The Science and Process of Gluten-Free Lamination

By Jimmy Griffin

As a young boy growing up in a family bakery, I remember, possibly 50 years ago, that one of our confectioners was diagnosed as being coeliac. He made this bread, almost a cake batter, using Odlum’s Tritamyl gluten-free flour, which was available in wholemeal or plain. It produced loaves resembling madeira cake. My curiosity drove me to ask him if I could taste it. Of course, he did give me some, but I was not too keen on its texture and flavor at the time. However, Frank explained that he had to eat it in his diet, since he suffered from bloating and illness because he couldn’t digest wheat gluten.

In an in-depth study about this time in my life, in 1973, Doctors published a groundbreaking paper titled Incidence of Coeliac Disease in the West of Ireland. The paper established that in the West of Ireland the incidence of this disease in the population was 2%, double the global average. At the time, the gluten-free alternatives for patients with coeliac disease were sparse, plain and uninteresting.

The global gluten-free bakery market size was valued at $1.64 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $4.15 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 10.8% from 2022 to 2030. The primary driver of industry growth is the increasing demand for healthy, nutritious food products due to rising health concerns worldwide.

Consumer demand has created a rapidly growing industry for gluten-free bakery products. The biggest challenge is to make products that look, taste and have a similar structure to their wheaten counterparts. To this end, many mills worldwide produce gluten-free flours, but each mill uses a different blend of base ingredients. I have detailed a sample of the better-known brands in the table on the following page. As we have now analysed the differences in gluten-free flour blends across a cross-section of branded products, one size does not fit all: a recipe that works with one brand may not automatically work with another. Recipes are generally brand-specific, so it’s best to download and use recipes from each company’s website for reliable results. All the products mentioned in the chart work well for bread and cake-type products, but they do not work for laminated pastry.

While bread and cake can be made from all the listed flours, laminated pastry requires additional specialist ingredients to replace and mimic the elasticity of pastry dough. This is particularly important, as otherwise the structure is lost, the crumb will be dense and gummy. The magic happens when various ingredients are added, especially Hydrocolloids.

Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose (HPMC) and Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) are among the most important hydrocolloids used in gluten-free laminated pastry production. In the absence of gluten, these ingredients help provide dough stability, gas retention, moisture control and improved handling properties during sheeting and lamination. HPMC is particularly valued for its thermo-gelling properties, which help stabilise the pastry structure during baking and improve volume and layer definition, while CMC contributes to viscosity, water-binding, softness and delayed staling. Together, these hydrocolloids play a critical role in replicating some of the structural and textural characteristics provided by gluten in traditional laminated pastry systems.

A Sample Of Gluten-Free Flours From Around The World

In gluten-free doughs, this protein network is absent, so structure must be created using hydrocolloids such as methylcellulose (HPMC), Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC), pectin, guar gum, psyllium husk, hydroxypropyl or xanthan gum. These ingredients are highly hydrophilic polymers that bind large amounts of water, forming a viscous gel matrix within the dough. Rather than forming elastic protein strands like gluten, hydrocolloids increase the viscosity and cohesion of the dough phase, stabilising gas bubbles and preventing collapse during fermentation and baking. When properly hydrated, they form a continuous gel network that surrounds starch granules and other particles, improving gas retention and mimicking some of gluten’s rheological behaviour.

During baking, the hydrocolloid gel works in conjunction with starch gelatinization, which occurs as starch particles absorb water and swell between 60–75 °C. This gelatinized starch reinforces the hydrocolloid matrix and helps set the crumb structure as steam and fermentation gases expand. The combined system of hydrated hydrocolloids and gelatinized starch therefore replaces the structural role of gluten by stabilizing gas cells, improving dough handling, and enabling gluten-free baked products to achieve acceptable volume, crumb softness and layer separation in laminated dough systems. I have included an illustration to help the reader visualize the differences between the two systems.

The layers formed by laminating gluten-free pastry are composed of starches, flours and hydrocolloids, which make heat transfer from the hot external air to the inner layers more difficult. As a result, before the core has the opportunity to fully “bloom” and expand as desired, the fat phase may melt and be absorbed by the hydrocolloids, leaving the center more jellied than the pastry’s outer layers. As a result, a different approach to mixing, making, handling, shaping, proofing, and baking the pastry is required. In the table (CORRECT DIRECTIONAL), I have included some, but not all, of the ingredients used in producing gluten-free laminated pastry, with particular attention to the functions and water adsorption g/g of these specialized ingredients.

Gluten-free laminated pastry is possible to make, but requires expensive, highly processed, specialised ingredients. Additionally, the processing of the pastry differs greatly from standard pastry making. The dough is more like clay than pastry dough. One really important point is that, unlike wheat-based doughs, gluten-free pastry lacks the elastic recoil associated with the normal croissant-dough process. You must take great care in the sheeting and folding stages. Process handling once the pastry is made is also critical; if you use too much force, the layers become compressed, leading to gummy, sticky pastry interior. For further reading, see my latest publication, The Art of Lamination IV, available on all Amazon platforms.

Jimmy Griffin is a sixth generation baker and lecturer at TU Dublin, Ireland, with a Master’s in Food Product Development and Culinary Innovation. He teaches globally, including in Germany, the UK and Japan, and is a renowned international bakery judge. A competitive baker, Griffin won bronze at the 1997 Coupe D’ Europe de la Boulangerie and coached the Irish bakery team.

(This article appeared in the Summer 32 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)