers. In artisanal bakeries, this is done piece by piece. In an industrial setting, the process is continuous, with machinery creating consistent layers across large sheets. Getting fat and dough to work well together is essential, without it, you lose the flaky layered structure. Therefore, be strategic about your fat choice. A good option is a high-performance lamination fat, such as Mimetic, which is developed to perform in climatised production conditions, and maintains consistent results. We’ll look at this more closely in the solutions section.
3. Shaping
Laminated dough is then sheeted, cut, and shaped, often into the classic crescent, but also into filled or straight formats. Automated lines must manage rework (trimmed dough from cutting). Some rework improves elasticity and flavor, but quantities must be consistent to avoid too much variation.
4. Freezing
Freezing makes large-scale distribution and bake-off possible, but it is also one of the biggest technical challenges in industrial croissant production. Producers can decide when to freeze the dough (before croissant proofing, after proofing, or even after partial baking) depending on the result they’re targeting.
When dough is frozen, ice crystals can damage yeast cells and weaken the gluten network, leading to lower volume and uneven layers after baking. The impact depends on when proofing/fermentation takes place.
5. Baking
For frozen, unbaked croissants, careful proofing before baking is essential to achieve the right volume, crumb, and crust.
What are the differences from artisanal production?
While the basic recipe remains the same (flour, fat, yeast, sugar, salt, and water), industrial production introduces:
- Continuous mixing and lamination instead of manual, small-batch handling
- Process interruptions (freezing between stages) requiring adapted formulations
- Automated shaping and cutting for uniformity with potential rework left over
- Need for specialized ingredients (improvers, lamination fats) to preserve quality and shelf life after freezing
Choosing the right frozen process
Selecting the right frozen process for your croissant line depends on your operational setup, desired product quality, distribution model and the capabilities of the point of sale. Each comes with its own advantages and challenges.
Raw frozen
In the raw frozen process, dough pieces are frozen before fermentation. This offers flexibility in proofing and baking schedules, and can reduce production bottlenecks. However, as Mario Carbonell, R&D Manager Bakery explains, it’s also much more challenging because yeast activity is impacted by freezing.
Ice crystals damage yeast cells, leading to reduced gas production during proofing. In most cases, unfermented frozen croissants maintain optimal quality for around three months before volume begins to decline noticeably.
Use cases:
- A centralized industrial baking factory makes and freezes the croissants, which are then shipped to local stores for proofing and baking.
- When fermentation at the point of sales is possible.
Challenges:
- Greater sensitivity to storage time and conditions.
- More demanding on dough strength and improver performance.
- Consistent fermentation power.
Pre-proofed frozen
In this process, croissants are fully proofed at the factory, then frozen. Because yeast activity has already done its work, loss of yeast viability during freezing is less critical. However, freezing still affects the gluten network and layering quality over time. According to Mario Carbonell, R&D Manager Bakery, pre-fermented frozen croissants can generally hold quality for five to six months before significant decline.
Use cases:
- Bake-off operations that require quick turnaround and minimal labor.
- Consistent volume and appearance with less skill needed on site.
Challenges:
- Slightly more complex to transport and handle due to fully proofed structure.
- Still subject to gradual loss of volume and layering during extended storage.
What are the common challenges in frozen production?
In the industrial croissants production process, maintaining volume, consistent croissant lamination, preventing butter leakage, extending croissant shelf life, and ensuring uniform quality are critical to customer satisfaction. Without the right processes, ingredients, and controls, performance can quickly decline.
1. Maintaining volume
As mentioned, freezing affects yeast activity and the gluten network. Over time, ice crystals form and damage dough structure, leading to reduced volume after baking. This is especially true for raw frozen dough, which is more sensitive to storage time and temperature fluctuations.
2. Croissant lamination quality
This process requires perfect alignment between dough and fat so that layers expand evenly during baking. In industrial croissant production, aggressive sheeting or temperature fluctuations can cause the layers to merge or tear, leading to volume loss and internal defects, ultimately reducing flakiness.
3. Butter leakage
You might wonder what causes butter leakage or poor lamination at scale? During baking, poorly sealed edges or an imbalance between dough and fat consistency can cause butter to leak from the layers, leaving an oily residue and compromising volume and texture.
4. Croissant shelf life
Even under ideal frozen storage conditions, croissants gradually lose volume, crispness, and aroma. For bakeries aiming for long shelf life croissant , this means choosing the right formulation and freezing process from the start to prevent and possibly reduce waste.
5. Consistency across batches and sites
Variability in ingredient quality, equipment, or operator technique can lead to differences in volume, crumb, and flavor between batches or production sites. This is where robust quality control, from ingredient sourcing to final bake, is essential.3
Find out how to ensure quality control at every stage of baking from frozen.
How our Puratos solutions help
Are you planning to produce croissants at scale, wondering which production solutions for frozen croissants will help you maintain quality while doing so?
We offer a targeted range of solutions for industrial croissant production, from frozen dough improvers to specialty lamination fats, designed to work individually or together to improve performance, reduce waste, and extend croissant shelf life.
Kimo Lamination improver: protect structure, volume, and freshness
Kimo Lamination improver keeps croissants strong, voluminous, and fresh, even after months in the freezer.
It is specifically formulated to counteract volume loss and weakening of the gluten network during cold processing. It contains low-temperature-active enzymes to improve dough extensibility in cold conditions, plus a puffing effect enzyme to deliver exceptional lift and open structure after baking.
Kimo Lamination combines the benefits of two powerful technologies:
- Intens Strength: reinforces dough tolerance, especially under fluctuating raw material or process conditions, ensuring consistent volume and performance.
- Intens Puff Pastry: exaggerates the puffing effect, boosts crispiness and lamination lift, helping croissants stand out in the premium segment with a flakier, more open texture.
A plant-based version of Kimo Lamination is available to support vegan positioning.
Mimetic: plant-based lamination fat for consistent layers
Mimetic is a high quality lamination fat, suited for industrial croissant lamination. It enables consistent layering with minimal butter leakage that results in an open croissant structure with a crusty crumb. Mimetic delivers a rich buttery taste, while also benefiting from its plant-based qualities.
Lamination challenges in croissant dough production often arise from differences in consistency between dough and fat, which can be reduced with Mimetic when used as advised.
Sunset Glaze: plant-based shine without the fuss
Sunset Glaze is a clean label, vegan-friendly alternative to egg wash. It adds shine and color to croissants, brioche, and more, without the allergen risk or price volatility of eggs.
- 100% plant-based and allergen-free
- Suitable for both sweet and savory croissants
- Helps reduce food waste and increase yield (up to 10% more yield compared to egg wash)7
- Clean and consistent results every time
The combined advantage
Together, Kimo Lamination, Mimetic, Sunset Glaze, and our wide range of fillings give industrial bakers the tools to keep frozen croissants looking and tasting like freshly baked ones, reduce waste from defects such as volume loss or lamination issues, and streamline production with ingredients designed for the demands of industrial croissant production.
Best practices from our experts
Our R&D experts have worked with industrial bakeries worldwide to perfect processes for croissants at scale. Here are their top tips.
1. Process stability
Small variations in temperature, humidity, or handling can lead to big changes in volume, lamination quality, and texture.
- Standardize dough temperatures and resting times across shifts and sites.
- Use improvers like Kimo Lamination to make dough more tolerant in cold conditions, reducing variability between batches.
- Match dough rheology with a stable lamination fat such as Mimetic for even layers.
3. Production flexibility
Flexibility in production means meeting customer demand without overextending resources.
- Choose multi-purpose improvers like Kimo Lamination that work for direct, retarded, and frozen production.
- Store a portion of production as frozen raw or pre-proofed croissants to meet spikes in demand.
- Adapt lamination and shaping to accommodate different product formats (straight, crescent, filled).
Scale your croissant production with success
Are you facing similar hurdles in your croissant production? We work with bakeries worldwide to address and solve these challenges to give your industrial bakery a competitive edge.
Contact your local Puratos representative to discover the ideal solutions for your product and market, and scale with confidence.
