It is my pleasure to feature a guest post from Carmen Hyde of “Old House Kitchen“.
I have followed Carmen for quite sometime now and I’m never disappointed! Carmen is obviously a much better cook than I am and I always learn something new (and often times yummy) from her.
Enjoy! Visit “Old House Kitchen”‘s Facebook page and give them a “Like“.
Our family can consume a lot of tortillas! Of course we love them with tacos and burritos, but my kiddos also love to warm them up, butter them and then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on them! Multiply that with seven of our eight kiddos who can eat them (the youngest is a baby, but he’ll be eating lots of tortillas soon, too!) and that equals ginormous amounts of tortillas! It saves us a lot of money to make our own tortillas than to buy them from the store. Another bonus is we know what’s in them! I found a recipe online and decided to give it a try. Follow me as I give it a whirl!
(makes about 24)
5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
5 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. sea salt
1 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups hot water
Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut shortening in with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly pour in hot water, stirring to bring mixture together.
Lightly knead dough 35-ish times (until it balls up and is less sticky). Cover with a kitchen towel and allow dough to rest for an hour.
Roll into two-inch diameter size balls, place on a baking sheet, cover with a towel, and rest another 20 minutes. When you’re ready to make tortillas heat a griddle to 350 degrees.
One by one, roll out balls of dough until they are very thin.
Throw them individually on the griddle. Cook about 30 seconds on each side.
Take them off the griddle when the tortillas are still soft, but have a few lightly browned spots on them. Stack tortillas on a plate and cover with a towel to keep warm (or put them in the oven on a “warm” setting.) Serve immediately or allow to cool before storing. To warm them up put wrap in foil and warm in the oven.
A few notes:
*Make sure your water is very hot. It needs to be hot in order to melt the shortening and blend in.
*You will doubt your dough mixing abilities when you throw the dough out on the counter. It will ball up just right, don’t worry!
*You will also think you are horrible at making tortillas at first. You will have some with holes. A lot even. Just chalk it up to experience. You’ll get better at it! Pinky promise!
*I did an assembly line sort of process. I got one tortilla rolled out and then on the griddle. When I rolled another I’d slide the first tortilla down to the end. Then I’d roll out another and then flip the first tortilla and slide the second tortilla to the middle spot. And so on.
*You will be tempted to eat every single lovely warm tortilla as it comes off the griddle. Resist that temptation! Eat just one and save the rest for your family!
Carmen is wife to her biggest culinary fan, mother and teacher to 8 perpetually hungry kiddos, blogger, crafter, food columnist for the DeKalb Star newspaper and contributor at Raising Homemakers. Follow along with her in her pre-Civil War farmhouse kitchen and homesteading adventures at OldHouseKitchen.com.
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About kmorris
That’s about how I make them. So much better when you make them yourself! Thanks for the post.
We started to make our own tortillas when I read on the ingredients a chemical that my son had told us he used at his job in waste water treatment (and very poisonous and toxic and dangerous). I have to admit, tho, that I’m very clumsy with a rolling pin and we use an electric press.
Carol,
Wow…..wow…ok, I’m making my own today. YUCK!
Carol,
Oh my! I didn’t know that store bought tortillas were *that* bad for you! Wow! Definitely going to keep well stocked in home made ones from now on!
Carmen,
Thanks for the super guest post!!
Mmm, I love homemade, white flour tortillas. My husband is allergic to wheat though, so we usually make corn tortillas. Not as good, but have the benefit of being quite a bit easier to make.
We don’t use many tortillas, not a big Mexican food fan. But I think I will try. We make lefse out of potato dough and by comparison these should be a breeze. I can use my lefse griddle too. We make them in an assembly line fashion, between rolling and turning. I wonder if one would cool them the same way. We stack one lefse after another in between a “towel sandwich” made of tea towels, then foil, then a large bath towel. They stay in there steaming until completely cool. Then we fold the extra lefse and freeze between layers of wax paper. So I bet I could freeze the flour tortillas the same way.
Nothing compares to a homemade tortilla…nothing
Thanks for the recipe 
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
I’ve never made tortillas, but I’m hoping to start soon. I am LOVING breadmaking, and tortillas would make a great “next step”!
Could I use Almond Flour?
Hmm… I think the gluten in the flour plays a part in the process, so I’m not sure. Anyone else have an idea?
When we had a Food Storage based party at our church a few years ago- we had baked beans and soup all from storage. The fresh wheat bread was all fresh ground and made with powdered eggs and other storage items. We had a skit about using grains and beans wherever we can- in casseroles, eggs and other dishes. We had a table with shortbread and tortillas made from 23 grains and legumes- both were made from green peas, lentils, red lentils, navy beans, kidney beans, dent corn, spelt, hard red and soft red wheat, hard white wheat, and soft white wheat. Just a few that my son helped me grind and cook up. We decreased the recipe to a sample to make a small tortilla and a small shortbread piece- all were cut up to get about 15-20 small samples. I will add the recipes next.
Here are all the basic flours we made: Wheat: Soft white, Hard Red, Hard White
Rice, Oats, Spelt, Millet, Barley, Rye, 9 grain, 12 grain, Corn (as cornmeal),
Pinto Beans,Navy Beans, Kidney Beans,Small white beans, Lentil, Split green pea
Flour tortillas:
2 cups of wheat flour 1 cup ½ cup (makes two) ¼ cup
1/3 cup butter 1/6 cup 1 tablespoon ½ tablespoon
1/3 milk 1/6 1 tablespoon ½ tablespoon
Blend flour and butter with fork into coarse crumbs. Add milk until dough can be formed in to a ball
Knead thoroughly, about 5 min for into small balls 1.5 inches roll out into very thin 5 inch cook on hot an ungreased griddle until slightly browned.
Scotch Shortbread:
1 cup of soft butter 1/3 cup 1/6 (2.3 tablespoons)
¾ cup of sugar ¼ cup 1/8 cup
2.5 cups of sifted all purpose flour 5/6 cup <½ cup
Cream butter and sugar blend thoroughly. Add flour slowly. Mix to smooth dough. chill roll out into ½ thick shape and place on ungreased baking sheet bake in slow oven 300 degree about 20-25 min or until golden brown.
Enjoy your taste testing parties!
PS the other 5 were done by another lady…. Enjoy there’s so much fun with food and putting the good grains into our eating.
Thank you, Laurie! : )
My husband and I just started making our own tortillas, but instead of vegetable shortening, we use coconut oil. They are great! We have also learned how to make corn tortillas buying the masa flour.