I used to try making tortillas and get utterly frustrated. I gave up on the job. But at the rate my kids go through them, buying them was expensive. Furthermore, I wanted whole wheat instead of white flour, and real fat instead of something hydrogenated.
I found a tortilla maker online. (I bought mine from this company off ebay instead of directly through their website. At the time, it was about 20% cheaper.)
We've toyed with the recipe for a while, trying to find what's lowest fat yet without sacrificing flexibility, and how high a proportion of ww flour we can use without having crumbly tortillas. This is what we've come up with:
Makes 20 tortillas.
3 cups ww flour
2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup lard
1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cup hot water
Mix dry ingredients. Using fingers to pinch and mix, combine flour with lard. Stir in hot water. Knead just long enough to mix. Cut into 20 equal-sized balls. Cover with upside-down bowl and let rest for 1-6 hours. Heat tortilla press and cast-iron skillets. Press dough ball for about 3 seconds, then brown both sides slightly in ungreased skillet. Let cool before storing in refrigerator. These will cost 1.5 to 3 cents a piece, depending on your grocery store prices.
Corn tortillas can be made without a press. But I don't think anybody should try this flour-tortillas recipe without the heated press.
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Corn tortillas are pretty good too...though they might drive the price of fuel up :)
ReplyDeleteWell, Dan, I agree with you completely about the yumminess level of corn tortillas. But after a couple of decades, I've given up on trying to convince my husband of that fact.
ReplyDelete>>though they might drive the price of fuel up<<
LOL!!
After many months of use, I've refined my recipe to this:
ReplyDelete4 1/2 cups ww flour
3 cups white flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 cup lard (give or take a little)
2 1/2 cups hot water
This makes 32 tortillas, and they're easier to press than the previous recipe because they're a little higher on the water content.
With these slightly bigger balls of dough, I've also discovered that I can press the tortilla fairly flat, and then take it out of the press and press it three more times, with about half the tortilla in the press and half hanging out over the edge, and work my way around the tortilla, making it bigger than I could get with just one press. That's worked well.
I also discovered that you don't really have to let the dough sit for the hour before making the tortillas.
My tortilla press died last week. It lasted 25 months with a LOT of use. I tend to think a machine should last a lot longer, but the cost of the machine averages out to about $2.50 per month, and I definitely save more than $2.50 each week by making my own. And then, too, the home-made tortillas are healthier. And better tasting.
ReplyDelete