Eat Good Food: Make your own tortillas

Step 6 Cook 'Em Up

Take a big pan, preferably cast iron, but obviously mine isn't...so...really, any pan, and heat it up. Keep it dry - don't add oil or anything. Slap your tortillas in there for about 30 seconds per side, or less, depending on how hot your pan is. They'll start to puff up and get big bubbles when they're done. Keep the cooked ones warm in a cloth towel until you're ready to eat them!

They keep well in the fridge for a few days, wrapped in foil/etc. Reheat them any way you like, but I personally like putting them in foil in the oven for a few minutes until they're nice and warm.

Comments

[sphinxy]

This have to be the weirdest tortilla recipe ever! :) I am guessing this are based on the tortillas de harina... tortillas are far simpler and faster and with far less ingredients... great recipe though... it's interesting to see the different kinds of tortillas...

[calikoala]

what do you mean far less ingredients. it only uses four..

[sphinxy]

Tortillas only use two... Water and corn flour. At least our kind of tortilla... Their taste is not something out of the world but fresh tortillas with fried beans and sour cream is the best!

[stephNY]

Corn tortillas are made of corn flour and water, and are used for tacos and chips, but burritos, fajitas, and empanadas are generally made from flour tortillas of this type.  Most Latin groceries in NY carry both.
And I agree with you about fried beans! 

[Phoghat]

And in Mexico too. They should know right?

[bettbee]

I'm curious, what ingredients would you recommend? (Hint, hint . . . perhaps you could make an instructable?)

[sphinxy]

yeah, i think i might... I've never made one... lol... I just need to get my camera ready... and I'll do it... :D

[bettbee]

Awesome!

Even just a recipe in a comment would be great if you've got too much to do to organize a whole instructable with images and stuff. Can't wait!

[christydeering]

I know, right? I've made simpler tortillas, but honestly, these taste the best so far. It feels wrong, it sounds wrong, but it tastes so right...:)

[dawgz031]

good god....can some one please tell me why my tortilla taste bad??.......please....i need some hints..........its a little bit bitter.....i dont know why........

can some one please tell me how can i add some flavor to it?

[whocansaveus]

I am interested in trying this, but first I want to know how soft/flexible I can expect these to be. They look good, but I do not want them to break when going to make a taco. Thanks for the instructable!

[Procrasticus]

As a general rule, the fresher the tortilla, the softer. I haven't made them according to this instructable, but just from the images it looks as though these may be stretchy to the point of tearing if you try to make a burrito. If for some reason you just want to make a soft taco without a closed end, I think these tortillas will be just fine, but the folds of a burrito may be too much. It seems, perhaps rather logically, that you can really lower your chance of a break if you just go easy on the filling. It's hard, I know, but sometimes you really don't need as many beans and as much meat as you think you do.

[bdubu]

Got my mouth watering... Thanks for the instructable!

[t.rohner]

Hi Christy nice instructable, they look delicious. I bake a lot myself, mostly yeasted and sometimes sourdoughs. Have you ever tried to make a tortilla with a yeasted dough, instead of baking powder? I can imagine it would add some more flavour. The tortillas i ate until now have been so bland tasting, i didn't like them at all. My lady makes wonderful stuffings for them, but the tortillas themselves were something to forget. (She runs a gourmet cooking school...) At the moment i have two breads in one oven and some spent grains from my brewing hobby in the other one to dry and roast a little bit. I will post a instructable on a spent grain/sesame bread later on. Some friends from the homebrewing community asked for a receipe. I try to make tortillas today or tomorrow... Picture of my bread and spent grains.

[christydeering]

Let me know when you post an instructable about spent grains/etc. That looks so cool! I think making yeasted tortillas would turn them into flatbread or pita bread. While it would be awesomely tasty, it would no longer be a tortilla. :) Good idea, I'll have to see if I can make good pita bread that way.

[t.rohner]

I did the yeasted tortillas today, they taste great and look the same as yours. I did a little research on the net and found evidence for yeasted versions. I think it's just important to roll the dough out very thin. I did it with water and sunflower oil. In a pita, i'd take some less and rather olive oil. Pictures of the bread i made for breakfast, watch the crunchy crust and the chewy crumb. The other two pictures are from the dough balls and the finished tortillas. The preferment for the spent grain bread is soaking and fermenting at the moment... there is more to come. Maybe you are interested in my other instructables as well, they are all related to baking so far. (Pizza oven and braided sunday bread)

[christydeering]

oh my goood, do you have an instructable up for that bread?! It looks so amazing! I'm always looking for new baking projects, since it's by far my most favorite culinary activity. ;)

[t.rohner]

The instructable is in the making, i could use your photographing skills. This is the bread i bake about twice a week, but i have not photographed all steps yet. It's made from a insanely wet dough with long fermenting times and very small amounts of yeast. It's not about the recipe, it's about the process. I intend to show the difference of one loaf baked in a very hot oven on a pizza stone, the other in a "colder" oven with steam generator on a cookie tray. (The two household ovens i have, besides my wood fired monster outdoors...) Tweaking the recipe with additional ingredients will be no problem. The spent grain bread instructable is up and published.

[christydeering]

sweet! this is great, and i look forward to seeing your instructables for different types of bread!

[mIIwaukee]

Great recipe! Have any of you tried the Mission low carb - flour like tortillas? They cost about $4.50 for 12. Any idea on how to modify this recipe to be ultra low carb and tasty?

[christydeering]

I think you could probably mess around with different flours, like Carbalose - which supposedly contains 80% less carbs than wheat flour. I haven't had a chance to try it myself, but they say it uses almost like real flour, though you may need to adjust the liquid amounts in your recipe a little. What makes tortillas so tasty is the texture, though, in my mind, and that's the result of working the gluten in the flour when you knead the dough. I wonder if it would work to use rice/soy based flours along with some gluten (you can get it at most grocery stores, I think?) to make things stick together. *shrugs* It's an interesting question, maybe you could try it out and post an instructable? :)

[astermax]

Carbalose is a highly processed flour-like substance that includes artificial flavorings! Why mess with something as simple as a tortilla just to get fewer carbs?

[christydeering]

I totally agree. While looking up more about Carbalose, I looked at all the ingredients and immediately regretted suggesting it. *shudders* If you want less carbs in your life, just eat less bread. :)

[mIIwaukee]

Well, I was thinking of trying a more whey based and white hard-red whole wheat flour version. I'll post what I discover... I know this looks like I'm stripping the life out of the tortilla... but if you try the version from Mission, I think you'll agree that the taste and texture is all there.

[bettbee]

But what about the nutrition? Low carb diets are a really bad idea. It is better to use whole grains instead. I suggest that anyone seeing this who is interested in low-carb diets read up on the glycemic index and consider using low-GI-index foods and controlling calories as a sensible way to lose pounds and maintain target weight. Whey is not a good thing to be eating as it is an isolated part-food. Dairy in general is not good, as milk is a substance created to bring a 70 - 100 pound calf to a mature 1500 pound (or more) animal in a very short time. It's made by nature for baby cows, not for any kind of human, and contains hormones and other substances that are not healthy for us. Feeding cows milk to infants has been linked to development of juvenile diabetes. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University speaks out against the use of dairy products as they have been linked to several other diseases as well.

[TheWomanMonster]

Mmm. You have inspired my lunch for the week!

[christydeering]

Sweet! I hope they turn out, though, really, this recipe is pretty foolproof. (I hope!)

[TheWomanMonster]

Thank you! I'll give it a try tomorrow night when it finally cools down around here. We've been in the high twenties to thirties all weekend. (about 85 Fahrenheit for those not dealing in Celsius).

[flower child]

Thanx I have been looking 4 a recipe like this my Mother used to make home made tacos and they are the best the store bought ones can't even begin to compare I can't wait to try .......................

[dragonofgaea]

Awesome! I am so going to try this on a day when I dont mind messing the kittchen up! Its going to get dirty !!!

[christydeering]

Man, go for it. It's so much fun! And then your friends will all flock around and admire you. :)

[dragonofgaea]

Im gonna tackle it tommorrow! I need to go buy bakeing powder because all I have in my cabinet is baking soda and they are two different things!