(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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I had several hankerings for enchiladas a couple winters ago when I couldn’t get to the store. And who wants to go without tortillas when you don’t have to? I shall never hanker unrequited again. I was determined to learn how to make them myself.
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 12 (or the size you make them)
Prep Time: 30 min Cook Time: 1 min per tortillaIngredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening or lard
1 cup lukewarm water
Directions
Mix flour and salt in a medium-size bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry cutter. Stir water in and mix the dough as much as possible with a spoon.
The dough will appear dry at first. Work it the rest of the way by kneading and a pliable dough will result. Cover bowl and let rest for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of flour in the bowl and knead again briefly. Divide dough into 12 balls.
Taking one ball of tortilla dough at a time, flour waxed paper and stretch the ball a bit to get started. Place dough on the floured wax paper and sprinkle flour on top of the dough.
Roll out the tortilla as thinly as possible without breaking the dough.
If your dough sticks as you pull it up, you aren’t using enough flour. It should pull off the waxed paper easily.
Heat a large cast-iron skillet to medium-high. (You’re cooking them dry, no oil, so cast-iron is best.)
Cook each tortilla quickly, about 15 seconds per side then flip. Repeat, cooking each side a second time for another 15 seconds per side. Place cooked tortillas in foil and keep wrapped while continuing to cook the remainder.
This recipe makes twelve 6- to 8-inch tortillas. To make larger tortillas, divide your ball of dough into fewer portions. (Remember not to make larger tortillas than you have a pan to cook them in!)
To store tortillas, place in sealed baggies in the refrigerator.
These keep well for a week or more in the fridge. To make them last longer and for added freshness, include homemade dough enhancer in the first step (three tablespoons per recipe batch). You can also freeze them in a freezer baggie for a couple of weeks.
You can vary these endless ways–substitute some whole grain flour. Add crushed hot peppers, chopped olives, anything you like for gourmet tortillas.
Categories: Breads, Tortillas & Pitas
Submitted by: suzanne-mcminn on June 14, 2010
Melinda says:
I made these last week for chicken fajitas. They were delicious. I had bought a tortilla press and wanted to check it out. It was so simple and the tortillas were so delicious I will never buy store bought again!
On June 14, 2010 at 11:11 am
JenW!~ says:
My family wanted personal pizzas for supper and I didn’t want to wait for dough to rise so I made these and used them as the crust. we loaded them up with sauce, peperoni and cheese ,baked em in the oven for about 10 min and voila a tasty little pizza.
On July 9, 2010 at 7:12 pm
knhdah says:
These were so good! We actually ended up using 2 cups all-purpose flour, and 1 cup Whole Wheat flour, as we ran out of the all-purpose. Our 6 yr old gobbled these up, and they were a big hit with everyone. Thanks for the recipe!
On February 24, 2012 at 9:52 pm
banksiarose says:
I’ve made these 3 times in the past 2 weeks – we eat a lot of tortillas… I use this recipe as a base and tweak it just a little.
My rendition uses 100% W/W flour and sub’s olive oil for the lard/shortening/fat component. This works fine, but I have a confession… I found the ‘dough conditioner’ recipe here and add 3 tbls of that to this recipe. Make the dough up, let it rest awhile (even overnight in fridge), and roll them out nearly paper-thin. A few flips on a hot, dry cast-iron skillet and they come out perfect. Dare say the best ones ever.
On June 2, 2012 at 9:42 am
DancesInGarden says:
Made these tonight to have “bread” to make lunches for tomorrow. I halved the recipe, but next time I might double it instead LOL. With all the “sampling” going on I had to beat them off with a stick to have enough to make 2 wraps! Half recipe made exactly 6, 10 inch tortillas, and I used butter instead of shortening.
On October 21, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Chuck says:
Made these for breakfast burritos. They folded very easy. Since I am at a higher elevation (Colorado), I added about a tablespoon more of water…turned out perfect. Also added some green chile and garlic to the dough. I would prefer these over store bought any day! Thanks for posting it.
On January 27, 2013 at 3:31 pm
Mikoo83 says:
I just have to say, I created an account JUST so I could comment on this recipe. I’ve never made bread or tortillas or much else for that matter. I decided I wanted to make tortillas like I used to get when I lived in Texas. They don’t have anything like that here in Spain. This was the easiest and first tortilla recipe that I tried and I tried 3 or 4 since then and I keep coming back to this one. It’s VERY easy and tastes amazing! I doubled the recipe tonight and it made around 22 tortillas. We go trough them sooo fast! I’ve shared this on Facebook and I posted a picture of the outcome. Many of my friends want to try it.
Muy delicioso! Gracias!
On November 4, 2014 at 1:40 am