Tortillas to the rescue!

 I was talking to my husband yesterday about the quesadillas we were supposed to have last night for dinner when it occurred to me that we didn't have tortillas. I could have run to the store and purchased some but there was no fun in that and I decided it would be a great baking adventure! I think I made tortillas a long time ago, years actually. I've made naan a bunch of times at my old job because we used to sell it for parties. The tilt skillet worked awesome for cooking the naan.

Anyway, I found this recipe at the blog of Homesick Texan. Her blog is awesome, yeah, awesome. She also has written a cookbook that you can purchase.

My tortillas ended up pretty thick even though I rolled them as thin as I could, they were like flour paper going in the skillet, or so I thought. I will be trying this recipe again, probably the half whole wheat version, and will try to put it through my pasta roller on my mixer. Why didn't I think of that last night? Who knows, it actually just occurred to me while I am writing this. Brilliant! I did have fresh, homemade tortillas with no shortening or lard in under an hour though and they were soft, fluffy, and delicious. My husband made a sort of tacos from them with the black bean and mushroom filling and I made a sort of pizza with the filling, sour cream, cheese, and salsa. It was delicious and I'm super excited about having some leftover tortillas in the refrigerator today to eat. Yum! Happy Tortilla Making!

Flour Tortillas
Makes eight tortillas.

Ingredients:
Two cups of all-purpose flour (can make them whole wheat by substituting one cup of whole-wheat flour for white flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Directions:
1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and oil. Slowly add the warm milk. Stir until a loose, sticky ball is formed.
2. Knead for two minutes on a floured surface. Dough should be firm and soft.
3. Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
4. After the dough has rested, break off eight sections, roll them into balls in your hands, place on a plate (make sure they aren’t touching) and then cover balls with damp cloth or plastic wrap for 10 minutes. (It’s very important to let the dough rest, otherwise it will be like elastic and won’t roll out to a proper thickness and shape.)
 

 

5. After dough has rested, one at a time place a dough ball on a floured surface, pat it out into a four-inch circle, and then roll with a rolling pin from the center until it’s thin and about eight inches in diameter. (If you roll out pie crusts you’ll have no problem with this.) Don’t over work the dough, or it’ll be stiff. Keep rolled-out tortillas covered until ready to cook.
6. In a dry iron skillet heated on high, cook the tortilla about thirty seconds on each side. It should start to puff a bit when it’s done.
7. Keep cooked tortillas covered wrapped in a napkin until ready to eat.
8. Can be reheated in a dry iron skillet, over your gas-burner flame or in the oven wrapped in foil.
9. While you probably won’t have any leftovers, you can store in the fridge tightly wrapped in foil or plastic for a day or so.

Printable Recipe

Adapted from Homesick Texan