Lamination: A Thin Line Between Butter and Butter

Croissant dough is not only labor-intensive, but it requires discipline, precision and good quality ingredients. Leave any of these out and the outcome can be uneven, unappetizing, and wasteful. That is what semi- and fully-automated laminators can prevent, provided they are calibrated to work with the ingredients at hand.

At least 25 layers of paper-thin flaky dough created through the miracle of cold butter steamed in hot ovens. That’s what a good croissant has to offer the on-the-go consumers and, centuries after it’s been invented, it’s still an impressive feat. If done right.

In order to create the more than 25 layers, gluten-heavy dough must be folded at least four times onto itself while filling the space between the dough sheets with cold fat – butter, shortening or lard – so that, when in the oven, the fat pockets expand the gluten structure and give the final product volume, structure, crispness and flakiness. And, of course, amazing taste. 

At home and in artisanal small bakeries, this process is done by hand, over many hours of handling, cooling and handling the dough again. In larger enterprises, they might use a manual or an automated laminator, a machine that binds the dough sheets and butter together with less human effort. 

But the truly mesmerizing process happens in large plants, where the lamination process is automated. Over a long production line, the dough gets folded around slick slabs of cold fat, precisely evened out to prevent waste, then turned around and folded again and again until it reaches the desired structure. In the end, the line even cuts the laminated dough to size, so that croissants can be rolled swiftly, ready for oven and then retail. An efficient production line for laminated dough is no small feat though, because of all the challenges such a dough presents.

Waste

One major issue encountered by semi- or fully-automated lamination lines is the risk of ingredient waste, which translates into financial losses and an environmental impact everyone wants to avoid. Dutch producer Rademaker’s line has a fat pump designed to address this issue specifically. “The price of butter is much higher compared to margarine or shortening and therefore requires a very accurate fat pump”, says the company rep. “Every 1% inaccuracy in the pump can cost a lot of money on an annual basis. Looking at the fact that there are Rademaker customers who process more than 5000kg of butter per hour in the production of laminated dough, the benefits of a very accurate fat pump can be huge.”

Fat Temperature

The temperature of fat can influence the quality of the end product. An expert with BVT Dough Process Solutions, builder of customized dough production lines, says that “if the temperature of the fat rises or falls too quickly, or the end temperature of the incorporated fat is too high or too low, the end product will not have the desired quality.” That means that the pieces of fat will not steam and create pockets in the dough, thus causing a loss of integrity and structure.

You can read the rest of this article in the Fall issue of World Bakers Digital, which you can access by clicking here.