Tag: tortilla

Have you ever made homemade tortillas?

I use tortillas in place of bread most of the time. I use them for everything from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to mini pizzas.

My husband is still a bread kind of guy and that’s okay. But that’s sorta what pushed me to try making my own homemade tortillas.

I’ve got to confess that I’ve tried making these several times in the past and never could get it figured out. So I’d go back to buying them.

But the packages are so big, it’d take a month of Sundays to eat them all.

So I decided to try again. I looked over several recipes, tried a few and finally put together a simple recipe that works for me.

These homemade tortillas are not only easy to make, but you can change them up a little. It’s real easy to add any herbs or spices to make them taste exactly how you want them to.

You could add rosemary, basil, garlic powder, or onion powder (Onion powder is really good). Or you might want to add dried spinach, kale or nettle for just a little extra nutritional value. Experiment a little and add whatever might strike your fancy.

This recipe makes 8 at a time which will get me through about a week or two.

There’s only 4 ingredients so these homemade tortillas are really easy to make.

And they stay soft, which is I found amazing after trying to make them before. It’s not the same soft as the store bought, but they’ll roll for a burrito.

Homemade Tortilla Recipe

Tortilla Ingredients

• 2 Cups of flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 TBL shortening
• 3/4 cup of hot water (about 100 deg F.)
• 1 tsp of your preferred herb or spice (optional)

Mixing Instructions

1. Mix flour and salt until well blended. If you’re going to add any herbs or spices, now is the time to do it and combine it well.
2. Next add the shortening and cut it into the flour mixture until it is completely mixed together. I use a pastry cutter but you could use a fork or a couple of butter knives to cut in the shortening.
3. Then add the hot water and mix completely. Use your hand and just keep mixing to incorporate all the flour until you have a soft dough. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle it with flour and knead it until it becomes soft. It should come off your fingers easily when it’s ready.
4. Now separate into 8 even balls. I’ll cut the whole thing into 2 pieces and keep dividing each piece into 2 more pieces until I have 8. Then roll them between your palms to make balls.
5. Press your dough balls out flat, one at a time. You can use a rolling pin to roll them out, a pie pan to squish them or a tortilla press. For more on that, see below.
6. Heat a skillet to med/low heat. Once the skillet is heated add your flat tortilla shell and let it cook for 30 seconds. Then flip and cook the other side for 30 seconds. Then flip one more time and cook for another 30 seconds. During this last 30 seconds your shell should blow up like a balloon.
7. Once I remove it from the frying pan, I lay them out on a cooling rack to cool. If you’re going to use them right away, you may want to wrap them in a tea towel to keep them warm.

Pressing your homemade tortillas.

I bought a cast iron tortilla press with a Christmas gift certificate about 10 years ago and until this year I had never used it. It always sounded liked a great idea, but I just never got around to it.

Now I love it and it’s a regular in my kitchen.

I found out that you need to use something to press your dough between or it sticks. Yep, I did that.

I found out that a gallon sized baggie with the zipper and the sides cut off works great. The raw tortilla comes off the plastic easily and all in one piece.

Or you can use a rolling pin. Flour your rolling surface and your rolling pin and you should be good to go.

Or you can use a pie pan and just squish it flat. I haven’t tried that yet, but I’ve read about people using this method. I’d probably use the baggie on this one too. Save a mess.

They don’t have to be perfectly round to still taste good.

Frying your homemade tortilla shells.

The term “fry” is a little misleading. I use a cast iron skillet to fry up my shells but I don’t use any oil. My guess would be you wouldn’t need oil in a non-stick skillet either, but I’ve never used one of those.

You’ll want to let the skillet get to temperature before you start otherwise that 30 second count won’t work right. Then try to lay the tortilla as flat on the pan as you can. Somehow I always have a wrinkle in it, but that’s okay.

Then let it cook for 30 seconds. After this first 30 seconds it won’t look like it’s cooked enough, but that’s okay, turn it anyway.

Cook it for another 30 seconds. Now it’ll start looking like what you’d expect a homemade tortilla to look like.

Then turn it and cook it for the last 30 seconds. During this last 30 seconds it should start to puff up. It’ll look like a blown up balloon. It’s my opinion that that’s what helps make them more soft.

After I cook them I lay them out on a cooling rack to allow them to cool so they won’t condensate in the fridge. I store them in a baggie in the fridge with a paper towel, to soak up any moisture that might be in there. This keeps them from getting soggy.

But if you wanted to use them right away, you’d probably want to wrap them in a tea towel to help keep them warm.

So there you have it, homemade tortillas anyone can make.

Do you have a homemade tortilla recipe you love and would like to share? I’d really love to hear it.

And if you give this recipe a try, let me know how it turns out. I’d love to know what extras you may have added and how you liked it.

Until next time.

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey