Homemade Tortillas

I used to buy flour tortillas all the time, until a friend of mine gave me this recipe for flour tortillas. I have never bought them again. Surprisingly, these are not that difficult or time-consuming to make. Here's what you need:

2 3/4 c flour
5 T lard
3/4 t salt
3/4 c warm water

I'm not gonna lie. These taste better with white flour, but I have substituted white wheat flour and they were still better than the grocery store tortillas. When I took pictures for these tortillas, I used 1 c white wheat flour and 1 3/4 c white flour.

First, combine the flour and lard in a large mixing bowl, working the fat in with your fingers, until completely incorporated.

Dissolve the salt in the water and pour over the dry ingredients and immediately work in with a fork. The dough will be in large clumps. Make sure that it all has been dampened. Then I get my dough hook going to knead it until it's a smooth ball. It should be medium-stiff consistency.

Divide the dough into 12 portions and roll each into a ball. Set them on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. They need to rest for at least 30 minutes - this makes them easier to roll.

After they've rested, you'll want to heat up a griddle or a cast iron skillet until it's very hot. While it's heating up, I get started on rolling the tortillas. I start with a tortilla press. It's not necessary for these, but I like it because it keeps them semi-round. My kids like to help with this. It's their favorite part.

They press it down as hard as they can so the ball looks like this.

It's too thick as is, so then I roll it out with a rolling pin. If you start from the center and roll out, slowly working around, you'll get pretty close to a circle.

You want the tortilla to be paper thin. When it's nice and flat, then you can peel it off the counter and plop it on your hot skillet or griddle. It should bubble up right away.

After about 30 seconds you can flip it over. It should have those official brown markings on them. 30 seconds more and you've got yourself a homemade tortilla. Be careful not to leave them on too long. They'll be more like crackers than tortillas if you do.

I keep them in a clean dish towel as the others are cooking. You can set up an assembly line with your kids and have them all cooked in no time. This recipe makes 12 tortillas.

Recipe from Chef Rick Bayless rickbayless.com

Now I need to figure out how to make corn tortillas...