Homemade Flour Tortillas

On my continued quest to stretch our budget and make as much from scratch as possible, thereby saving money and eliminating artificial ingredients, I've turned to making our own flour tortillas. I've already posted a few recipes with them featured in meals, but I've yet to post the recipe to make the tortillas themselves. There are a number of recipes already on the web, so mine is probably not a unique recipe, although I'm posting it. What I'm offering more rather, are tips on how to make the best ones.

For instance, I've tried fat-free versions, and they just didn't have the same flavor, and they burned on the pan, to the point where we could taste burn, not flavor. Also, remove as much loose flour as possible from each tortilla before dry-frying it, as well as brushing away flour from the center of the griddle between each tortilla. The loose flour will continue to cook and burn onto the tortillas. I've not seen this mentioned in any of the recipes I found and figured out how to resolve this out eventually on my own. So, after you roll out the tortillas and have them in a stack, take a pastry or basting brush and lightly brush off the flour from the tortillas while it's in your open hand. When you are ready to flip the tortilla, brush it again, and while the tortilla is on your spatula, brush any remaining loose flour away from the center of the griddle. I hope this makes sense. I usually end up with a floury stove, but it's easily cleaned up. Also, the recipes I've seen call for a very hot griddle, but again, I've had burned tortillas with that. So, I've lowered my heat and cooked them for a few seconds longer with great results.

There is nothing like a homemade tortilla. They are fluffy, and especially wonderful, while they're still warm from the griddle. The ones from the store now seem flat and less flavorful. It takes about a half-hour or so to make them, and I end up with between twelve and 20 tortillas, depending on how big I make my initial balls, so it's very cost-effective too. You can try them with my Breakfast Burritos, if you like.



Homemade Flour Tortillas

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. shortening
1 and 1/4 cups warm water

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the shortening and blend it well with a pastry cutter or fork. Add the water and stir well. Knead the dough for three to five minutes on a lightly floured surface. Take a clump of dough, roughly the size a little larger than a golf ball, and roll it into a ball. Place each ball back in the bowl, and let them all rest for fifteen minutes. Sprinkle a little flour on a cutting board and roll out each ball into the shape of a tortilla. You'll want to get it as thin as possible because they fluff up when cooked. Place in a stack, slightly staggered to facilitate easy picking up. Sometimes the bottom ones will stick, so staggering them kind of prevents this. Heat a griddle, with no oil, to just past medium heat. My stove dial goes up to 10, so I set my dial to 6. Make sure the griddle is hot before adding any tortillas. Pick up a tortilla off the stack and brush away the loose flour, from rolling it out, with a pastry brush. Put on the center of the griddle and cook until the bottom has a few brown speckles on it. Pick up the tortilla with a large pancake spatula and brush away any flour from the center of the griddle. Flip the tortilla back on the griddle, upside down. You will see air bubbles form, and that's a good thing. Check the bottom, and if it's speckled brown, it's done. Each tortilla takes about a minute or so to cook completely, so it's a fairly fast process. Remove the tortilla from the griddle, being sure to brush it free from flour and the center of the griddle as well. Eating loose flour on a tortilla doesn't taste good. Cook all the tortillas this way, and you're done! Makes about a dozen or so tortillas. Feeds five hungry vegans.