Making Homemade Flour Tortillas

Tortillas! If you decided to read this post, you probably enjoy them too, and the myriad tasty creations made with them. But before we jump straight into bed with the subject, let's "romance" it for a bit first:

Tortillas (or close relatives) are a staple in some parts of Central and South America, and very familiar to us in the US. Although the corn tortilla is sometimes considered the "authentic" tortilla, and is more common, the wheat flour tortilla is native to northern regions of Mexico. I will give you a recipe for a wheat flour tortilla here.

Here's some tortilla history and facts, which I bring to you from the Tortilla Industry Association's website, and the June 2000 industry newsletter from Casa Herrera (food machinery manufacturer):

According to Mayan legend, tortillas were invented by a peasant for his hungry king in ancient times. The first tortillas, which date approximately 10,000 years before Christ, were made of native corn with dried kernel.

For centuries, the tortilla has been the food staple of the cultures of Mexico, and Central and South America. In those areas, corn is a principal crop which women would grind into a coarse meal by rubbing the kernels with a grinding stone, a metate. The corn tortilla was a practical one-handed meal for hard-working people who spent most of their days in the fields.

By the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, the Aztec and Latino peoples were producing corn tortillas in all shapes and sizes for everyday nourishment. Beginning in the 1700's, native populations moved northward and drove the Spanish invaders from Sonora State and what is now Texas, Arizona, and California. They brought the tortilla with them into an area which was short on corn but long on wheat flour and so the flour tortilla was born. This variation proved to be ideal as a leakproof wrapper due to an elastic ingredient, gluten, which allows flour tortillas to stretch and create even bigger food carriers. One expert referred to this tortilla as a "suitcase".

In succeeding years the tortilla became appreciated by local populations and western cowboys. Burritos ('little donkeys') appeared and followed the famous 1849 Gold Rush into California, becoming a widespread portable food of choice.

Fast-forward to the 21st century: in the year 2000, Americans consumed approximately 85 billion tortillas, not including tortilla chips. Tortillas are the fastest-growing segment of the baking industry, and now outsell all other ethnic and specialty breads in the US including bagels, croissants, english muffins, and pita bread.

According to a 2002 poll, conducted by Aspex Research for the TIA, the tortilla's popularity has reached record heights, cornering 32 percent of the sales for the U.S. Bread Industry, and trail white bread sales by only two percent - making them the second most popular bread type in America with sales that far surpass those of whole wheat bread, bagels and rolls. Over the past two years, annual growth for the tortilla industry has expanded nine percent, with 2002, U.S. tortilla industry sales reaching $5.2 billion.

Wow! Looks like they won't miss my $1.79 per package if I make my own...

Tortillas provide not only a fun and easy way to eat other foods, they are an excellent means of providing a carbohydrate "filler" to a meal, to extend the more expensive meats and vegetables and stretch a family's grocery dollars. You can read my complete thoughts on that subject here in the post Everyman's Thoughts on Stretching the Grocery Budget.

As an example for a family of four, rather than pulling 4 steaks from the freezer for dinner, you can make fajitas for the same family with only one or two steaks or even leftover meat, and some vegetables and other toppings. It's less expensive, and probably better for you.

Tortillas are not difficult or time-consuming to make - quite the opposite! A food made by moms for centuries can't be difficult to prepare. But still, you may ask why you would want to make them at all when you can get packaged tortillas from the store for a low cost and zero effort. A few reasons:

• They're fun to make, and the kids can help! Not only will they enjoy the process, but are more likely to eat something they had a hand in making
• It's much less expensive
  
• You don't need to have planned ahead and purchased them - they can be easily created when you find yourself with something on-hand to put in a wrap
• It's healthier, in that there are no preservatives or other unidentifiable substances listed in the ingredients on tortilla packages. You could also experiment with substituting some whole wheat flour, flax seed, or things like pureed spinach or sun-dried tomatoes to mirror the "gourmet" flavors seen in stores
  
• The same reason you might make your own pasta or bread, rather than eating white Wonder bread and store-brand pasta: it tastes better!
  

We usually serve fresh tortillas with standard Tex-Mex fare: meat, onions and peppers (cooked or raw), fresh tomato, lettuce, beans (black or refried), cheese, sometims rice, and various condiments like salsa, taco sauce, sour cream, hot sauce, or jalepenos. You can make large tortillas for burritos, mid-size ones for fajitas, or small ones for soft tacos.

"Wraps" in general are gaining in popularity over sandwiches for the low-carb dieting crowd, because they can have fewer carbs per serving than slices of bread. The possibilities for wraps are limited only by your imagination and sense of gustatory adventure. One I would like to try soon is a chicken ranch wrap: picture grilled chicken, fresh lettuce and tomatos, green onions, and a drizzle of ranch dressing in a fresh tortilla!

And finally, the recipe!

Dear reader, your boundless patience has been tested enough, let's move on to how to make these:

Here's the list of ingredients:

• 3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
• Salt to taste (a 1/4 t.)
  
• 1/3 c. vegetable shortening or oil. Yes, Crisco is back in your kitchen! It's the ubiquitous blue tub we grew up with in our mother's cupboard, but have since eschewed for oils like olive and canola for health reasons. You could use ordinary vegetable oil if you wish. Hey, at least you're not using lard, which is the traditional ingredient.
• 1 c. warm water
• Optional: 1/4 t. baking powder. The recipe I started with used this, and I continue to, though other recipies omit this
  

And here's the instructions:

1. Cut the shortening into the dry goods with a pastry knife or fork. You should wind up with a "crumbly" mixture
2. Add the water slowly, stirring frequently, until you get a thick, slightly tacky dough. Experience will help more than measurements here, as the flour will take different amounts of water with varying levels of humidity. You want something that looks like...well...dough.
   
3. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until you get bored and tired of kneading. Get a mild upper-body workout while you prepare dinner!
   
4. Let the dough rest so it forms "gluten," the substance which makes it stay together and gives it elasticity. If you cooked it without kneading and resting, you'd probably get something like a flat biscuit. Recipies online vary from 15 minutes to 2 hours. Don't bother with watching the clock - just set the dough aside and prepare whatever you intend to fill them with, that will probably be sufficient time
5. Once the contents are nearly ready, put a cast-iron skillet onto medium heat, dry (no oil). If you don't have cast-iron, you can use a heavy-bottom skillet for now, and go get one later. It's an excellent investment. I have several, my first I've owned for over 10 years, and it keeps getting better with each use. There's also some cooking techniques that simply can't be done right with other skillet materials, like blackening.
   
6. Tear off a small ball of dough, pat into a circle, and on a floured surface, roll out your tortilla to whatever size you like. You do not need a cold surface like for pie dough; I use my plain laminate countertop. Roll it as thin as you possibly can! Taran (7 y/o son) is not tall or strong enough yet to do this, but will be soon. For now, I roll, and he cooks. Don't obsess over making a perfect circle; the ones you buy packaged are made with machines. It's homemade, and should look that way. If you make these often enough, you can buy a tortilla press to churn out tortillas more quickly and uniformly, though I've never used one (maybe Santa will bring me one)
   
7. Place tortilla on warm, dry skillet, and flip when halfway done. I'm not exactly sure how long this is, maybe 30 seconds per side. Again, experience will help. The dough will form bubbles from the heat. Using the tip your tongs, press any parts that curl or don't make good contact with the heat onto the skillet. At first, you'll lift up the edges to peek and check for doneness, but once you get the temperature set, you'll be able to tell from looking at the top of the tortilla whether or not it's done by the bubble formation. When flipped, the tops of the bubbles should have a brown (or even black) color from being cooked, but the tortilla should remain soft and pliable without being doughy.

You'll eventually develop a rhythm. I roll out the first tortilla and place it in the skillet. Taran monitors its progress, flips it, and then places it on a plate when it's done. By that time, I've rolled out the next one and it's ready to be cooked. And so on. That process keeps things moving along quickly. I think we can roll and cook a dozen in about 15 minutes or so.

I don't separate the tortillas in the stack, though some recipies call for sheets of waxed paper between each one. I've never had a problem with sticking. You could also use a traditional Indian technique for making the similar chapati, and brush the tops with ghee (clarified butter). They don't last long enough at the table to get cold, so I don't bother keeping them in a closed container, though I suppose you could if they were ready before the rest of the meal.

If you enjoy making these for "Mexican night" with your family, try making chapati the next time you have "Indian night". The ingredients are chapati flour (finely ground whole wheat durum flour), water, and sometimes salt or a little oil. Use roughly 1/3c. water for each cup of chapati flour. You'll find proportions on the flour package, and you'll find the flour itself in the ethnic section of a large grocery store, or if you have one nearby, an Indian foods store. They are then rolled out and cooked as for tortillas. You can also finish cooking them for a few seconds over direct flame, which makes them puff up like a balloon and become phulka instead, though I've never done it.
Rather than rolling or folding them around a portion of the meal as you would tortillas, you tear off a small bit of the bread and use it pick up or "scoop" a mouthful of food from your plate at a time. Yes, the kids have permission to eat with their hands for an evening!
The texture is a bit tougher and more chewey, a result of using whole-wheat flour and little or no oil. I understand you can make them softer by substituting milk or yogurt for the water. They're very filling.

Here's a picture of the proud tortilla chef, and his creations: