Flour Tortillas from Scratch

  Adapted from the weekend gourmand, who adapted from Homesick Texan

Makes 16 tortillas (if you’re going to the trouble of making these from scratch, don’t just make 8–you can save whatever you don’t eat right away for the next day or two)

So the problem I see with the recipe as written is that I have to be way too involved in the whole mixing and kneading thing.  My favorite pizza dough and pita bread recipes happen almost entirely in the Cuisinart.  I’m an appliance kinda girl (at least when it comes to baking).  So I’m trying this tortilla thing adapted to theCuisinart.  One of the notes that the ladies at the weekend gourmand said was that they thought they might have over-handled the dough.  The Cuisinarttakes the guess-work out.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1½ tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1½ cups warm milk

Preparation:

1. Add dry ingredients to food processor bowl and pulse briefly to mix. Slowly add warm milk and oil through the feed tube while pulsing until it comes together. Process for 30 seconds longer.  Turn out onto the counter and knead for a few strokes until it’s smooth, shiny and soft. Place in a bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.
2. After resting, turn the dough out again and divide it into sixteen equal pieces, rolling them into balls and then setting them onto a piece of parchment paper to rest. Cover with a damp towel again and let rest another 10 minutes.
3. Flour your work surface, then take one dough ball at a time and flatten it with your hands into a circle. Then, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a thin disc, picking it up and rotating and flipping it every 5 or so rolls so that it stays even like you would a pie crust. Here is where you are supposed to avoid overworking the dough.  While you’re rolling out the rest, cover the finished ones with the towel (you can stack them up without worrying about them sticking, at least in my experience).
4. Preheat a dry griddle to medium high heat.  Cook tortillas for about 30 seconds per side or until they’re getting lightly browned, and cover the finished ones with a towel while you finish the rest. Enjoy!

The Verdict:

Hubby & I made a whole mess of these, trying to perfect the recipe in our kitchen.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a setting on our griddle that cooks at a high enough temperature to get brown spots in less than a minute on each side.  While these were still tasty, they didn’t compare to my favorite store brand tortilla.  I’m contemplating purchasing cast iron just for this recipe.  Hubby says he likes cooking with cast iron anyway, so we might break down and buy some.  Until then, I’ll keep buying tortillas at the store.

Update: I now have my ultimate tortilla recipe, which is what I recommend using if you decide you want to make your own homemade tortillas!