Homemade Tortillas

Tonight we had enchiladas for dinner. I was all prepped and organised, I’d made the sauce and done all of my prep as I had to go out and would only get back in time to eat. Then I got the tortilla wraps out. Disaster! They’d gone off. I knew that mum had made flour tortillas once before so it had to be doable and set off to google a quick recipe for tortillas. I found two that looked good (love recipes with pictures!) and since they were both the same recipe with very different ratios I sort of took a stab at somewhere in the middle and made it up as I went a long. With hindsight I’d use double the fat if I make these again and cook them for no more than 20 seconds each side. As it was these tortillas were very stiff, when I tried to make an enchilada with one it cracked into six pieces. No worries though, dinner became Layered Enchiladas! But first here is the basic recipe for tortillas.

Makes 6 dinner plate sized ones, probably 8 smaller

250g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
50g lard or butter(I used 25g lard*)
100ml warm water plus extra as needed

– Mix together the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
– Rub in the lard or butter using your fingers.
– Add the water and mix well. Add water 1 tbsp at a time mixing between additions until a soft dough has formed.
– Turn out onto a lightly floured worksurface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth.
– Put in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes.
– Turn out and lightly knead for a minute.
– Divide into equal portions.
– Cover any balls of dough you are not working with.
– Heat a dry frying pan on the hob.
– Roll out the ball of dough until paper thin. Aim for a circle but tidy up the shape by stretching the dough out into shape with your hands. This requires elbow grease. When I say paper I mean it!
– Pick up and carefully place flat in the very hot frying pan.
– Cook for 20-30 seconds each side. Just scare it with the frying pan, don’t leave it or it will dry out too much.
– Place the cooked tortillas under a tea towel in a warm place.
– Repeat for each ball.

*Lard has a bad reputation but can actually be better for you than than butter. I think it has less saturated fat and less cholesterol but I’m not certain just how much better it is. Either way it doesn’t deserve the bad rep. it has.