Tortillas

For years I've been trying over and over to make homemade tortillas with very little success. They always turned out like a big cracker. It was quite depressing as tortillas is my all time favorite comfort food. I remember eating my nana's homemade tortillas as a young child. So delicious. Then my friend Elaine sent me this link that described in detail how to make tortillas. From what I understand, though, the link isn't working :( I did print it out and will scan and upload it when I return from camping. As long as I give them credit I'm not violating any copyright laws, right? The basic recipe goes something like this:

2 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 tablespoons of lard

2/3 cup of water.

Mix flour and salt together. Melt lard in water, and slowly pour into flour mixture. Knead a few times. Dough should not be wet, but not be dry. If wet add more flour, if dry add more water. Allow to rest for 1 hour. Separate into balls, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rest for 10 to 30 minutes. Very simple. In fact, this was written up by memory because it's very easy to remember!

****EDIT - I recently began becoming annoyed because the dough was getting a little dried out in it's resting times, making it harder to roll out and leaving dry spots. I added a little oil to the bowl during the first rest and rolled the tortilla dough in it, coating it completely. Just enough oil to coat it. This drastically improved the tortillas. They were much easier to roll out and I was able to make much much larger tortillas without issue. They were also paper thin, and puffed up twice as much as the tortillas previously. I'm annoyed I didn't consider this earlier as I do this with bread all the time. Small adjustment but definitely worth it!

I wanted to make 4 batches of this to take with us camping. The kids love homemade tortillas and it's a very clean snack. At first I just quadrupled the recipe and had Chris pour the lard water for me since my arms can't really pour such a heavy amount. I instructed him to pour slowly but he didn't listen. The dough turned out awful. It had the consistency of gooey mashed potatoes. I added more flour but it was beyond saving. I fired Chris and decided to just make 4 small batches. It's very quick to make so it wasn't a big deal. But take note - Pour the lard water SLOWLY. I made this in Betsy using just my dough hook, and it turned out perfect.

This is about halfway through cooking. My balls waiting for me. If you make them too big they are difficult to keep round, and to transfer to the skillet. I made mine big this time. Next time I'll probably go smaller.

All rolled out and waiting to put on the skillet

Not very round, but working on that! Place on skillet, once it puffs up a little flip it over.

Cook on this side about 30 seconds and then flip BACK over to the first side. So the first side will get cooked twice.

Once it puffs up again remove it from the skillet and place in a towel to keep warm.

These are very soft and pliable. They don't crack at all when rolled.

All rolled up

And as it unrolls you can see, no cracks, not tears. Very soft and absolutely delicious!