Soft Chewy Homemade Flour Tortillas using Organic Vegetable Shortening

 

There’s nothing like homemade tortillas. They are actually really easy! After you make your own you won’t want to buy them again…or you will but debate “should I make my own or just buy pre-made”? There are times where I seriously don’t have the extra time because I am making dinner at the last minute, so I will buy the pre-made tortillas. I always seem to regret buying pre-made later, because nothing compares to making your own.

There are different ingredients you can use to make tortillas. I’ve tried butter, grape seed oil, lard & vegetable shortening. If you want to add more nutrients you could use wheat flour and add flax seed.

For this recipe I’m using Non Hydrogenated Organic Vegetable Shortening. One day ill make my own lard or buy a non hydrogenated lard (it is the new “green” to cooking healthy) . For my family we found the tortillas I made with a typical hydrogenated lard did not sit well with us, I was sick to my stomach for most the the day. So I decided I would pay an extra $2.50 for the organic shortening at my local health food store. The tub cost under $6.00, I will only use the organic vegetable shortening  for items like tortillas and pie crust, so the investment was worth the extra $2.50 it cost.

How did I come about with this recipe? A good friend of mine “Pizza Mama” shared her family recipe with me. Pizza Mama makes you guessed it, great pizza!! She’s a good cook and I really was honored she shared her recipe with me personally. Now I have adjusted her recipe from the original in order to keep her recipe still hers. But don’t fear this recipe is still worth trying!!

Depending on what ingredients you use it will cost you roughly $1.00 to make instead of spending $3.50 or $5.00 if you buy fancy brand.

This recipe makes roughly 18 8inch flour tortillas, depending on how you divide the dough.

Recipe:

3 cups of Unbleached Flour (plus more for dusting)
1 TSP  Sea Salt (do not use this measurement for table salt)
2 & 1/2 TSP Baking Powder
5 TBSP Organic Vegetable Shortening (heaping)
1 2/3 cups of hot water (HOT!!!)

Measure out 3 cups of flour. I like to shake mine around and use a spoon to scoop and dump into measuring cup.

Next add baking powder & salt then whisk together. Then add shortening. No need to level off, better just to scoop and dump.

Now combine flour and shortening together until a course texture like soft beach sand. I use a fork or my hands making sure there are no chunks of VS. Once you can clump flour together and it stays you are done mixing.

 

 

Next create a trench in the middle of flour and add hot water ( I heat mine on stove top until a low simmer) . Mix together well until all flour is combined. Once that is done cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside and let dough rest for 15 minutes.

 

Next: Dust counter with flour and once dough has finished resting the 15 minutes remove dough from bowl and begin kneading the dough for a 2 minutes.

 

Next: Once dough has formed into a ball and is slightly sticky and soft to squeeze divide dough into equal portions. I use a weight scale for easy measuring. Once dough is divided equally shape into balls. You can start rolling out the dough now or put aside for later.

I waited a couple hours, there is no worry about spoiling, so you could make in the morning then roll out before dinner. To store place dough balls in a large baking dish that’s been lightly greased (spray with cooking spray or rub oil with hands)  then cover with plastic wrap and set in a dark area until ready to roll out

(don’t put in refrigerator unless you can’t cook the same day. If you need to wait remove from fridge and let dough come to room temperature, could take up to 1 hour or longer)

Roll out one piece of dough at a time: Flour surface then place dough on counter and flour lightly. I take a bottom of a plate and smash ball to start out, then roll out dough very thin. Flipping it over to let dough relax then rolling out again. Once rolled out to about 8 inches place directly into a dry  pre-heated  pan and cook.

 

Next: Once ready to cook pre-heat a skillet on medium high temperature, I like to use my  cast iron pan or non-stick pan

This takes about 30-45 seconds on one side then flip over and cook for another 30-45 seconds. Tortilla will bubble and that’s fine! Do not over cook or make crispy. You will have a hard tortilla.

Next: Get a few wet paper towels and squeeze them tight so all water is out. Place on the bottom and sides of a dish. Place each tortilla in paper towels and cover with another damp paper towel to keep tortillas from getting dry. I then place a kitchen towel over that, or you could use foil.

Next: Once all tortillas are done eat immediately or let cool completely and then store in a ziplock bag at room temperature, should last 3 days. Or freeze into smaller batches.

 

These tortillas are soft and light if made right. It did take me a couple times to get the cooking time down so I didn’t over cook tortillas. So if you feel you “fail” don’t give up just keep moving forward and try again. With failure you learn!