Homemade Flour Tortillas
Tortillas are a food we sometimes overlook. We find ourselves too busy focusing on the fillings to pay much attention to the tortilla itself. But we've discovered that a well done flour tortilla (not to be confused with a masa corn tortilla) is a marvelous thing: flaky and tender, with the just the right amount of chew, and a subtle sweet and nutty richness. Tortillas, like any bread product, can be intimidating. But they don't have to be. At heart tortillas are a simple, versatile, and rustic bread that is quick to make and forgiving for newbies. Tortillas don't have to be perfect circles or exactly uniform. Homemade fresh tortillas coming hot off your stove will be miles ahead of their store-bought competition. A recent trip to San Pedro Sula, Honduras re-ignited our passion for making Homemade Flour Tortillas, and we've been making them regularly ever since.
Yield: 12 large tortillas
Ingredients:
- 5 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 cup shortening, cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 3/4 cups warm water (not hot to the touch)
Steps:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) to thoroughly combine.
- Next, cut in the shortening and butter, this is most easily done with your fingers, working each piece of shortening and butter into the flour until it is a uniform texture like wet sand.
- Dump the warm water in all at once, and use your hands to bring the dough together, it will be very sticky. If it's unworkably sticky, add another few tablespoons of flour.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal sized balls.
- Flatten the balls into small circles and set aside on lightly-oiled plastic wrap or a silicon mat. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
- On a well floured surface, roll out each tortilla into a rough 8-10 inch circle.
- Preheat a wide non-stick or cast iron skillet on high heat for 3-5 minutes until very hot.
- Dry cook (not using oil) each tortilla for 1-2 minutes on each side until dark spots begin to form and the tortilla has cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside (covered) in a stack until ready to serve. Repeat this process until all the tortillas are cooked.
Sonoran Beef Fry Bread Tacos
During my early adolescents, my family lived on a farm in rural Southwestern Colorado, just outside the small town of Dove Creek. Food trucks selling Navajo Fry Bread, either savory as tacos or sweet with honey and butter, were a fixture at all community events. The food of the Southwest blends the culinary cultures of its peoples: Native American, Mexican, and European-heritage. This dynamic cultural mixing has produced bold flavored dishes that can be made on a shoestring budget. My favorite dish from this tradition is Sonoran Beef Fry Bread Tacos. The delicate crispy fry bread, topped with rich spicy meat and tangy fresh salsa is a winning combination. We've made it for Thanksgiving gatherings and informal evenings with friends, and it has been a crowd favorite every time. This dish requires some planning ahead for the meat to reach perfection. The Fry Bread will require suspending deep-frying phobias. When fried properly (maintaining high cooking temperature throughout), you will be rewarded with an addictive light and crispy flat bread without any greasiness. Our take on this Southwest classic is inspired by Fernando and Marlene Divina's outstanding cookbook Foods of the Americas.
Lavash Crackers
With holiday parties and family gatherings, snack foods pretty much become their own seasonal food group this time of year. As an avid snacker, this naturally delights me. Somewhere between a flatbread and a cracker, Lavash is a snacking dream. Originating in the Caucasus, this quick, unleavened dough has both chew and crunch, a fantastic cracker to eat plain, or to use as a vehicle for all other manner of dips and spreads. We particularly love Lavash Crackers with beet horseradish hummus.
Homemade Bagels
Food cravings can come at inopportune times...such as Rebecca's craving for fresh-from-the-oven bagels while living 1,500 miles from a New York deli in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Homemade bagels are a rewarding DIY project with easy to find ingredients that will yield bagels more delicious and toothsome than you can buy at your local deli (assuming you have one). A great Saturday project to keep you cozy in the winter months (or even toastier in the tropics), invite your friends over for a homemade bagel brunch with a smorgasbord of creamy toppings.
Sourdough Rye
Last year I began the quest for the perfect Reuben sandwich. It was inspired by a visit to Lucky's Cafe in Cleveland. The first aspect to master was a sourdough rye -- hearty yet yielding, sour but with a grainy sweetness, earthy and clean, chewy and light. After over a year of tweaking, I've developed this no-knead continuous-ferment sourdough rye. It builds on the sage sourdough advice of Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice and no-knead approach of Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Here's how I do it...
Roasted Strawberry Cream Scones
I am a second generation scone obsessive. My mother, the queen of scones, has always had an uncanny sense for sleuthing out the best local scones. From fruited to cheesed, griddled to dropped, from sweet to savory, buttermilk to biscuit-like, we have left no scone unturned in our quest for perfection! This Roasted Strawberry Cream Scone recipe makes a buttery, moist and creamy tasting scone that is so rich and sumptuous you might even forgo the clotted cream, butter and curd in order to gobble up each morsel while they are still warm.
