Make your own Flour Tortillas

Guys. I'm making big life steps these days.

Today I went surfing all by myself. Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've been working on the whole learning to surf thing for about 5 years now. And I'm not being humble here, my skills are still very beginner.

Getting pummeled by waves happens to be one of my biggest fears. So, as you might imagine, surfing has been an enormous challenge for me. Coupled with my perfectionist and competitive nature, it's something I can't let go of. So today was a huge life step! Surfing without anyone there to hold my shaky little hand.

Today we are going to talk about a big cooking step. Homemade tortillas. It's not hard to do, but like make bread or pizza dough, it's time consuming. You need to know that these babies are delicious, so take a breath and a big step and make these immediately.

Flour Tortillas
from The Pioneer Woman
makes 16 full-size tortillas

2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon sea or Kosher salt
1/2 cup + 2 TBL vegetable shortening (needs to be somewhat cold/hard, if room temperature, it won't cut into the flour)
1 cup hot water

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening until it reaches the coarse crumbs state. I use a fork for this.

Pour in hot water (seriously HOT) and stir together. Knead 30-40 times or until dough becomes cohesive and less sticky. Put it back in the bowl, cover with a towel, and allow to rest for an hour.

Roll in 16 little balls, place on a cookie sheet, and allow to rest for another 20-30 minutes.

Heat up a large cast iron skillet to medium high heat. You will need to play with the heat as you go along to get just the right temp. Roll the balls of dough out, one at a time, cooking them as you go along. I rolled them out on waxed paper because the dough is kinda sticky and you need to roll it as thin as possible, like transparent thin. This is key. Don't worry about getting them into a round shape, it ain't gonna happen.

To cook the tortillas, you will place them one at a time in the hot skillet. It will take maybe 20 seconds on each side, enough time to roll out the next tortilla as that one is cooking. The trick is to flip it just as it begins to brown. You want the tortillas to remain soft and not get crisp. If you are getting crispiness, your skillet is too cool, turn it up. Play with the heat, don't stress if some of them get crispy, you will totally eat them anyway.

Stack cooked tortillas and cover with a towel to keep warm. These also keep very well, you can enjoy them for up to a week after making. I can't stress enough how worth it is to take the time to make these. Enjoy!