Monday, February 11, 2013

How to make easy flour tortillas at home


We're into the second week of the six-week Six Ingredient Challenge! Amy and I posted our answers to the first week's writing prompt, and the linky there is still open for you to link up your posts about why you felt inspired to be a part of the Six Ingredient Challenge. Remember to post your answers to the second prompt sometime before Thursday. Even if you didn't start the challenge with us on February 1, it's not too late to sign up and join in now!

Today I'm bringing you a guest post from Sam, our family's chef extraordinaire. He's sharing an easy recipe for making homemade flour tortillas. It can be nearly impossible to find any store-bought flour products with six ingredients or fewer, and tortillas especially seem to have a lot of questionable additives and hydrogenated oils and even high fructose corn syrup. Here's a healthier version you can whip up for your family taco night! If you ask nicely, Sam might also share his fantastic how-tos for the perfect taco meat and tangy Mexican coleslaw.


Homemade flour tortillas (makes 8)

homemade flour tortillas recipe

Guest post by Crackerdog Sam

There's no real need to make your own tortillas these days, unless, like us, you've been attempting to cut down on the amount of processed foods you eat. Prepackaged tortillas are often full of preservatives and stabilizers, so I thought I'd see how difficult it would be to make our own. It's somewhat time-consuming, but the degree of difficulty isn't hard, and I like the taste of them better because they're never gummy or tough.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 tsp coconut oil, warmed to liquid (could also use the traditional lard)
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1/4 Cup + 2 tsp whole milk

Dietary/allergy notes:

Vegetarian, could be vegan if maple syrup is substituted for honey and almond milk for the cow's milk, could be dairy-free if almond milk is substituted for the cow's milk. Contains dairy and gluten.

Directions:

1) In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add oil and honey, and stir mixture until all wet ingredients are little flour-covered bits. (Traditionally tortillas are made with lard, which I don't usually have on hand, so I went with coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature and melts when warm, like lard, and it worked very well.)

homemade flour tortillas recipe

2) With your hands, knead the flour mixture to further incorporate the wet ingredients until no little bits remain. It will stick together when you squeeze it in your palm, and then break apart like a sandcastle.

homemade flour tortillas recipe

3) Add the whole milk. This bit is tricky, as you might need to add 1 tsp more, depending on the accuracy of your other measuring. Stir in the milk with a spoon until mostly incorporated; then use your hands again to further knead until it has the consistency of soft dough. Add more milk if it's too dry and cracking.

homemade flour tortillas recipe

4) Divide the dough in half, then again, and again, so that you have 8 not-quite-golf-ball sized pieces. (The pictures are of a half-batch.) Cover the bowl and let the balls sit for 30 minutes.

homemade flour tortillas recipe

5) Prepare an area for rolling out the tortillas by dusting it (and a rolling pin) with flour. Slowly roll out one dough ball at a time, flipping it between rolls, until it is eight inches or so in diameter and very very thin.

homemade flour tortillas recipe

homemade flour tortillas recipe

6) Place each tortilla as it is completed on a cast iron skillet heated to medium-low. Cook 1 to 2 minutes on the first side and 30 seconds to a minute on the second side, until both sides have little brown specks on them. Set them aside in a stack as they finish.

homemade flour tortillas recipe

homemade flour tortillas recipe

7) Taco construction: On a plate, layer one tortilla and your taco fillings. Fold in half. Repeat for as many tacos as you'd like, and dig in!

homemade flour tortillas recipe



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5 comments:

MaryEllen said...

I grew up eating home-made flour tortillas and learned to make them when I was about 13yo (35 years ago, but who's counting?)
We never added a sweetener, and used water instead of milk.

This post reminds me I haven't made them in a while. I should make some for breakfast tomorrow.

Unknown said...

These look delicious! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe, Sam and Lauren!

Lyndsay said...

Love! we have tacos as a part of our weekly 'rotation' and have always wanted to attempt making our own tortillas, but was nervous of doing it on my own. Totally trying this recipe! Tweeting and Pinning!

Anonymous said...

Happy WW,
wpuld be great if you can link up at my blog.
Have a nice day,
Nan
www.blogshe.net

Unknown said...

After we use up all the tortillas from Costco, I will have to try these out. The nice thing about the ones I bought at Costco are they are uncooked, refrigerated, have 5 ingredients and only take about a minute to cook in a frying pan with little to no oil. They cook up delicious. But these seem very easy and delicious. Glad you shared the recipe!

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