Homemade Flour Tortillas

Last week, I posted about the geography lessons I give my kids at home, and I stated in there that I had learned how to make homemade tortillas. So this week I thought it only proper to share the recipe with you, my readers. A word of disclaimer here: I have no Mexican (or Hispanic) ancestry, no recipe passed down through my family, etc., not even a culinary course--official or given by a friend--that I am referencing here. This is simply a recipe I found in one of my cookbooks, and my husband, who occasionally gets lunch from the Mexican taco truck parked near his school, says it tastes just like the homemade ones they make every day--that's good enough for me! If he says it's authentic, I trust his judgment. And anyway, they taste waaay better than the storebought ones!

It takes a little extra time to make your own tortillas for a meal--taco night now takes an hour to prepare instead of the previous twenty minutes--but I feel like the tradeoff in taste and authenticity is well worth the extra time. And really, the tortillas don't take that long to make; the biggest time factor is the cooking, since I only have room to do them one at a time on my cast iron skillet. Actually preparing the dough is very quick and easy!

You only need three ingredients to make homemade flour tortillas--self-rising flour, shortening and water. If I learn how to make them from cornmeal, I will definitely share that with you as well, but for now I'm sticking with flour tortillas--I always liked them better anyway. My recipe calls for all-purpose flour with the addition of salt and baking powder, but I like to simplify and use self-rising flour whenever possible. I think your product will turn out the same either way.

Cut your shortening into your flour (or flour mixture) using two forks or a pastry cutter.

Then add just enough water to make a soft ball of dough. I've found that a half recipe works well for one meal for my family, so I add roughly 3/4 cup of water.

Then let that sit for 10 minutes. This is the time I use to heat up my skillet, prepare my fillings, and clean my work space. Now it's time to roll them out!

Take a small handful of dough, and roll it out on a well-floured surface with a rolling pin. It will be sticky, so don't skimp on flour for your hands! You want a rough circle approximately 7 inches in circumference, give or take. 

Transfer that to your greased skillet and let cook approximately 1-1/2 minutes per side. I've found my first one generally takes longer as my skillet may not be quite hot enough yet, but after the first one, they go pretty quickly. I have just enough time to roll out my next one before it's time to flip the one in the skillet. 

Pop any bubbles in the tortilla with a toothpick before you flip it, and I've also found it cooks better if I spray the skillet again before I lay the flipped tortilla down for the second side to cook. You can watch the edges--they'll get a very faint brown when that side is done, and then it's time to take it off the grill. The second side never takes as long as the first. 

Place your cooked tortillas sandwiched between a clean towel on a plate to keep them warm until they are all done. And that's it!

We've eaten tacos with these, and I've made enchiladas, and the whole family agrees--they are vastly superior to storebought ones! Softer, more flavorful and without all those extra preservatives; what's not to love? 

Any extras will keep in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator for a few days, but if your house is like ours, they'll be eaten long before they have any time to spoil! I haven't tried freezing them yet, but I bet they would do well, just like lefse. If you try it, let me know how it turned out! I also want to try cooking them on my lefse griddle; it seems to me that would be perfect for these--I could possibly even do two at a time!