How to freeze plays a crucial role in pastry making for two fundamental reasons. Firstly, it is used to meet the specific requirements of certain recipes. For example, when freezing a mousse-type cake, it is essential that it is frozen; otherwise, the mousse would lose its shape when the hot glaze is applied. Similarly, freezing is used to create inclusions in entremets, adding texture and surprising flavours to these exquisite creations.
In addition to its importance for individual recipes, freezing is essential for increasing production and ensuring greater efficiency in the pastry field. By anticipating demand and freezing products in advance, pastry chefs can efficiently fulfil orders during the festive season and achieve greater customer satisfaction. This approach allows them to increase production volume without compromising quality, as frozen products retain their freshness and flavour when thawed and served.
Some tips for freezing cakes while maintaining taste and texture
Making your pastry shop a success is achieved by winning over the customer’s palate and, of course, having the capacity to meet their demand. This means being able to produce efficiently, ensuring that our cakes are preserved in perfect condition before being consumed.
The freezing process, in this case, becomes very important and must be taken into account from the choice of ingredients.
Avoiding syneresis
Among the main tips for freezing cakes is to avoid syneresis. This is the loss of water that can occur during the freezing and defrosting process. This, in turn, results in a considerable change in the texture and flavour of the food.
We can make an amazing cake, but it can deteriorate significantly when frozen, unless we use processes and ingredients that maintain its freshness until it is ready to eat.
The perfect balance
The first step to consider is the balance between solids and liquids in the recipe. We must estimate an approximate percentage between 20 to 30 % of total soluble solids (TSS) of dry extract for a correct balance in recipes such as mousses or creams. This will allow us to have the first requirement for our preparations to be well preserved during freezing processes.
This percentage may need to be adjusted depending on the cake we make and the ingredients we use. For this purpose, there are different products that will help us to increase solids. These include sugars or soluble solids (SS), also called bulking agents. And although fats also count as solids in the cake, they can also be used as solids.
A good way to incorporate solids is by adding Hot Inulin, from Sosa Ingredients, which helps us to achieve the desired balance. In addition, as it stands out for its high creaminess, it can reduce the fats in the preparations.
Another alternative is Cold Inulin, also from Sosa Ingredients, which is more soluble than the hot option and is ideal for use in preparations without the need for heating, for example: meringue bases for aerating mousses. It also helps to reduce sugars and sweetness and to partially reduce fats due to its creaminess.
Texturizers for freezing
There are several texturisers that help us to modify the texture of our cakes, while respecting the flavour and colour of the preparations. If we talk about gelling agents of vegetable origin, pectins are the most suitable for resisting freezing processes and respecting the originality of the recipe once defrosted.
Vegan Mousse Gelatin by Sosa Ingredients is a perfect substitute for animal-based gelatine. It is made from a mixture of modified tapioca starch and agar-agar.
This is a great option for vegetarians and vegans looking to make desserts without animal ingredients. It is ideal for gelling mousses so that they can be cut, achieving a very pleasant texture in the mouth.
In terms of thickeners, we find Cold Gelcrem another product that allows us to balance the texture of our cakes and avoid syneresis. It is made from potato starch and helps us to thicken without heating, just by adding the product to the liquid. For example, we can add Cold Gelcrem to a fruit puree by mechanical stirring.
In addition, it provides a lot of creaminess, being able to reduce or substitute dairy products, in the case of creams. This thickener responds well to freezing without producing syneresis, compared to other starches.
The use of stabilizers to complete our recipes
Stabilisers complete the catalogue of products that manage to respect the structure of our cakes during the freezing process.
If we are thinking of making ice cream cakes, thanks to stabilisers we will obtain greater thickness, a better emulsion and greater stability of the ice cream once defrosted. The most commonly used stabilisers are Guar gum and Garrofin gum. We recommend the last one for processes that need to be heated due to its better hydration when hot, unlike guar gum, which is more soluble when cold.
In Sosa Ingredients, the brand that makes cakes remain incredible, we find two products that will stabilise the texture of our ice creams, facilitating the formulation of the recipes.
On the one hand, Procrema 100 hot/cold Natur a stabiliser containing a mixture of thickeners, fibres, proteins and sugars. It is perfect for ice creams and ice cream cakes, as it provides 10% solids, having only 15-20% sugars to be added, thus achieving the solids necessary for a good balance of ice creams. In addition, it helps to maintain the emulsion and stability and provides aeration for a correct overrun. It stands out for its natural ingredients and because it can be applied both hot and cold.
Prosorbet 100 Frío Natur is more suitable for sorbets. With similar characteristics and application asProcrema 100 hot/cold Natur but offering a more suitable texture to maintain the essence and freshness of the fruit.
Both are characterised by their high anti-crystallising power to improve the texture during freezing.
In summary, freezing processes in the pastry industry are essential both to meet the requirements of certain recipes and to increase efficiency and respond to demand at key moments. Freezing becomes an indispensable tool for pastry chefs, allowing them to create desserts with impeccable shapes and to offer a variety of unique flavours and textures. It also gives them the ability to prepare in advance and meet their customers’ needs effectively, even at the busiest times of the year.
You already know how to freeze in pastry, but if you want to become a professional pastry chef, in our blog you will find tips and tricks to achieve it. You can obtain perfectly preserved pastry preparations, even after the freezing process, just by adding the right ingredients to avoid syneresis.