For the first blog post, I felt as though a recipe would be nice. Last night I found myself wanting Mexican food, but we were out of tortillas. What a crisis! So, like any practical human being I googled it. I found this AMAZING recipe from a lady who found it from a lady (thank you Cynthia Detterick-Pineda) that worked out wonderfully. I have tweeked the recipe a little because I don't know many people who have lard sitting around waiting to be reconstructed into delicious tortillas and some of the measurements were off (for me at least). It's pretty amazing that this is my first personal recipe. I've baked and cooked for years, but I have such a confidence in this recipe to call it my own. Yay for culinary independence!
Homemade Tortillas
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup warm water
First, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; do not sift.
Using your hands (you technically could use a pastry cutter, but what's the fun in that?) cut in the butter. There is a possibility you may need more butter - it just depends on how warm or cold your butter is.
To know that your dough is ready for the water, take a handful of the crumbly mixture and squeeze it. If the dough sticks to itself and resembles a play-dough consistency, then it's perfect. If it is too crumbly, keep working the butter in the flour mixture. If it is still too crumbly, add more butter.
Now, add the warm water. Using your hands (or a fork), gently work the water in to form a sticky dough.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead a few times until the dough is not sticky anymore. Form into a ball and place dough back into the bowl. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for five minutes.
Pull 1-inch chunks off of the dough ball, kneading each a few times, and place into a bowl. You should get 14-18 one-inch dough balls. Cover and let these rest for ten minutes.
Fun part!! Get a skillet screaming hot and do not put any butter or oil in the pan. Roll the small dough balls into a round shape - as big or little as your heart desires.
Then, flop the discs onto the pan. Each side should cook 30 seconds - 1 minutes.
And there you have it! Homemade tortillas that take not even 25 minutes to make from start to finish. The dough freezes really well, too! These taste so much better than the flour tortillas in the grocery store. It is both cheaper and more delicious.
