tortillas

call 'em wraps, burrito shells, or whatever you'd like-- it's the warm, floury goodness (ok sometimes corn, but for the purposes of this post, flour), that goes great with pretty much any dish. why use a fork when you can scoop, shovel or roll your food and then eat your utensil? = )

never really thought to make them on my own--why would i? my aunt makes them damn near perfect. but once i saw the simple list of ingredients and process, i was down to try. i soon realized that the simplicity of the recipe is balanced by the technique bit--getting the tortilla dough thin and round enough before heating it onto the skillet is a challenge to do by hand.

as usual, i pulled my recipe from google. i didn't wanna make a lot (again, the one person dilemma/ending up with too many leftovers), so i found myself making half(ish) the recipe. end result: 5 tortillas, and not bad for a first attempt.

::gathering my raw materials::

haha, this part isn't that glamorous or exciting. but hey, visuals are always fun.

dry ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder





not so dry ingredients:

~ 1/4 cup vegetable shortening

~ 3/4 cup warm water (or at least enough water to get a nice, pliable dough going)



and that's it for ingredients. time to get that hands on experience.

Throw all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, then mix in the shortening until your flour mixture looks something like oatmeal.



Add your warm water in slowly, until the flour mixture comes together to form a dough.



once you've brought the dough together nicely, you can put away your utensils. Now git yer hands in there and knead! if needed, sprinkle additional flour until your dough isn't sticky anymore, and becomes nice and elastic.





Separate the dough into smaller balls, and try to keep as round as possible. You're probably not going to have a perfectly round tortilla, but as long as you try to get the general "round" idea, it's fine. Grab a rolling pin, some dusting flour, and roll out your little balls, one at a time.




so i ended up with 5, since i reduced the original recipe i found. Ready for the skillet.



::rolls eyes:: you know how much i love electric stoves/ovens...ha! anyway, i put my heat @ about a 5-6 (which i presume would be a med to high heat on a gas stove), and plopped the first tortilla down. it didn't take long to cook on one side, so i quickly flipped it.



Rinse and repeat 'til you're done. Easiest way to tell when they're done is when they poof nicely all around the edges. Put the finished tortillas in a warm towel so they can stay soft.

Annnd...that's pretty much it. I think the biggest challenge is getting them thin/round enough, but definitely comes with experience. I was happy with my first batch, and can only improve from this point.