Monday, January 27, 2014

Homemade Tortillas

I got to use my new kitchen gadget yesterday, my tortilla press. I love it. I made some homemade tortillas yesterday and they turned out really good, even if I do say so myself.


They were really easy to make and don't require a lot of ingredients. The best kind of recipe!!


Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir together. Add the butter and shortening (more about the shortening later). Use a pastry cutter to blend until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Poor in hot water while stirring constantly. Keep stirring until the dough just comes together. It will be warm. Put the dough out and knead for about a minute. Form the dough into a ball and put in a bowl, cover with a towel for an hour to rest.




Now it's time to make the tortillas. I used a piece of plastic wrap on the press to it wouldn't stick then pinch off a piece about the size of a large walnut and lay it on the press and then press.



And there it is! While you're pressing the tortillas, heat a heavy skillet, I used an iron skillet, on medium to high heat. Place the tortillas in the skillet one by one. Cook for about 30 seconds then flip and cook the other side for 20 to 30 seconds.


Place the cooked tortillas on a flat surface and cover with a towel until your done. The recipe makes about 24 tortillas, but I only cooked 6 because obviously I wouldn't be able to eat 24 and they wouldn't keep in the fridge for more than a couple of days. To keep them in the fridge for a day or so, wrap the cooled tortillas in foil and when your ready to use them, pop them in the oven for a 10 or 15 minutes at 300F. I just heated a couple in the microwave and they came out fine. I rolled the  rest of the dough into balls and froze them to make in the future. The recipe didn't say if they could be frozen or not, but I did it anyway and hopefully it will work out next time I want some.

I ate a couple for lunch yesterday. I put a piece of cheese and a couple of thin slices of ham and baby kale to make a kind of "taco" and I must say it was very good.




Tonight for supper I had a couple of tortillas with a chicken tender, piece of cheese and more kale in each, so you see the possibilities are endless, you can put anything you want and like in them.

Here is the complete recipe and of course it is from my favorite cookbook author thepioneerwoman,com


2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of masa harina (corn flour) usually found in the Hispanic aisle of the grocery.
2 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening (here I used the NON-hydrogenated lard from the farmer's market that I have talked about before and am hoarding in my freezer).
2 tbl. of butter
1 cup of very hot water (I heated it up on the stove)

I deem this recipe a success. I did notice that on the back of the bag of masa harina there was a recipe for corn tortillas and it was an even more simple than this one. I'm going to try that in the future.


Kathy
















































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