Flour Tortillas Revisited

August 27, 2008

I am finally posting the recipes I have been using for flour tortillas for those of you who asked a couple of weeks ago. I'm finding that making homemade tortillas takes practice, and I have yet to "perfect" them, but I really enjoy making them, and they are so yummy. I have used two different recipes. The first one is using white flour and the second one has wheat flour. There are several different recipes on line. I really like the second recipe, because it uses less fat and it only has 96 calories per tortilla.

Flour Tortillas
4 C. flour
1 t. salt

¾ t. baking powder
1/3 c. shortening
1 ¾ C. hot water

Combine dry ingredients. Cut shortening into dry ingredients as for pastry. Add hot water stirring in with a fork. When water is added, gather with your hands and knead into a ball of dough. Divide into 16-20 balls of dough. Roll on a floured canvas or pastry cloth until round and very thin. Fry on a well-seasoned grill over medium-to-medium high heat. Grill must be hot when you start frying. No oil or shortening is placed on the grill. Fry very lightly on each side. If fried too long the tortilla will be too crisp and you will not be able to roll it for burritos etc.

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas (96 calories)
1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp canola oil

3/4 cup water

Step 1:Combine flours and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add oil and water and mix with a fork until dough holds together.

Step 2:Place dough on a floured surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Add more all-purpose flour to the surface when dough becomes too sticky to knead. Give your preschooler a small piece of dough to knead.

Step 3:Divide dough into 12 pieces and let your preschooler form a ball with each piece. Add a small amount of oil to a bowl and place the dough balls in the bowl, one at a time, coating each with oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and let stand 15 minutes to 1/2 hour.

Step 4:Roll each dough ball with a rolling pin into a 6 inch circle. Place tortilla in a preheated, ungreased skillet and heat until brown spots appear on the bottom. Flip the tortilla and cook for an additional one minute. Cool slightly and serve.

Here are some photos of us making them.