A refrigerated or frozen place-and-bake cake product is described that includes an uncooked dough that has handling characteristics that allow for convenient placement on a baking sheet for baking, yet also results in a cake-like texture upon baking. The uncooked dough includes a particular combination of wheat flour and corn flour, pregelatinized starch and/or a fruit or vegetable puree or mash, a gum component that includes xanthan gum and at least one other gum, sucrose, egg solids, dairy solids, and a leavening system.

A bakery product is produced by mixing ingredients to produce a dough composition, the ingredients including water, flour, and thermostable yeast; making up a raw bakery product having a first volume from the dough composition; leavening, freezing, and baking the frozen raw bakery product to produce a finished bakery product. Leavening includes resting and not proofing or fermentation. After leavening and immediately prior to baking the raw bakery product has a second volume that is less than 150% of the first volume. The finished bakery product has a third volume that is at least 200% of the first volume. A packaged ready-to-bake frozen dough product includes a frozen dough product having a dough matrix; thermally stable yeast; and a plurality of air cells, at least 90% of the air cells being smaller than 4 mm, and a packaging including instructions to bake the dough without proofing or fermenting the dough.

Described are methods and compositions relating to dough compositions leavened by chemical leavening systems that include acidic chemical leavening agent and encapsulated basic chemical leavening agent, wherein the dough composition can be refrigerated in a low pressure package that contains a carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Described are raw, yeast-containing dough compositions, packaged products containing the dough, and related methods, wherein the amount or rate of carbon dioxide released by the dough during refrigerated storage is limited, reduced, or controlled.

A proofed frozen dough includes a dough mixture of flour, water, and optionally additives; gas bubbles dispersed throughout the dough matrix; a spent yeast component; and a preserved yeast component. According to some aspects, the preserved yeast component includes encapsulated yeast, fat-coated yeast, non-hydrated active dry yeast, non-hydrated instant yeast, non-hydrated semi-dry yeast, non-hydrated frozen yeast, or a combination thereof. A frozen dough product can be prepared by mixing dough ingredients to produce a dough composition, where the dough ingredients include water, flour, a first yeast, and a second yeast; proofing the dough, where during proofing the first yeast is spent and the second yeast is preserved; and freezing the dough after proofing.

A process of producing a frozen sheeted dough, which can be prepared without using stress-free sheeting process and transferred directly from the freezer to oven without a proofing step. The process comprises mixing the dough ingredients comprising yeast and chemical leavening agents; resting the dough to form air cell structure; subjecting the dough to high stress sheeting compressions and freezing the dough. The frozen dough can be directly transferred to an oven without a proofing step. The resulting baked product has desirable texture and taste.

A process of producing a frozen sheeted dough, which can be prepared without using stress-free sheeting process and transferred directly from the freezer to oven without a proofing step. The process comprises mixing the dough ingredients comprising yeast and chemical leavening agents; resting the dough to form air cell structure; subjecting the dough to high stress sheeting compressions and freezing the dough. The frozen dough can be directly transferred to an oven without a proofing step. The resulting baked product has desirable texture and taste.

The present invention relates to a yeast strain of the species saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from spontaneous leavened dough, which is capable of remaining viable at temperatures below 8 C., in an inactive condition with respect to carbon dioxide production, and of resuming a normal fermentative and leavening capacity when shifted to an optimal temperature range. Moreover, the invention relates to solid and fluid doughs, comprising at least water, flour and yeast according to the invention, to the uses of such doughs and their production.

Described are dough compositions and methods, wherein the dough composition is prepared using a metabolized portion of dough comprising bubbles, metabolically active yeast, and developed dough matrix, combined with non-metabolized yeast, and wherein the dough composition preferably has useful properties such as yeast-leavened freezer-to-oven capabilities, without the need for chemical leavening agents or modified atmosphere packaging.

A method of producing a piece of laminated dough that is frozen after partial fermentation is provided. The method of producing the piece comprises the steps of: (a) mixing and kneading flour, water, yeast, gluten, and other materials to make a dough mass, (b) causing the dough mass to be formed in a belt-like shape, (c) putting fat on the formed dough to sandwich fat layers between dough layers to form a sheet of laminated dough in a long belt-like shape, (d) cutting the sheet to obtain a piece in a desired shape, (e) forming the piece into a piece in a desired shape, (f) fermenting the formed piece so that the specific volume of the piece becomes 1.2 to 1.8 cm.sup.3/g, (g) rapidly freezing the fermented piece, and (h) preserving the frozen piece in a freezer.