Flour Tortilla

Have you ever had those strange flour tortillas from a bag? Well throw them out and try these great ones from scratch. They cost about $0.75 to make and taste so much better. Don't be afraid to try these.



Makes about eight to ten  6-inch tortillas

2 cups of white flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.
Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough.
The dough will be sticky.

Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough. Knead the dough by pushing the dough with the heals and palms of both hands down onto the board. Fold the dough back onto itself, give a quarter turn and push again with the palms and heels of your hands. Keep repeating the process of pressing, folding and turning for about 4 or 5 minutes. Dust the counter or board with flour when the dough gets sticky.
If the dough sticks to the cutting board while kneading, scrape up the dough and dust the board with a little flour and continue kneading. Eventually the stickiness will go away and you will have a nice smooth dough.
Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Divide the dough into walnut sized balls (about 2 oz. each) by pinching off the dough with your thumb and fore finger. Form each ball into ball.Place the balls on the counter making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth.

Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes.

Preheat a heavy skillet or cast iron pan on medium heat.

Lightly dust board or counter with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out on the cutting board to a 4 inch circle. Rub flour on your rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough starting from the center out. Roll the tortilla until it is 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.

I have never been able to roll out a perfectly round shaped tortilla so I often form them more like an irregular shaped circle but it works fine.

Take your rolled out tortilla and place it on a preheated DRY skillet. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds.
Don't over cook it because this will make it crunchy and not soft and pliable.
Keep your tortillas warm by covering them in a towel on a plate or in a tortilla warmer.

If you have left overs you can put them in a freezer bag and store them in the fridge for a few days or freeze up to a month. When we make them we usually make a triple recipe and have some for Quesadilla's.