Good flour tortillas are a thing of beauty. Once you know the taste of fresh handmade tortillas, well lets just say you're missing out. Before we were making them ourselves we would drive across town to pick up the best of the best, but not any more because making them is as simple as mix, roll, heat and eat!
What You Need
Materials:
2 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour (plus extra for dusting)
5 tablespoons Lard
3/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 cup Warm Water
Medium Bowl
Fork
Skillet
Instructions
1. Mix Salt: Add salt to your measuring cup (or bowl) holding your water. Stir the solution gently until salt has dissolved.
2. Combine: Into a medium bowl, add flour and lard. Work the mixture with your hands (it will only be sticky for a minute) until it comes to a fine crumble. If you're making 100 of these, go ahead and use the food processor, otherwise, it's not worth your time and your hands will bring the mixture together in a few seconds. Just smoosh and moosh until it's all crumbly and an even texture.
3. Add Water: Pour 2/3 of your water into the dry mixture. Stir with a fork until mixture is chunky. Add remaining water (if needed) until combined and turn out onto a floured board.
4. Knead & Divide: Knead gently until it comes together (5-10 times). Divide into 12 pieces. Place in a pan (or on a plate) and cover with plastic wrap (or a barely moistened towel) and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
5. Roll: Once the dough balls have had time to rest, one by one, roll them with a rolling pin until they are 7" (give or take) in diameter. Keep remaining dough covered while you work. Roll them one at a time and cook one at a time (unless you're using a griddle or more than one pan). You can pick them up with your hand (gently) and lay it across your palm to transfer it to the pan.
6. Heat: Heat a dry skillet over medium to medium high heat (cast iron works great!) and let each tortilla cook for 30-45 seconds. You're looking for brown, not burnt (if they cook too long you'll have tortilla chips!) so don't hesitate to remove when done. Cover with a warm towel until ready to serve. Enjoy!
Additional Notes
If your tortillas don't sizzle quietly when they hit the pan, it isn't hot enough. If the residual flour (from rolling) smokes, your heat is too high. Don't be afraid to adjust your temperature or time left in the pan, but the best ones will come from a pan that's hot enough to allow the shortest cooking time on each side.
Making your own tortillas isn't hard, but it might take you a few tries to get your groove on. Having friends over for a taco or burrito night? Put them to work making their own tortillas while you're getting conversation started. What better way to get together than joining in to make your own meal from fresh ingredients!
(Images: Sarah Rae Trover)
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"but the best ones will come from a hot enough pan and a cook cooking time on each side!"
..a cook cooking time?
Also,can you use a tortilla press?
Fresh lard makes a huge difference. The shelf stable stuff is an abomination - flavorless and terrible for you.
Fire up some carne guisada, frijoles, and mexican rice to go with these tortillas and I am in heaven.
A tortilla press won't work for flour tortillas.
Don't know that I've ever seen fresh lard anywhere.
Scoop - A tortilla press typically isn't large enough, hand rolling takes only a few seconds longer.
shikaakwa - I completely agree, sadly, it's hard to come by around these parts. If you have a great local butcher (one not in a grocery store with sliding doors) they'll save it for you if you ask (if they don't already sell it).
Also - What would happen if I cut the lard back a little?
You can also use vegetable shortening - though obviously it won't taste as good.
Yep, good butchers and Mexican grocery stores are good sources for fresh lard. It's also really easy to make yourself if you can get fat back or pork fat trimmings from your butcher.
We keep tortillas around as a staple in the fridge, and roll them out per meal. The best breakfast inthe world is tortilla, pinto beans, and eggs scrambled with Hatch green chili! My grandmother made batches to keep in the fridge to roll out as needed, (her hometown was San Antonio, TX) and as a child this always made such an impression on me! To just have a tortilla, whenever you want one...
As an adult now, squeamish about different fat types, I make mine with olive oil. And they're great! I know that they're more pliable with lard, but geez! Who keeps lard around? And shortening usually has hydrogenated fats--no thanks.
We used to go by a 4-3-2-1 recipe (4 Tbsp oil, 3 C flour, 2 tsp powder and 1 tsp salt) but it's kind of devolved into somea-this, soma-that.
Make your own lard! It's easy, delicious, lasts forever, and much better than the room-temperature store bought stuff. Ask your butcher for fat back; a couple of pounds. Cut it up into chunks and set it in an oven at a low temperature for several hours. Once it has completely melted, take it out, let it cool off a little and then strain it through cheese cloth. You've got lard!
Homemade tortillas are amazing, but it definitely took me several times to master the art. Tortilla presses only work for corn tortillas.
Are there any good-tasting recipes for these that don't include lard? I would sacrifice authenticity for being able to swap in a different fat, as long as the result was still tasty. Any suggestions?
LizLemonn - Even though the word "lard" sounds scary, fattening and the abomination of any diet, it really is the best way to go.
smorgenstern - That is an excellent alternative (we usually have some on hand, but happened to be out) and for sure the tastiest way to go -- hands down.
Bobolink - Cutting back on your lard will result in crispier, not-as-pliable tortillas that have less taste, because they would then just be flour and water (or more of it).
I actually have been saving bacon drippings and using them in place of lard in things like tortillas -- I've only used them in refried beans so far. Would that work for this case?
LizLemonn - I've had some success using butter. I'd do a test batch and adjust up or down as necessary.
how long will the doug balls keep in the fridge? can you freeze them?
Can't wait to try this out. My Mexican mother-in-law tried to teach me a few years ago, but her measurements were "a handful", "a few pinches", "pour in some water", etc.
empresscallipygos - Yes! Bacon fat works great!
Could these be made with rendered duck fat? I've got tons and tons of that.
Oh no no no. THE recipe is one that is from Homesick Texan. No butter or lard involved, just warm milk. (I've had GREAT success with skim too.) And about 2 teaspoons of oil.
Here is the link:
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/03/and-end-to-my-quest-flour-tortillas.html
Just make the dough, let it rest for about 20 min. Then seperate into 8 or 10 balls. Then you can wait another 20, OR you can put the balls in a covered bowl in the fridge for more time or even until the next day. The reason I do this is because when the dough ball are cold, is because I've found that they are soooooo much easier to roll out thin.
I've done these with white, whole wheat white, whole wheat and I have never never never gotten a bad tortilla out of it. I'm also from TX, and have grown up on mexican food so I know a good tortilla when I eat one.
Oh and they are are super pliable and taste amazing. I freeze the rest and microwave them whenever I want one. They are heaven!
This is great news - I love flour tortillas, but the ingredients in the store bought are a mile long and sound like a chemical spill. I have some chicken stock on right now and may just use the fat that congeals instead of lard. Thanks for this post!
mangabanga - You sure could... and then you can mail me some!
I make sourdough tortillas that are to die for if you like sourdough breads because they have a bit of tang to them.
While making tortillas isn't difficult, it is time-consuming. I've done it many times because I live in Japan and have limited access to tortillas (and those I can get are often massively overpriced for frozen stuff).
It takes a lot of time and effort to roll the tortillas out thinly enough and to cook them one at a time. The cooking seems to drag on forever and transferring the rolled dough (which likes to fold and curl) is a pain.
Use some baking powder too. Then you won't have hard tortillas. I eyeball everything so I can't say how much it would actually be. If I'm making a big batch, I use about 2 tablespoons or two generous palm fulls.
Then instead of using lard, I started using Butter Crisco. They come out much lighter tasting and delicious.
They are a labor of love but they freeze beautifully if you want to make a big batch and save some for later. Of course you need to cook them first and let them cool. Put them in a freezer bag and just lay a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper between each one. (Otherwise when they thaw out, they can stick to each other.)
I don't eat white flour, sugar, or lard and like my tortillas super simple. Here's what I do:
* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 T olive oil
* 1/2 cup warm tap water
Mix until doughy. You may need more water if too dry. Let dough sit covered for 10 min. Heat a dry cast iron skillet at med-high heat. Roll out about 1/5-1/6 of the dough until it's super thin and circular and throw into the pan. Flip halfway through and then remove when it's done to your liking. I keep them between paper towels in a ziploc bag in the fridge. They last about a week or so and taste so yummy!!! Also they are super healthy.
Any tips for making them round? The couple of times I've made tortillas, they've turned out more like a freeform art project than nice rounds. Tasted great, though.
@LIZLEMONN Look for a recipe for chapattis. I was shown how to make these by a young Indian girl and they are made almost exactly as described above but have no fat at all. The only difference in the cooking is that I press them down with a spatula. This makes them puff up. They collapse again but it makes for an airier end product.
i totally agree when it comes to using homeade lard. i make mine myself and ever since then i havent looked back. im slowly making my way to making everything home made. like my chicken stocks and beef stocks, all my pickled and preserves. its GREAT!
I've been making tortillas for a while, based on a half-remembered recipe from a cookbook, and wanted to know how far off I was. Not far off at all!
My only cheat is to use oil instead of lard. I have absolutely no doubt in the world that tortillas made with lard are a little bit of heaven, but ones made with oil are still delicious, and quicker, as there's no rubbing in (you just add the water and then add the oil on top and it mixes in beautifully). I realise this is heresy. I am happy to burn at the stake for it.
A few tips I have found by trial and error:
- non-stick aluminium pans can't take the heat required for tortillas (painful experience!)
- You have to cover them up with a towel, or they harden as they cool
- Extra ones stored in the fridge tend to go "cracky", but you can soften them by putting them back on the griddle for a little while or wrapping them in a dish-towel and nuking them for 30s or so. That makes them soft and they will stay soft once they cool (though they will go cracky again in a few hours). I believe this is to do with gluten strands hardening with time - the heat softens them. temporarily. It's a way of delaying staling, and you can do it with bread, too.
Does anyone know how long you can store uncooked tortilla dough in the fridge? Is it just a question of "if it's not mouldy it's OK", or is there anything else that can go wrong with it?
Also I keep a dry dish-towel to hand and wipe the browned flour out of the pan in between each one. It stops smoking and limits the build-up of caramelised spots, which can be the very devil to get off. Wipe quickly with the towel bunched up, so as not to burn your hand!
You can use CANOLA OIL! They still taste just as delicious. Soft, tender and chewy. Tortillas made with canola oil are every bit as good and more heart healthy. Check out the recipe my mom developed: http://hotspicyandskinny.com/2013/01/14/healthier-homemade-tortillas-4-points/