Homemade tortillas

Tortillas are amazingly easy to make.

You need:  3 cups of flour, 1 cup warm water, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt,  1/3 cup lard at room temperature (real homemade lard is the best, but you can substitute with olive oil, shortening or butter}

Mix flour, salt, baking powder  and sugar. Add water and lard, mix. I usually mix with a fork at first, to blend the ingredients and then knead by hand until the dough is elastic, like play dough.

You can start rolling your tortillas out right away, but I like to let them sit in the fridge for a bit. Half an hour is about enough. It seems to me that it makes the dough easier to work with. You can also leave the dough in the fridge for a few days until you are ready to make your tortillas.

Rolling out: I found it helpful to oil the rolling surface , so the dough does not stick quite as much and freshly rolled tortilla is easy to peel off.  Take a small amount of dough and form a ball.  Flatten it with your hand and start rolling with the small rolling pin, from the center out, until thin to your liking.

I find it easier to lift the tortilla off the board with a knife, this way it does not stretch quite as much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place it on lightly greased frying pan and cook on both sides to your liking. You then can use your fresh homemade tortillas to make a number of tasty dishes like tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas etc. Fresh warm tortilla with peanut butter and jelly is quite yummy too (;

Note, I prefer real lard for frying, since it does not get absorbed into the food and does not make it greasy. It also has a ton of health benefits, but more about it in my Lard post.