Homemade Flour Tortillas

Taco night will never be the same …

I decided to try my hand at making my own flour tortillas. We like tacos, enchiladas and quesadillas so tortillas frequent my shopping list. Now, I can buy them at the store for less than $2 so it’s not like I’m going broke buying them or anything but I loooooove the challenge of figuring out how to do something on my own rather than buying pre-made.

It turns out, as cheap as they are to buy at the store, they are even less expensive to make yourself! The big bonus is that you can make them from ordinary ingredients that you already have on hand. So if on a whim, you want to make some quick quesadillas for lunch with the extra cheese and chicken in refrigerator then you can whip these up and do just that! So here it is …

(Please bear in mind … I am not at all Mexican. I do not have a single Mexican relative that I know of. So if this recipe is completely un-authentic then I really have no idea, but it was good to me and I hope you like it too!)

Flour Tortillas

Recipe yield: 12 tortillas

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tbsp. shortening
• 3/4 cup (or so) water

Directions:

1. Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together thoroughly. Add the shortening and blend with a pastry blender until nice and crumbly.
2. Add the water to the flour mixture a little at a time, mixing as you go, until a dough forms (just like you would for a pie crust). You may not need all of the water so you don’t want to just pour it all in.
3. Place the dough on a floured surface and give it a few good kneads for even consistency. Cut it into 12 little chunks. I use a pizza cutter to do this. Cut the whole into three large chunks and then each of those into four and they should all be about evenly sized.
4. Heat a large non-stick skillet or griddle to medium-high heat.
5. On y0ur lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin and roll out each dough chunk into an extremely thin circle. I’m talking paper thin. Like this …

   

6. Gently lift the tortilla and place it in the heated pan. It cooks very quickly, about 2 minutes on the first side and about one minute on the other side. As soon as it turns golden, flip it. While it’s cooking, you can roll out your next one.

It would probably be awesome to serve these immediately, but that doesn’t really fit in with my lifestyle. I made these during nap time in the afternoon. After they were all cooked I placed them in a gallon-sized resealable bag until supper time. I like my tortillas warm though, so when it was time to eat I placed them on a dinner plate, covered them with a damp paper towel and microwaved them for 30 seconds. Perfect.

Need some taco seasoning to go with your homemade tortillas? Try this homemade version!

Why I do what I do ~ Chloe actually eats tacos, which is a little shocking because I usually make them with ground beef. She loves sour cream on her taco just like her Mama, but she calls it white dip. Sometimes it’s all in the name – just can’t think of eating something that’s gone sour on purpose.

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Tagged as: Frugal Food, Recipes