A Cold Front in the Rockies, and…

is just over the wall from pure wheat relatives. The cross with rye gives it a greater rowing range and much higher yields, but beat the heck out of the gluten quality. The University of Colorado had been working on various varieties of triticale to improve its baking qualities, but that seems to have been dropped.

I did standard lamination - lock in, then three single folds, then finale roll-out and shaping. Proofing took a little over two hours. On the final roll out, the dough seemed very delicate - I'm not sure it would have taken much more.

I normally refrigerate my croissants so I can do the lamination during the day and then bake them off in the morning so they are ready for breakfast. I could stay up all night and laminate, but I don't want to...

I've already moved the water bath canner to the garage and in the past weeks have been contemplating what oven I would get and where, exactly would I put it. Of course, this whole "can't sell it" stuff slows me down.

Photography - juggling - it has been a breakthrough summer. Knew I had a little extra in me if I didn't have to work for a living.

Thanks for the kind words.

Pat

for the kind words.

I did some work with wheat that was local to Vermont, and those required gentle handling, but again, triticale is just on the other side.

The unfortunate part with triticale is that because it is primarily considered to be cattle feed (this was not always the case I hear from long time westerners that they used to buy triticale bread in the supermarket) that it is hard to know the variety and find out its baking qualities. Yes, I could send it to the lab - but then the next batch comes and ???

Again, thanks.

Pat

They are gone, and no cool weather predicted in the near future.

Bob's Red Mill (purveyor of everything grainy, it seems) has the grain and the flour. I bought my grains from Pleasant Hill Grain (in a 40 lb lot).

Around here, I haven't even seen the flakes - although I'll produce some myself.

Thanks for your kind words.

Pat

for triticale sources. It's a tricky little beast. I have made 100% triticale bread - which acts and looks a lot like rye. When Fall is upon us, I'm going to really knuckle down.

For lamination, for 12 oz of roll in, I make a butter block in a sheet of parchment (half sheet pan size) by folding it the long way into slightly overlapping thirds and an inch or so on each edge. I do take a cold block of butter and pound it out until flexible and then trim the edges and patch it into the parchment paper frame. This I roll until it is flat. I worked with a baker who felt that using one piece of butter and pounding it out created a better block, so that's what I do, although I am not sure if this is true or just folklore. This gets chilled overnight.

The dough is mixed and chilled for two hours. I put it in a Cambro quarter sheet square container. I do carefully shape the dough into a rectangle before chilling. This gets distorted when I remove it from the container, but I think this helps in creating an even surface for the lock in.

I lock in by placing the butter on a rectangle of dough and then bringing up the edges like an envelope and totally encasing the dough. I have tried the other method where the edges of the butter are left exposed and found it did not work well for me.

Immediately after lock in, I do a single fold. and chill for an hour. Two more single folds, chilling one hour after each, and then final roll out.

When I roll, I really try to pretend that I am a sheeter - rolling evenly from one end to another, maintaining constant pressure. This is facilitated by my many, many years of rolling out pie and cookie dough. Also by my favorite rolling pin - the big Matfer non-stick thing. People chortle about my affinity for high priced toys, but I love that thing. If I were starting out with no baking equipment whatsoever, I would say "Buy that and then you will be one and done." I've had rolling pins A-Z (hand turned, antique, improvised, French...) and that one is all I use since the day I bought it. I've also used those large metal ones to laminate and I like those, too.

That's about it.

I hope you do try some triticale in your baking. It is a delicious grain and people always comment on the baked goods where I've snuck it in and how good they taste. I have made scones with 100% whole grain triticale and they vanish without a trace (must be tribbles).

Thanks for your kind words and I hope this helps!

Pat