Tortilla's

I fully believe that cooking is a craft.  On that note, I've been trying to "craft" new things in the kitchen at least once a week.  I want healthier, and I want homemade.  Gone are the days of Mcdonalds and Pizza Hut for this little family!  I really do love cooking at home.  It's more conveinient, it saves money, and it's so fun!

Okay, so I saw a recipe for Tortilla's from scratch, and (much to my surprise) it looked so easy!  I figured that if they were sold pre-made in stores, then they must be hard to make.  WRONG! 

I found two recipes, that had very different key ingredients, so I decided to try them both at the same time. Recipe "1" called for yeast as the "different key ingredient" and Recipe "2" called for baking powder and oil.  I'll post both recipes below.  I took a picture of each step.  (NOTE: Recipe "2" took half the time to rise as the other, so I made that one first)



Step 1: The dough.  Basically, it was "Mix and let rise"

                              

Recipe 2 after 30 minutes of rising

Recipe 1 after 30 minutes of rising

So, here are the full details for "2", beginning to end.

The Recipe:

3 C Flour

1 t Salt

1/2 t Baking Powder

1/3 C Canola Oil

1 C Hot Water

Mix all dry ingredients in a medium bowl with a whisk.  Add oil and mix with fingers until crumbly.  Add water and mix until ball is formed.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into balls (about 12) and roll out one at a time on a floured surface.  Brush off excess flour and cook on ungreased medium high skillet. Turn the tortilla when brown blisters form on the first side.  Serve warm.

Easy right?  Yes!  I used Olive Oil in place of Canola, and mine only made about 8, but it would've made 10 if I had done all the same size. 

I was skeptical about this recipe at first, I have to admit.  I thought that yeast would be an important factor, and that's the missing ingredient.  When I was mixing the oil into the dry ingredients, and it became crumbly like it said, I was even more wary.  However, after I added the water and kneaded it a little, it turned out just fine.  I could see that there were some crumbles that didn't fully incorporate into the dough, but I left it alone. 

The Rolling:

This dough was really easy to work with.  It was firm and not sticky, perfect for kneading or rolling or pressing.  It let me do whatever I wanted to it!  I never did get the hang of rolling the dough into a circle shape.  My efforts were funny, though!  I know that  they don't have to be perfectly round, but I'm just a perfectionist like that.  Here are my first couple rolling efforts:

After the first attempt, I tried to make it more rectangle, but that didn't really work either.  I then ditched the rolling pin and pressed them out with my hands (much like I would pizza dough).  The going got way easier after that.

Perfection!

The Cooking:

Not much to say about this one, it went smoothly. 

The Tasting:   MMMMMMMMMMMMM.  These were soft throughout, but not doughy.  They were thick but not tough, and had an overall great flavor.  They didn't taste too floury or too oily, and you could tell they were homemade because they had so much more flavor than store bought.  YUMMY!

The other recipe fiasco follows this post.