There is nothing better than eating home made flour tortillas! However, this is something that people don't do any more because it is so easy to go buy a package at the store but they don't taste as good as home made ones, trust me. So, I decided to show everyone how to make flour tortillas from scratch and by the old method. No measuring of cups or measuring spoons but only by sight and hand measuring. Here is what you will need and process to make great tortillas.
Here is what you need: flour, baking powder, vegetable shortening and hot water. You will also need a rolling pin and a griddle.
No measuring cups! I use my hand to grab flour. For this batch, I used 6 handfuls.
Use a nice size bowl to make the tortillas.
This is how I grab the flour. I know, my hand may be a different size than yours but same technique.
This is about 6 handfuls of flour. Don't know how much it would be using measuring cups. I tried to measure the flour out by cups but each time it was different, so I gave up.
So the next thing is baking powder. Again, no teaspoon just the well of my hand and it looks good, say about teaspoon or so? I eye-ball it.
Salt is the next ingredient and I do the same thing, measure it by my well of my hand. It looks like a teaspoon.
Mix the salt and baking powder together into the flour by hand.
Now the shortening! I grab a handful, not the full hand but a good portion for the amount of flour I have. To much shortening will make the tortillas crumbly so be careful. Looks like 3/4 of a cup.
Now you mix it all together and it will appear like pie crust and you want it to be crumbly looking.
Now you add the hot water and mix with the hand making sure that all is incorporated just like a pie dough. How much water? Well enough to make it in a smooth dough.
Just like this! Knead it to make it smooth. Add more flour if it is sticky. Looks nice!
Now make nice smooth flatten balls like these and now you are ready to roll them out. I use a little flour which makes it easier to roll them out. Notice I use a plastic rolling pin. You can use a wooden one or any other thing to roll out the tortillas. You would be surprise what I have seen people use to roll out the tortillas,a broom stick is used by some people (of course they cut it to their preference).
In the mean time, get your griddle nice and hot just as if you were going to cook pancakes. It needs to be nice and hot. Too hot will burn your tortillas and a warm skillet will not cook your tortillas at all.
Don't worry if they are not round. The objective of course is to make them round but a little odd shape is good too. Don't get hung up on the shape. It will all go down in the same manner as the rest of your food, chewed up but so good!
One good way to judge your dough is if it bubbles up while it cooking, it is a good batch of tortillas. See the back tortilla, the griddle was too hot but it is still a good tortilla!
Now here are the finished product with a little refried beans...hummm this is good!
Two tacos to go are ready! Any volunteers to eat these? Yep, my daughter, Kristy was ready and willing!
Well, that is the process to make flour tortillas. Not a hard project but just practice the old fashion way. Of course you can buy the prepared flour mixture and get the instructions on how to make the tortillas from the back of the package, but this is the proper way to make them....eyeballing the ingredients! End result, great tasting tortillas! Enjoy!
Oh, I almost forgot, any left over dough can be put in a plastic baggie and used within 24 hours or the next meal.
