Homemade Flour Tortillas
Well, what did you think? That I was going to give you a great recipe for refried beans, and not for the warm, soft, impossibly delicious tortillas that I slathered them on? No way! I wouldn’t leave you hangin’ like that.
I discovered this recipe a while back when I had my dinner all prepped and ready to go (Carnitas in the crockpot), when I suddenly realized that I hadn’t bought tortillas. Gulp. That won’t do. Google to the rescue, right? Well, most homemade tortilla recipes called for lard. Now don’t get me wrong, I would totally use the lard, except for the little fact that I don’t routinely keep tubs of lard in the house, and wasn’t in the mood for rendering pork fat. Frankly, if I forgot the tortillas, I probably didn’t pick up a container of lard while I was at the store. Ok, so that’s that. But then I came upon this recipe, which doesn’t call for lard at all. Hallelujah! Dinner was saved. 
I wasn’t expecting anything amazing, but I really needed a carnitas-vehicle to get all that spiced meat from my plate to my mouth, and this seemed to fit the bill. These little babies proved me wrong, though. Actually, they kind of stole the show. As it turns out, a warm, freshly made tortilla might just be the best thing in the world. Who knew? They were a just little thicker than a store-bought flour tortilla, which makes them ideal for any kind of taco- they don’t fall apart or get soggy. And they actually taste like food, as opposed to just the filling-vehicle that we had been used to. We are seriously hooked.
And here’s the rub- don’t homemade tortillas sound kind of labor intensive and like a lot of work? Well, they sort of are as opposed to just buying them, but not really in terms of actual time spent. I think I spent half an hour (not counting resting time) on these. It would have even faster if I was using a big griddle, so I could have cooked more than one at a time. When you’re making tacos or the like for dinner, the rest of the meal isn’t exactly taking a whole lot of time, either, so I was really surprised when this turned into a pretty quick thing to pull together. And what’s more… they’re one of those fun things to make. The dough is super easy to work with, so there’s ZERO frustration factor when rolling the little balls out into super thin rounds, and there is something magical about throwing each disk onto a hot skillet and watching it puff up and turn into a real-life tortilla right in front of your very own eyes. This would be an awesome thing to make with kids, I think they’d get a kick out of it, and as I said, they’re not fussy at all (the tortillas, I can’t vouch for your kids). Ok, well my two-year-old wasn’t really interested (much too busy), but he was extremely interested in eating them. Good enough.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup sunflower oil (or other vegetable oil)
- 1 cup hot water
Instructions
- Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together thoroughly. Add the oil and mix with your hands until the flour mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add hot water and mix until a ball is formed. Cover and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes. (If leaving overnight, place in refrigerator.)
- Divide dough into 12 even sized balls and roll out one at a time on a floured surface. Rounds should be about 8-10" in diameter and very thin. Brush off excess flour and cook on a hot, ungreased griddle (I love my cast iron pan for this) over medium high heat. Turn the tortilla when brown blisters form. Serve warm.