Tortilla Heaven

I'm willing to do a lot of inconvenient things to save money, but not everything is worth it. For example, I have absolutely no desire to make pasta from scratch. It's already incredibly cheap to buy dry and I rely on it for busy night meals. Though homemade pasta tastes amazing, it's not good enough for me to take the time--and you need equipment. Bleck.

Tortillas on the other hand...

If you know Brad and I very well at all you know that we love Mexican food. Yes, I realize that the way we eat burritos is not authentic, but I still love it. Last summer when I had "morning" sickness I did not do any cooking. Brad had burritos for lunch and dinner pretty much every day and I had...water... Maybe applesauce on a good day. I'm embarrassed to say how many store-bought burritos we could go through in a week. cough...30...cough.

Well, Squeaky Girl is here and I'm feeling good, so I decided to take our regular burritos up a notch and make tortillas from scratch. I am in love. They were so good. Brad raved and raved about them and has asked me a couple times when I will make them again. I'm still buying tortillas (we eat too many of them for me to keep up with the demand), but for an occasional meal, they are well worth the extra effort.

I got this fantastic recipe from here. I am just going to plagiarize and copy their instructions because I thought they were well-written and easy to understand.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup warm water

Instructions:

1. Combine flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the dough hook attached mix dry ingredients until well combined. Add oil and water with mixer running at a medium speed. Mix for 1 minute, stopping several timesto scrape the sides of the bowl. After about 1 minute, or when mixture comes together and begins to form a ball, decrease mixing speed to low. Continue to mix for 1 minute or until dough is smooth.
2. Transfer from mixing bowl to a well-floured work surface. Divide dough in half, then in half again. Continue until you have 16 fairly equal portions. Form each piece into a ball and flatten with the palm of your hand as much as possible. If dough is sticky, use a bit more flour. Cover flattened balls of dough with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes before proceeding.
3. After rest period, heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Roll each dough piece into a rough circle, about 6-7 inches in diameter, keep work surface and rolling pin lightly floured. Don’t stack uncooked tortillas on top of each other or they will get soggy.
4. When pan is very hot, place one dough circle into pan and allow to cook about 1 minute or until bottom surface has a few pale brown spots. The uncooked surface will begin to show a few little bubbles. If tortilla is browning too fast, reduced heat a bit. If it’s taking longer than a minute to see a few pale golden brown spots on underside of tortillas, increase heat a bit. Flip to other side and cook for about 30 seconds. You want the tortilla to be soft but have a few small pale golden brown spots on surface. Remove from pan with tongs and stack in a covered container or zippered bag till all tortillas are cooked. This will keep them soft and pliable.
5. Wipe out the pan in between tortillas if flour is started to accumulate.
6. Serve warm or allow to cool for later use. When ready to use, place a slightly damp paper towel in the bottom of a container (with a cover) that will hold the stacked tortillas. Microwave, uncovered for 15-25 seconds (start with 15) or until warm, then cover to hold heat while serving.
7. The tortillas will keep well stored in an airtight container or zippered bag at at room temperature for 24 hours or can be frozen indefinitely. To freeze, separate tortillas with parchment paper or waxed paper and place in a zippered bag before placing in freezer.

What I would change:

I wish that I had made them bigger. Next time I think I will double the recipe and still only break them into 16 pieces. 

Remember to:

Roll them out as thin as you can. They puff up in the pan.

What I wish I could change:

Seriously, how do you make tortillas round? How? How? How? I tried so hard. I rolled it out from the center as carefully as possible and it became an artful blob. I traced a circle on the dough and cut it out, then when I picked it up off the counter it stretched out.