(#36) Jayme Learns to Make Flour Tortilla

I've made flour tortilla in the past and they always come out tasting great but looking more like a flat bread then a tortilla.

I'm visiting my parents in Florida, and decided to try to learn these once again from my mother. The problem with learning to cook anything from my mother is that she is an extemporaneous cook. It is fly by your seat, figure it out as you go, and don't ask me to repeat it cooking. When I try to replicate a recipe she recommends, it never comes out as good as it does when she makes it.

Luckily, flour tortilla is pretty basic, and my mom said the recipe below found in this gorgeous cookbook Flavors of Belize, pretty much aligns with what she does.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening
3/4 cup of water

(My mom uses Canola Oil instead of shortening, adds flax seed powder, and from time to time mixes the white flour with whole wheat flour. I told you, she always changes things up.)

Directions:

1. Combine flour, salt and baking powder. (The brown is the flax seed powder)

2. Cut in the shortening with a fork (or mix the oil with the dry ingredients).

3. Add water, a little at a time, and mix until flour comes together.

4. Place on a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 to 3 minutes until smooth.

5. Divide the dough into approximately 10 to 12 pieces; roll each piece into a ball.

6. Cover and allow to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

7. Preheat griddle over medium to high heat. (My mom puts it on high heat and then turns it down just before she starts.)

8. Flour a rolling pin and sprinkle flour on a clean surface.

9. Flatten one ball at a time until thin. You can also flatten it manually on a greased plate. (Neither my mom or I have ever been able to keep them round. That is a trick to learn from my Tia Angelica next time I go to Belize.)


10. Place on a hot griddle and cook for 1-2 minutes on both sides. (You know they will be yummy if they start to puff up in the middle.)

Breakfast is served!

Before, I'd been following the Once a Month Mom recipe. But that recipe had no baking powder in it, which might have explained the odd consistency of the tortillas.

Any other flour tortilla lovers out there? Do you have a trick for keeping them round?