Flour Tortillas - How to Make
Claudia Sandoval
Flour Tortillas
At a very early age, my mom would bring me into the kitchen and say, “You have to pay attention and watch how I do things.” Watching my mamí cook is like watching a professional. She moves with authority and finesse and knows her flavors through and through. When I was a kid, I would mimic the way her hands moved when she made tortillas before I fully understood what I was doing.
During the MasterChef Finale , my mom told everyone how my first flour tortilla was shaped like the continent of Africa. I’ve come a long way, and I encourage you not to get discouraged with your first attempts. Being able to roll out a perfectly round flour tortilla is a hard-earned skill, so try to be patient. Just remember that it’s not so much the shape of the tortilla but how it tastes. Spread a little butter on a just-made tortilla, take a bite, then you tell me if you care what shape that tortilla is!
Makes twelve to fourteen 10-inch (25-cm) tortillas
Ingredients:
3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup (155 g) cold lard or vegetable shortening, plus more for greasing
1 cup (240 ml) hot water
Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lard and break it up with your hands until you have a cornmeal-like texture. Add the hot water and carefully mix with a spoon or your hands. You will have a very sticky dough. Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for 5 to 8 minutes, dusting it with a small amount of flour as needed. Your dough will quickly turn from sticky to completely nonstick.
Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. While you wait, set a griddle or comal over high heat.
Spoon a dime-size amount of lard in the middle of your palm and rub it between your hands to grease them generously (the added grease will prevent the balls from sticking to each other). Take the dough out of the bowl and pinch off some with your index finger and thumb to form balls that are about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter (the balls should weigh about 2 ounces/55 g each). Set the dough balls on an even surface, greasing your hands every 2 or 3 tortilla balls.
Dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour. Create a small mound of flour on one of the top corners of your work surface. Press a dough ball into the flour mound, flattening it with your four fingers (rather than the tips of your fingers). Flip it and press it into the flour again.
Place the floured dough round at the center of your work surface and roll from the middle away from you and then back toward you. Flip the tortilla over so that the now oval-shaped tortilla is horizontal instead of vertical. Repeat the rolling motion and continue to roll and flip the tortilla in the same manner until it measures about 10 inches (25 cm) round and 1/16 inch (2 mm) thick. Don’t be scared of the dough—if you mess up, you have plenty more to work with, and if you break the dough, you can pinch it and roll over it to fix it with no problem. If at any point your rolling pin starts to get stuck, dust the tortilla surface and rolling pin lightly and you will be all set to continue.
In one sweeping motion, almost as if you were going to brush the back of your hand over the griddle, gently lay your tortilla on the griddle, taking care not to burn yourself. Cook for 30 seconds, or until the tortilla bubbles up and lightly browns in spots. Flip the tortilla and cook for an additional 20 seconds on the second side. Flip the tortilla a third time and cook for an additional 15 seconds. Remove the tortilla from the griddle and wrap it in a kitchen towel or place it in a tortilla warmer to keep warm. Repeat making tortillas and cooking them in this fashion, adding them to the towel as they are made.