Flour Tortillas

I make these tortillas a lot and for how often I have made them, you would think I would be a pro at rolling them into nice round circles.  Well, I am no where near a pro (that would be my sister Stephanie) and in fact I'm really quite bad.  I rarely get a nice round tortilla, but no matter the shape, they are still delicious and definitely worth the little bit of extra time it takes to make them!

Flour tortillas

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup shortening

1 cup very hot water

In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer combine flour and salt.  Add shortening and mix until well combined.  Add hot water and mix until dough comes together.

Remove dough from mixing bowl and divide into portions.  The portion of dough depends on the size you want your tortillas.  Shape portions into round balls.

Preheat a non-stick or cast iron skillet to medium low heat.  If necessary, spray your work surface with non-stick cooking spray; you may not need to because the dough isn't particularly sticky, but it may be and you also don't want to add any more flour to your dough.  Press your palm against the surface of the dough ball, trying to maintain as much of a round shape as possible (this is where I begin to struggle a bit).  Place rolling pin in middle of flattened dough ball and roll to desired thickness, shaping in a circle as you go.

Place raw tortillas on preheated skillet.  Now...be forewarned, the first one may not work out great.  You are going to be watching for bubbles.  If you get little blistery bubbles, your skillet is too hot and you need to reduce the heat.  You're looking for big, fat, slow-bubbling bubbles.

When you start to see them, flip the tortilla and cook for another 30-45 second (I like mine to stay very soft and so I will only cook the tortillas long enough to have very light colored marks and sometimes no marks at all).

If you are cooking these quickly, you can just stack them on top of each other cover with a clean dish cloth and they will stay warm.  You can also wrap them in a damp paper towel and then wrap them in foil and keep them in a warm oven (170) until ready to use.

*I always use a little flour when I am rolling the tortillas out and have never noticed that they seem more tough because I do.

* To cook the tortillas, I use my electric skillet that I use for french toast because I can cook a few tortillas at the same time.

*Any extra cooked tortillas I have, I freeze and just pop them out of the freezer whenever I need them.

This recipe comes from ourbestbites.com