Something I miss from my home state Texas are breakfast tacos. I especially miss being able get breakfast tacos at Taco Cabana as soon as the clock struck midnight. I don’t make Taco Cabana runs anymore because I don’t live near one and I’m asleep when the clock strikes midnight :).
The reason I got a hankering to make homemade flour tortillas is because I found out that breakfast tacos are the only food that my husband will eat consistently for breakfast. I saw it as an opportunity to provide as much ‘encouragement’ as possible. It also gave me an excuse to make yummy flour tortillas
Above are all the ingredients you need to make your standard flour tortilla. Now some of you may be new to manteca which is also known as lard. I know lard doesn’t sound amazing but it kinda is…especially when you use it to make flour tortillas. You could just use shortening but it just doesn’t taste as good.
The recipe starts similar to a pie crust. You mix all the dry ingredients together then using a fork you cut the lard into the dry ingredients. The texture is crumbly.
An important next step is to add the hot water. The water should be hot so that it melt the lard as you mix all the ingredients to form a dough.
After some kneading, it is time to let the dough rest for about 45 minutes. I know you don’t want to but it will allow the dough to relax so you can roll the tortillas out easily.
This is a pick of what the dough looks like after it rests.
Now to the fun part, form the balls of dough. It’s up to you what size you want to make your tortillas. You can make regulars sizes for tacos or bigger ones for burritos.
After another 20 minute rest, roll the dough balls out really thin. I hesitated on actually rolling them out thin. I thought it might make the tortilla too thin but as it cook it thickens.
The smell of homemade flour tortillas are amazing. I ate a couple plain because something so simply soft, tender and full of carbs should be enjoyed by itself first. I then proceeded to stuff each tortilla with eggs, chorizo and potatoes that I had already prepared. Once all were filled, I individually wrapped them with foil and threw they in the freeze to eat for later.
How are the tortillas after they have been frozen and microwaved? Still amazing just don’t microwave it too long to prevent the tortilla from getting hard.
I think people should make this at least one time. The quality of homemade tortillas is the same of homemade bread….it’s just better hands down.
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Homemade Flour Tortillas
recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman
makes about 15 tortillas
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of lard or shortening
1 cup hot water
Directions
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.
Add spoonfuls of lard or shortening (1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons). Use a fork to cut the lard into the flour similar to making pie crust. Continue until you achieve a crumb texture.
Next, pour hot water (I boiled water in my tea kettle) into the mixture and stir to combine. Knead dough with your hands 30 to 40 times. At this point the ball of dough should be a little less sticky. Cover with a towel and let it rest for 45 min. The original recipe called for an 1 hour of rest time but I didn’t want to wait :).
Form golf ball size dough balls, cover with towel, and rest for another 20 minutes.
On a well floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out each dough ball to desired thickness. I rolled mine out pretty thin.
To cook, heat a large pan or griddle (I used my cast iron griddle) to medium/high heat. Place the uncooked tortilla onto the griddle and cook for about 30 seconds or until it forms brown spots but is still soft. Flip and repeat on the other side. It may take a couple tortillas to figure out when to flip. As you cook the tortillas pile them on top of each other and cover with foil or towel to keep warm.
Enjoy!
