Famous Handmade Flour Tortillas
Makes about a dozen tortillas
3 Cups (24 oz) Unbleached Flour
½ Tablespoon Salt
3 oz Manteca or Vegetable Shortening
1 cup (8 oz) Room Temperature water
1/2 cup (4 oz) Extra Flour for sprinkling
Making homemade tortillas is fun and there’s very little kitchen equipment needed. After a few times, you’ll have these steps down to memory.
Mix Flour and Salt together in a bowl (except for the extra flour).
Mix in the Manteca or Vegetable Shortening By Hand
Mix in the water a little bit at a time until the dough is soft and sticky.
Kneed the dough for a bit and make about 18 small dough balls.
Heat up the griddle or frying pan. Make it medium to high temperature.
Sprinkle some flour (about one teaspoon) on a cutting board.
Break out the rolling pin and get a dough ball.
Put the dough ball on top of the sprinkled flour.
Put the rolling pin in the top center of the ball and start to roll out a little at a time.
Make sure to turn the flattened ball out now and then and sprinkle flour when it starts to stick.
Roll it out into a circle and make it fairly thin in thickness.
Lay your tortilla on the hot griddle or frying pan. It takes just about 45 – 60 seconds per side to cook.
Flip it when it starts to have a few nice brown speckles.
Cover tortillas with a towel. You’ll do this with all the tortillas to keep them warm.
Enjoy your homemade tortillas with some butter, fresh salsa or stuff them with your favorite ingredients!
I was raised in Los Angeles – Inglewood. I live in Vermont since 1986. How I wish you guys were here. I miss this food very much.
.. I will save this, for my daughters. Maybe they would like to try this some day . I grew up in Wilmington, the heart of the harbor. I helped my mother cook everything and i try to pass on all my moms cooking. But i think i only made tortillas for them once. Reading the recipe I pictured every step of making tortillas de harina in my mom’ s kitchen . Wow! The momories are so precious! Eating the freshly made totillas was priceless!! I always had my first freshly made totilla with butter!!
No baking powder? How do they fluff up without the baking powder?