Homemade flour tortillas are really fantastic and they are worth trying out. The taste and the outcome are nothing to compare to leathery store bought tortilla. The usual tortillas found in the grocery stores are usually very dry and they easily tear off when wrapped over fillings. Making tortillas at home is fun and also you are able to control what goes in into your flour mixture.
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What is tortilla?
Tortillas are flat round breads made from whole wheat, corn or plain flour. Tortillas resemble pancakes and spring rolls after they are cooked; they are usually pan cooked or baked for 30 seconds on a low heat until both sides are perfect. Tortillas can be rolled into different sizes and then dip fried to make crispy tortilla shells or chips and different fillings can also go in into tortillas shells.
In some places, tortillas are referred to as flatbreads because of their flat shapes, which may or not really be the real name for tortillas. Tortillas can be made with plain flour, wheat and corn flour, it just the matter of choice, you can choose to make use of any type of flour for your tortillas. Tortilla dough can easily be adjusted depending on the outcome. More water can be added to the dough if it dry, and more flour can be add to the mixed dough if it is too watery, it is as simple as that.
If you are making flour tortillas for the first time your tortillas may not be so perfect until you keep doing this for more than 3 times, that is when you will be able to perfect your tortilla breads making. Homemade tortillas taste so different from the store bought tortillas, the only difference between both may just be the shapes, because commercial tortillas are produced with a particular machine which is able to press and shape the tortillas into perfect round and thin shapes, however, if you have a flat surface and a rolling pin, you can make your tortillas similar to the store bought version.
To make round tortillas, you will have roll out your mixed dough with a rolling pin. Use a wide round surface bowl or plate to make a ring cut on the dough. After you have made the cut, separate the irregular excess dough from the round dough, the outcome will be your round tortilla. Do this for the remaining dough until you are done with whole tortillas.
To make a tortilla, you may not really need a tortilla press, it doesnt have to be fancy, your flat surface and a rolling pin would do the magic. You just need to control the amount of water you add in to your dough, and also roll it into a very thin tortilla wrap. Cooking tortilla is not something that will take a whole day; depending on the amount of tortilla wraps you have in mine, 1 minute will just be perfect for both sides of tortilla bread. Tortilla dough can be mixed in a food processor, however mixing it with both hands is still alright. It is best to cook one tortilla at a time before rolling the next, but if at all you prefer rolling out all the dough before cooking them, you have to make sure you cover the rolled tortillas with foil paper or kitchen towel to prevent them from drying out quickly.
The above chewy tortillas were made from plain flour and they are nery healthy since olive oil was used for the mixing. Tortillas abovecan be used for chicken taco, shawarma, casserole, chicken enchilada and so many other recipes that call for tortilla breads.
Ingredients for making flour tortilla
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons olive oil or use baking powder as substitute to olive oil (1teaspoon of it)
- cup clean water
- Salt to taste
Optional ingredients for tortilla
- teaspoon ground cinnamon
- teaspoon chilli powder
Steps on how to make flour tortilla
(Tortilla dough)
- Sieve all-purpose flour into a large bowl
- Add salt, olive oil or baking powder and mix
- Make a hole in the centre of the flour
- Add a little water at a time to the four and mix until the dough becomes smooth and manageable. You dont have to over knead the dough.
- When you are sure the dough is mixed and a bit soft. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and keep aside to rest for about 10 minutes. By covering the dough, it will make it easy to roll and you will get fluffier tortilla after it is cooked
- After 10 minutes uncover the dough and cut into smaller sizes
- Dust your surface with flour powder, using a rolling pin, roll out each of ball into flat circular tortilla dough (about 6 inch).
Cooking of tortilla
- Heat up a non-stick frying pan on a stove. Reduce the heat to medium low.
- Lightly brush the pan with a little oil or there is no need, tortilla can be made simply on a very low heat.
- Drop tortilla to the pan and leave one side to cook for 30 seconds or until you notice some tiny bubbles on the surface.
- Flip tortilla to the second side and cook for the same time
- Repeat this process with the other dough until you are done with all the tortilla dough.
- Keep your tortillas warm by covering them with a kitchen wrap or store them in a plastic bag and refrigerate for later use.
Simple cooking direction for tortillas
- After sieving your all-purpose flour, add all the ingredients to it and whisk to combine
- Make a hole in the centre of the flour, add water in bits and mix the flour as you do
- Mix the flour into a soft dough and do not over mix it, ones it is soft and easy to manage stop the mixing.
Dough in a mixing process
4. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel to rest for 10 minutes, this will enable it firmness and absorption of all the ingredients you have added to mix the dough.
The covering process shoulld not be so long, atleast 6 – 10 minutes is enough for the ingredients to be absorbed.
5. After 10 minutes, uncover the dough and cut into tiny balls, the ball should not be too large.
After ucovering the dough, if you notice the dough to firm, add more flour to it and mix, it should neither be too soft or too hard to roll.
6. Dust your rolling board and pin, roll each of theballs into thin flat tortillas.
Roll tortilla dough round the board until you have a flat round shell
7. Place a flat surface plate over the tortilla and press it down to make a ring on the dough
Place any round plate or surface over rolled out tortilla to cut it into round shell
8. Separate the excess dough from the circular tortilla and keep aside.You can join this to other dough you will get as excess to make one more tortilla at the end of this process.
You will need to be careful while lifting your tortilla from the board, it can become messy while on this process, it is best to work with flour
9. Keep all the rolled out tortillas in one place and cover it with a towel while you cook one at a time.
Prevent the tortillas from running dry and they should be in one place.
10. Repeat the same process to all the cut dough and make sure you dust your board with a little flour each time you want to roll out your tortilla.
11. Heat a pan on a stove, grease inside the pan with a drop of olive oil. You can grease the pan before dropping it on the stove, since it might get very hot for your bare hand or simply use a kitchen brush to do this.
12. Drop the tortilla into the pan to cook for 30 seconds.
Tortilla cooking process
13. Turn the second side and do the same thing until you are done with all your flour tortillas.
If you notice some bubbles while cooking your tortillas, thats ok, but if the pan is soming, you will need to trim the flame to prevent your tortillas from burning.
Let your tortillas be in one place after they are cooked
Home made flour tortillas
Now you have made your home made tortillas, fill them with vegetable salad or with chicken taco and enjoy. You can watch the video below to learn more on homemade flour tortillas