Homemade Flour Tortillas
with
John Mitzewich
There is nothing like a soft, warm, homemade flour tortilla fresh from the oven. Once you wrap one up into a burrito, it may be difficult to go back to the store-bought variety. Watch how easy it is to make fresh tortillas at home.
Transcript: Homemade Flour Tortillas
Hi, I'm Chef John Mitzewich for About.com. I'm going to show you how to make you own flour tortillas, that's right, you can make them at home. They're very easy and incredibly delicious, let's get started.Tortilla Ingredients
We're going to add the following to a bowl:- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
Mix the Tortilla Dough
Then take a pastry cutter - many people like to use their fingers, but I like the pastry cutter, but that's up to you. We're going to work that shortening in until you can’t see any large lumps. After the shortening is worked in a little bit, add 1/2 cup of hot water. It doesn’t have to be boiling, but should be fairly hot.With a spatula going to mix that together until it comes together as a loose dough, then I'm going to switch to my fingers, and transfer it to my cutting board. I'm going to knead it for about 3 minutes, and it's going to form a fairly stiff, yet easy to work with dough. Just like that.
Allow the Tortillas to Rise
Put it back in the mixing bowl, cover, and let it rest for 15 minutes. When we are ready to make our tortillas, pull off little pieces of dough - this batch will make about 8, so I divided my dough into 8 little balls.Roll Out Each Tortilla
You want to shape it into a nice smooth ball. I like to push it through my hand like this, and then pinch the bottom. On to the cutting board it goes. We're going to roll it out to about 6-7 inches wide, and nice and thin - well, not too thin. You should need much flour since the shortening in the dough will keep it from sticking.By the way, do not obsess over getting a perfect circle. Why would you want these to look like they are from the store?? Come on. Once it looks like that, we are ready to grill. Wait until you see how easy these are to cook.
Heat the Tortillas
You want a hot, dry pan (over med-high heat). Non-stick, regular pan, or even a cast iron pan which is actually the best. Throw it in the preheated pan for one minute on the first side. You'll see little bubbles form. Flip it over and cook another minute - you'll see it puff up a little bit probably. Flip it over one last time for about another minute - you're going to see those little brown blisters, which are the signature of homemade tortillas.There's where you can adjust the pan, if those are getting too dark, turn down the heat a little, and if they are too light, turn it up. There's where is can really start to inflate, which is very cool. So after about a minute on the last side they are done, and throw it on a plate.