Homemade Tortillas

Boy, I am lovin' me some homemade eats! Can you tell?
When Susie was here, she taught me how to make tortillas, and I've been craving them ever since. They're so much easier to make than I anticipated--want to try? Behold, a tortilla tutorial. (Whew! Say that 5 times fast!)

In a large bowl, measure 4 cups flour, 1/2 T. baking powder, and 1/2 t. salt. Mix together.

Cut in 1/2 c. shortening. Believe it or not, this is what it looks like. You'd never know this had shortening in it!




When you grab a handful of the mixture and then open your hand, it looks like this. Very crumbly.




Add 1 c. hot water. Susie heats hers on the stovetop, but my tap water gets rrrrrrreally hot, so I just use that.

Turn your dough onto a floured surface to knead. It won't be nearly as sticky as the egg noodle dough!






Knead until smooth and elastic. Like my midsection. (Heh.)






Place dough back in the bowl & cover with a clean, cute towel.
Question: Why do people feel the need to specify a clean towel? Do people really try to cover their tortilla dough with a dirty towel? These things mystify me. Let dough rest 10 minutes.



Pinch off a piece of dough--perhaps 1/4 cup--and tap lightly into a flour-filled bowl. Keep this flour bowl handy. You'll need it.





Work dough into a flattened round, like so.






Do this with all of your dough. My batch made 17 tortillas. I make mine the size of the skillet. Whatever you don't use right away, you can refrigerate for several days.



Ready to roll?
Place one of your rounds on your lightly floured surface. Now roll it.
Yep, that's it! I have yet to roll a perfect circle-shaped tortilla. Mine always end up looking like Iowa. Or Ohio. But that's not the point.
You'll place the rolling pin in the middle of the round and roll to the outside, every time, rather than rolling back in to center. I found it to be too sticky.

Yep, starting to look like Ohio already. So I'll just roll a couple times from center to left, and then from center to right.

Occasionally, you'll need to pick up the tortilla and flip it, re-flouring the surface, the tortilla itself, the rolling pin... your hands, your nose, etc...


...and just roll until the tortilla is the size you want it.

Wow! It's a circle, and a pretty good one at that!





Now, Susie is such a quick tortilla-roller that she can roll while cooking 2 or 3 at the same time! I'm not so fast. I prefer to roll out however many I think I'll need, and cook them later.

Just fry them in a medium-hot skillet (I use cast-iron) until just done on both sides!



Keep them warm in a tortilla-keeper. Or, if you're cheap, just place a sheet of foil inside a (clean) towel.



And that's it! Happy tortilla making!