Troubleshooting

The LBA warehouse maintains strict climate controls. Unfortunately, we do not have control over what happens after the product leaves our warehouse.

If individual items (Dough sheets, Croissant, Cinnamon Rolls or Danish Snails)are stuck together, encrusted in ice crystals or have a greyish color, they have been thawed and refrozen at some point. The product will not perform as expected and the yeast items will fail to rise.

Its best to open and inspect your shipments upon receipt so that you can identify any thawing issues as soon as possible and pinpoint the source of the temperature change.

Yeast doughs are guaranteed to perform for six months after production.

After that time, it will take longer for them to rise and the product will not meet the quality standards of fresh product.

If you have received cases of product exceeding the six month shelf life, please alert your distributor right away.

To ensure your success, tip sheets are included in every case with thawing, proofing and baking information.

To help you further troubleshoot performance, explore these helpful troubleshooting tips. If you have a product complaint, please gather as much information as possible, fill out the Complaint Form and contact:

In solving every issue, the most critical information is to get the manufacturing code from the LBA box (e.g. 102914 11 14:25). This code would mean this product was produced on October 29, 2014.

Because yeast doughs begin to proof quickly once thawed, its important to pull only what product will be needed and fully wrap the rest back up before returning to the freezer. If left unwrapped, product will get ice crystals and could be dried out when thawed. Keep stock rotated for freshness.

If product is over-proofed the yeast will eat the sugar in the dough and it will not brown correctly.

Generally, there will be honeycomb holes in the dough or a cavity will form in the center of croissants.

Over-proofed products will often fall in the oven.

If the product is not given enough time to rise, the top layers will rise but the under layers will be doughy and clumped together after baking.

The product will be smaller and appear heavy and slightly greasy. If you are experiencing these issues, its likely that under-proofing is your culprit.

If there is butter on the pan during proofing for croissants or danish, you are losing the most expensive ingredient as well as compromising both flavor and appearance.

Butter melts in summer at about 72 degrees fahrenheit, and normally at about 85 degrees fahrenheit. Margarine melts at about 109 degrees fahrenheit.

If during your proofing process your product is leaking butter, check the temperature in your proofing location and consider relocating to a cooler spot in your kitchen.

While over baking is something that seems obvious to avoid, under baking can equally cause problems. If you under bake any yeast dough, it will appear softer (our croissants should be flaky, not soft) and will fall when taken out of the oven.

When properly baked, the bellies of our croissants are firm to the touch when gently squeezed. Croissants and danish should not have a soft outer texture.

Refer to your tip sheet and adjust baking time to your own oven, if necessary, to achieve proper texture.

Whenever possible, bake on parchment paper, and spray any molds used with pan release.

Microwaving any yeast dough to reheat makes them tough and rubbery. Avoid microwaving!

Instead, lightly recrisp in the oven.

Remember that any filled doughs need to bake at a lower temperature and longer than unfilled doughs.

Adjust accordingly.

Although less temperamental than yeast doughs, our puffy pastry, strudels and pie/tart doughs require a little precision to achieve optimal performance.

Because these are no proof products, working quickly with chilled dough and proper baking temperatures is the key to success.

If thawed and refrozen, puff pastry will simply not puff.

Once dough is thawed, you must bake immediately.

When working with puff pastry, it should be cool to the touch and barely pliable.

It must be thawed from frozen, but should not come to room temperature. It should be immediately baking in a hot oven (refer to your tip sheet).

When cutting puff pastry, cut in a straight up and down motion; otherwise, you are squeezing the layers together and they will not puff.

Likewise, if any egg wash or water drips onto the edges of the cut puff pastry, it will glue the edges together, and it will not rise.

Under baked puff pastry looks anemic, is doughy, and will not hold well.

Puff pastry should be golden brown and firm to the touch. After the pastry has puffed and the desired golden brown color reached, the over can be turned to a lower temperature to ensure that the pastry is fully baking and flaky throughout.

On an empty (i.e., unfilled) puff pastry, this process takes about 10 minutes at each temperature. Adjust for filled pastry.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit for a convection oven or 400 degrees fahrenheit for a conventional oven.

Do not open the oven door when puff is rising (first 10 minutes).

Pie dough will last one year in the freezer and one or two days refrigerated.

After that, pie dough will appear grey and have an acidic smell.

If thawed and refrozen, pie dough will dry out and crack after baking.

Once thawed, you must bake.

Adjustments in baking time and temperature need to be made depending on fillings used for pies and tarts.

Too hot, or too high an oven rack, can prematurely brown the crust or crust edge while the bottom layer of pie dough will be undercooked.

If you’re experiencing these issues, adjust your baking time or rack position accordingly.

Even our prebaked products perform best when following a couple tricks of the trade.

Prebaked products have a three month shelf life.

Thaw only what you need and fully wrap the rest back up in the freezer. If left unwrapped, ice crystals will form, causing the product to become dried out when thawed.

If you see ice crystals and your product is dry, thawing and refreezing is most likely the issue.

Since these products are fully baked, they need only a quick preheat once thawed.

Place prebaked bread in a preheated 300 degree fahrenheit over for about three minutes to warm. Excessive warming will amount to being over cooked.

Crêpes are best warmed in a hot pan with a bit of liquid, like orange juice, so that they don’t stick. They are fully cooked, so simply warm them, fill, and serve.

Do not put crêpes in a chafing dish, or they will become soggy.