There was a time when making tortillas was something I did every
morning. When I was first married, I would get up two hours early simply to
make burritos for my husband to take to work with him. It was something that
all the women that I knew back then did, and many still do. You make the
tortillas, cook some eggs with meat, or re-fry some beans, and send your man
off with a half dozen burritos for him to have at work or to share with the
other men who were not married.
It was a tradition that I let go by the by
when I went back to school and then to work. I found that buying a dozen or
so tortillas at the store was easier and making burritos was just something
I no longer had time to do. I think that both my husband and I forgot just
how good a fresh, home-made tortilla filled with a variety of meats, beans,
egg or potatoes, and doused with some good home-made salsa could taste. Even
after retiring and getting back into the kitchen more, I still don’t make
tortillas every day, but I do make them more often. They don’t take much
time. In fact, they probably don’t take much longer than the time it would
take to pop open a can of biscuits and cook. But they do taste so much
better than canned biscuits or store bought tortillas that making them is
definitely worth the time and effort. Nothing taste much better than a hot
tortillas fresh off the comal with a little butter and rolled up.
Learn about
the history of
Tortillas & Tacos.
Flour Tortillas - How To Make Flour Tortillas
3 cup all-purpose
flour
2 teaspoons
baking
powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups warm water (approximate)
In a large bowl, blend the flour, baking powder, and salt together. With a
pastry cutter (unless you are one of those, like my teachers, who always
used their hands) cut in the lard or shortening. You want these ingredients
to cling together slightly and hold a form when squeezed in your hands.
If
the mixture crumbles, you do not have the shortening mixed in well or have
too little (if it makes a hard clump them you need more flour and less
shortening).
Add the water all at once
and mix the dough quickly with a fork or by hand until the dough forms a
mass. Work it in the bowl, moving it around the sides to pick up any flour
remaining in the bowl.
Knead the dough by
folding it in half, pushing it down, and folding again. It should take about
a dozen folds to form soft dough that is no longer sticky.
Cover the dough
with a towel or plastic wrap to let it rest for about 5 to 10 minutes while
your comal is heating. Allowing the dough to rest lets any of the liquid
absorb into the flour, which will give you a softer tortilla after cooking.
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Take your ball of dough
and begin pinching off 1-inch diameter balls. Knead each of these into a
tight ball by folding them over with your fingers, turning and repeating
until it is shaped like a fat disk. Place it to one side of the mixing bowl
and continue to do this until you have used all of the dough.
Before rolling out the tortillas,
allow the dough balls to rest at least 10 minutes. This will
permit the gluten to relax and make them much easier to shape
and roll.
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On a lightly floured
surface take one of the dough balls and begin to roll it out. To keep a
somewhat round shape, roll one directions, make a 1/4 turn and roll again, make
another 1/4 turn and roll. Continue to roll and turn until you the dough is
about 1/8-inch thick and 8 to 10 inches in diameter.
NOTE: You
can roll them thinner or thicker, if you like. Just remember to
adjust the cooking time for how thick they are rolled. I roll
mine the way they are done in New Mexico – slightly thicker than
any store bought ones. |
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 Heat your comal (for
comal definition, see box below) over
medium to medium-high heat until drops of water “dance” when dropped on the
surface. You might have to increase or decrease the heat after you cook
your first tortilla, but you should be able to tell if the tortilla is
cooking too fast on the outside and still raw on the inside, or increase it
if your tortilla is taking more than 30 seconds to begin to “puff” when
placed on the comal.
Comal
Definition
-
Mexican
comal or cast iron plate used to make tortillas If
you do not have a comal, a large cast iron skillet or griddle
works well, or even an electric griddle can be used when heated up
to 400 to 450 degrees F.
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Place the raw tortilla on
the preheated comal and allow it to cook until it begins to puff up with air pockets,
turn carefully since not only is the comal hot, the tortilla is hot and the
air pockets may release steam that can burn. Each side should cook about 30
seconds, leaving the tortilla puffy. Press on a center part of the tortilla
slightly to be certain the inside is cooked. If it looks as though it has
compressed down and is a darker color, your dough is not cooked in the
center and will need to be returned to the comal.
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Notes on cooking tortillas:
I, along with others
who have been making tortillas for quite some time, will roll the next
tortilla while the previous is cooking. Unless you feel very comfortable
doing this, I would recommend either having someone else flip the tortillas
and pull them off the comal, or wait until the present tortilla is cooked
before starting to roll a new one. You will find that tortillas can cook
very quickly (approximately 1 minute), and they can burn very quickly! If you are using a cast iron comal, and the tortilla burns, you will need to scrape off the char and use
a damp rag to wipe down your comal before continuing to cook. The flavor of
one burnt tortilla can ruin the remainder of the batch.
As you pull the tortillas
off the comal, place them inside a clean folded towel or a tortilla warmer to
rest.
Storing fresh-made tortillas:
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The tortillas can be placed in bags or containers and kept for
several days in the refrigerator, and they can be frozen (although I do not
recommend this as the taste changes some when they are thawed).
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The
dough can be frozen easily before cooking and thawed later.
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Store extra tortillas in a plastic
bag in the refrigerator. Since they don't have preservatives,
they will spoil after a couple of days on the counter.
Makes approximately 2
dozen tortillas
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Sopapillas: This recipe can be
also be used
to make savory sopapillas. Simply cut your rolled out rounds
into wedge shapes and deep fry in 400 degree F. oil until they are puffy and
browned. Remove from the oil and drain on a slotted rack of paper towels. These “sopapillas” are a quick easy way to make “double duty” of your masa
(dough), but a good sopapilla should have milk instead of water as the
liquid for making the dough. Check
out Cynthia's recipe for making
Sopapillas.
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