Saturday, December 19, 2009

Sunday Favorites - I show you how to make Tortillas!

It's been a while since I've participated in Sunday Favorites. Sunday Favorites is when we take a past favorite post and repost to share it with everyone. You can see mine below from November 8, 2008 where I show you how to make home made flour tortillas. There's even a video with my own two little hands rolling them out. Please be sure to go over to Happy to Design and see what else everyone is sharing from the past...and Happy Sunday Favorites!





Favorite Post from
November 8, 2008

Today I awoke to a rainy, overcast day. I LOVE days like this! But it was a bit chilly and I get cold easily. Right now it’s about 54 degrees outside, so I decided the best way to keep warm is to cook something. I thought about making Popovers using this recipe. That way my oven would be on and it would warm up the house. But then I remembered the Mexican popover…the tortilla!

I haven’t made tortillas in years, but it sounded like fun. I tried to make them from memory. When I was a girl we used to make tortillas all the time, flour and corn. Nowadays I can just drive a few blocks to our local grocery store, but growing up, we always lived on the ranches my dad worked for and they were all miles and miles away from stores. So we made stuff from scratch.

Here’s a picture of the finished product. And rolling these out does warm you up, so does cooking them.




Since I made them from scratch I kind of had to estimate what I used. The recipe below will make about 10 10-inch tortillas.

2 cups Flour (I used Pillsbury All Purpose Flour)
½ cup shortening (I used Crisco, but when I was a girl we used Lard)
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
¾ to 1 cup warm water

In a large bowl first combine the flour, shortening, salt and baking powder. Using your hands, breakup the shortening, mixing it with the other ingredients. Then add water a little at a time until the dough gets kind of sticky and comes together. Then knead it until its smooth and elastic. I like to transfer it to my the wooden board I’m going to use to actually roll out the tortillas and knead it there. Then you separate the dough into little flat balls as shown below.




Before you start rolling out the tortillas, get your comal ready by placing it directly on the stove with medium heat. A picture of my comal is shown below. This one was given to me by my mother many years ago. It’s been used so often (though not by me J) that it has started to crack. My son uses it regularly for toasting hamburger buns and making quesadillas. If you don’t happen to own a comal, you can use a non-stick frying pan.


Here's a video showing how to roll out the tortillas and then step by step pictures.


So that’s it. It’s really simple and a nice treat. Now I’ll be honest, I prefer store bought tortilla’s, but it is fun to make them and it gives you bragging rights cause not too many people make homemade tortillas.

My dad makes homemade corn tortillas. I’m going to see if next weekend he can make some for us and I’ll do a blog and a video showing his technique and his homemade corn tortilla press, you’re gonna love it!

9 comments:

  1. This does look easy but I am afraid I will make a mess. I look forward to your dad's video how to!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Alicia...

    My friend, it's so good to have you for Sunday Favorites this week...what a great post to share with us!!!

    Ohhh yes...I love homemade flour tortillas!!! Living in south Texas for 30 yrs. gave me a love for them and I have made my share, believe me! Hehe! I must admit that it's been years now...but after seeing your yummy tortillas I really do have a "hankerin'" for some! Hehe! Where we live in Colorado...it's very difficult to get good tortillas...store bought are not sooo good here! It's really so sad because even the really good Mexican restaurants don't even make their own...what's up with that? Hehe! Your recipe is the same as mine...I also use Crisco instead of lard. I just loved your video...great instructions!!! Thank you so much for sharing all the "how to's" for making great tortillas!!!

    Warmest wishes and Christmas blessings to you and your family, Alicia!!!

    Chari @Happy To Design

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alicia, I love home made tortillas. I really enjoyed this post so much. I've made home made tortillas before and they were really good. It's just easier to go buy them at the store. I usually buy the whole wheat tortillas made by Mission. They're pretty good. But I still prefer the homemade thick tortillas.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alicia...girl thanks so much for coming by and seeing me...and I love the fact your another calif. bloogers...I don't meet that many from our state...I will add you to my follow list...Hey us Cal-gals have to stick together ha ha!! Many Mountain hugs to you today and thanks again...Hugs and smiles Gl♥ria

    ReplyDelete
  5. We use A LOT of tortillas in our house (lil d's favorite thing is a "cheesy taco") and my husband always comments that "we" should learn how to make them from scratch...I have always laughed at him. I will laugh no more...they seem fairly easy and I do have all the ingredients on hand. Thanks so much for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. HA! It was great hearing your voice, sweetie!

    But I gotta tell ya...that was a LOT of effort for ONE tortilla!!

    (Of course, I don't know how to cook, so I'm probably not the best to judge)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have seriously been wanting to try this. Most store bought tortillas just aren't even worth the calories. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for this, Alicia! I can hardly wait to try this recipe...after Christmas.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a comment.I would love to know your thoughts!