RECIPE: Tortillas
These bear no resemblance to what you would buy in the
store—either in terms of flavor or of price!
2-1/2 c flour—can use half whole-wheat flour (1-1/4 c) with
half all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ stick (4 T) margarine OR 4 T shortening OR 4 T lard (4 T
is ¼ c)
1 c water
Equipment Necessary: Skillet, preferably 7” in size. I have
a skillet dedicated to grilling/toasting bread, which I also use for preparing
tortillas.
Equipment Necessary: Spatula/pancake turner, preferably an
offset spatula such as is used in barbecuing.
Equipment Necessary: Rolling pin.
Equipment Desirable: Silicone pastry mat, such as the Simple
Baker’s, which is 25 inch x 18 inch and has circles depicted for tortillas,
tarts, pie crusts, etc. (Amazon sells it.) If you don’t have one, flour a large
cutting board or a counter and use that instead. (The easy way to clean a
silicone mat after use is to wipe it clean with a small wad of paper toweling
to which you’ve applied suds. Then rinse with another wad. Then dry. Note that
these wads are only needed to be two inches square.)
Other Equipment Desirable: A pastry cutter. If you don’t
have one, use two table knives to cut the fat into the dry ingredients.
Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large
bowl. I find it convenient to place the bowl in the sink. Cut in the fat with a
pastry cutter (or two table knives.) Stir in the water.
Soak a towel that is large enough to cover the bowl,
preferably a terry towel, in water and wring out the water so that the towel is
left quite damp but not dripping. Cover the bowl with the damp towel. Let the
dough rest for one hour.
Set out on a counter a repository for the portioned dough. I
use a sheet of waxed paper.
Set out the pastry mat or prepare the floured board/counter.
Overturn the bowl of dough onto the mat and scrape out any recalcitrant bits
with the spatula or spoon that you have been using. Use your hands to pat the
dough into a rectangle roughly 8 inches by 12 inches. Use a table knife to
divide the dough rectangle into half and then into quarters. Make another two
vertical cuts, so that you have 16. 20, or 24 sections of dough. Roll each
section into a ball and place it on the repository (such as waxed paper.) When
all the balls of dough are ready, cover the repository with the damp towel.
Roll out a ball of dough so that it approximates 7” long. If
you roll in one direction and then in the other, you may or may not end up with
a circle. Don’t fret—rectangular tortillas are still delicious!
The advantage of a pastry mat is that there is plenty of
room on it to place four ready-to-cook tortillas.
Heat your pan so that a tiny ball of dough sizzles. Using
your hand, transfer the ready-to-cook tortilla that you have made first to the
pan. Flatten it with the spatula.
Roll out another tortilla. It will now be time to turn over
the cooked tortilla. Don’t get distracted now—once you flatten the tortilla on
its reverse side, it will cook right away. Remove it to a plate.
Over and over, roll out a ball of dough and cook a tortilla.
You will find that you will get ahead of the cooking process in terms of your
rolling out process. You can hold four ready-to-cook tortillas on the pastry
mat at once. Just transfer them so that the oldest one is always at the top
left, and the newest one is always at the bottom right. In that way, you will
avoid dryness, the enemy of a good tortilla.
When you are done cooking all the tortillas, set the pan to
cool on an empty burner. The tortillas are scrumptious the same day, or can be
frozen. To heat one or two in the microwave, defrost for 45 seconds and then
heat at 50% power for 15 seconds .For larger amounts, defrost wrapped tortillas
on the counter for several hours. Then heat in the microwave at 50% power for
15 seconds plus an additional 5 seconds for each additional tortilla.
