Flour Tortillas

This is an oldie but a goodie. I can’t believe I haven’t made a post about this before. Quite a many years ago I decided to try my hand at making flour tortillas. I had heard they were more difficult than corn. It took me a couple of tries before I became more comfortable with it. I then took a few years off where I didn’t make them so had to re-teach myself. I figured I should actually document it so I have something to reference. I made some easy fajita/tacos tonight using these tortillas. I generally will re-heat the tortilla on an open flame of my oven for ~15 seconds on each side.

Ingredients

3 cups AP flour (you can also incorporate a % of wheat flour to make it “healthier”)
1 cup hot water (almost boiling)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4-1/3 c oil (instead of lard)

Most original recipes call for the use of lard. I have never had lard in the house and read about using oil as a substitute so that’s what I’ve been using (either canola or vegetable oil). For the pictures below I actually made a smaller batch (2 cups flour, 2/3 c water, etc).

Mix up the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add in the oil and incorporate it with the dry mixture. Heat water til near boiling. Add water and mix/knead for about 3 minutes. Exact water may depend on environmental conditions – dough should come together into smooth ball without being too dry.
Cover in a damp towel/cloth for about 20 minutes.
Separate dough ball into individual smaller balls and roll into slightly than larger golf ball size balls
Cover again with damp towel/cloth and let sit for 30-50 minutes.
Take each ball and flatten into disk/hockey puck shape. Place small amount of flour on each side of puck. On a well floured counter using a rolling pin to roll out doughball into tortilla shape. Can roll out into 1/8″-1/16″ thickness depending on preference. Rolling can be tricky. I’ve found that I’ll roll it out North to South, then pick it up and turn it 45 degrees and continue to attempt to make it round. It’s okay if it isn’t fully round. Still tastes great!
In a hot cast iron pan (or comal if you have one), place tortilla down and let sit for 40-50 seconds (depending on temperature of pan). Using flat spatula, flip and cook another 30-45 seconds. Can look for small brown spots to give an indication of doneness.