There's nothing like a good ole Saturday to catch up one missed blogging.
Not much going... but my never fail hobby of cooking and baking comes to the rescue for a blog entry.
Today's topic: TORTILLAS
I've bought hundreds of tortillas at the store for wraps, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, etc... a very versatile item. I even remember being at a friends one time and they had tortillas that you could cook up yourself. I thought the was BIZARRE.
Never did I think I would ever make my own flour tortillas, but then again, here I go surprising myself.
Tortillas are surprisingly easy. And you don't really even need a tortilla press. Rolling pin all the way.
So here's the recipe:
- 2 cups of white flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup warm water
5 Ingredients. That's it!
You combine the flour, salt and baking powder all together in a bowl.
In another bowl combine the oil and the water.
Add the water mixture to the flour mixture
ONE TABLESPOON AT A TIME.
You just mix it with a fork. Just slowly add the water. Boring as it may seem...this is the key.
Once all the water is in there, the dough will be sticky... DO NOT let this alarm you.
Pour the sticky dough onto a floured surface. Flour is your friend.
You need to knead the dough for 4-5 minutes. Add flour as needed to keep the stickiness down. You will knead it till the dough is nice and smooth.
Once you have your knead ball of dough, place it back into the mixing bowl and cover with a damp cloth (or damp paper towel). Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
You let it rest to have to gluten in the flour settle. This will make the dough easier to roll out in the end. SO LET IT REST! USE a damp cloth so they don't dry out.
After resting break the dough ball into golf ball sized balls. You can make 10-12 little balls from this recipe. You can pinch off the dough with your thumb and fore finger.
Place the dough balls on a tray, make sure they do not touch each other. Once they are all rolled into balls and on the tray, cover them again with the damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, now you are in business.
Take a dough ball and flatten it with your palm on a floured surface. Flatten it out till its about 3-4 inches wide (and in the shape of a circle).
Then use the rolling pin to roll it out. Try to roll it as thin as you can (maybe 1/8 inch thickness...I just eyeball it). The thinner the better, because when you fry it up, they get thicker.
So roll it out, flipping the tortilla from from the back as needed.
You can stack your tortillas as you're rolling them out only if you FLOUR BOTH THE TOP AND BOTTOM, so they don't stick together.
Once you have them all rolled out, time to cook them!
Have you stove top on a medium high heat- it is suggested you use cast iron, but I just use a skillet that works... call me simple!
But once the skillet is preheated, just toss the first tortilla on. You want to cook about 1 minute per side. Don't over cook or they will be flaky and hard.
Cook em' up and eat em!. You can store them temporarily in a dishtowel, or once they've cooled in a plastic bag.
It's suggested to refrigerate any leftovers (if there are any!), but just remember they will need to be warmed up the next time you use them or they will be brittle.
If you freeze the tortillas, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put them in a ziplock bag. When you are ready to use them, first
thaw at room temperature and then wrap them in foil and place them in a 250 degree oven for a 10 to 15 minutes.
So tortillas = success!
Next adventure... homemade cream cheese!
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Sorry for the inconsistent photos... camera malfunction :(
