Friday, December 4, 2009

Homemade Flour tortillas

I had a craving for Mexican food, with some black beans in the fridge, and decided to make black bean quesadillas. But, just for kicks, I thought I’d try homemade tortillas, instead of the Rapiditas they sell here. I used this recipe, as it was greatly detailed, and one of the only ones that didn’t call for shortening. Even the vegetable shortening here contains animal fats! Here’s what I did:

  • 2 cups of white flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup warm water

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.

2. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, a few tablespoons at a time and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add a little more water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough. The dough will be sticky.

3. Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough 4-5 minutes, adding flour when the dough gets sticky. Eventually the stickiness will go away and you will have a nice smooth dough.

4. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

5. Divide the dough into golf-ball-size balls by pinching off the dough with your thumb and fore finger. Form each ball into a nice ball shape.

6. Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth.

7. Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes.

8. Lightly dust your wooden cutting board with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out on the cutting board to a 4 inch circle. Rub flour on your rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough starting from the center out. Roll the tortilla until it is 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.

9. Once you have rolled out the tortilla, place it on a preheated skillet. You don't need to add any oil or butter. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds. Don't over cook it as you want the tortilla to be nice and soft.

10. Keep your tortillas warm by covering them in a towel on a plate or in a tortilla warmer.

Tortillas are best eaten hot right off the griddle, but you can refrigerate and freeze them too. If you freeze the tortillas, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put them in a ziplock bag. When you are ready to use them, first thaw at room temperature and then wrap them in foil and place them in a 250 degree oven for a 10 to 15 minutes.

2009-12-04

Comments: I never got these thin enough to really resemble tortillas, they were more of a flat bread, but that didn’t stop me from demolishing them! I think I have an addiction to white-flour foods.


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Update: I've also made this recipe using 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white. Works well!

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