Mexican Flour Tortillas Tortillas De Harina De Castilla Food

FLOUR TORTILLAS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, place the flour, baking powder, salt, and mix. With the help of a fork, pastry blender or your hands, incorporate the shortening or lard until it resembles coarse meal.
• Slowly add the hot water a little at the time until the dough holds together. Do not add all the water at once. See note above.
• Turn dough onto a work surface, and knead for a couple of minutes until it is smooth.
• Divide the dough into 10 pieces rolling every piece on your work surface with the palm of your hand to form a little disk. We call these "testales".
• Cover the "Testales" in a damped kitchen towel or plastic wrap, and let the dough rest for 30-45 minutes.
• After the resting period, place an ungreased griddle/comal over medium heat. Grab your Rolling Pin to start forming the tortillas on a lightly floured surface. If you add too much flour to the surface your tortillas will be dry.
• To form the tortillas place the "testal" (ball of dough)onto the working area and press slightly with your hand, set the rolling pin at the center of the "testal" and press forward without making it to the edge and then press backward towards yourself stopping before the edge. Turn the tortilla 45 degrees (like a half turn) and repeat pressing forward and then towards you. Flip the tortilla and repeat the same process until you have a thin disk of about 10 inches. If you are new to rolling tortillas, be patient, it takes a little practice.
• Now, place the tortilla on your already hot Griddle or comal. This step is a really quick one: be careful with your timing. a) During the first 20 to 30 seconds, the tortilla starts forming air bubbles and light brown spots will show at the bottom side of the tortilla, b) turn the tortilla, and during the next 20 seconds, more air bubbles will continue to form. c) turn again; at this time the tortilla will puff up like in the picture above. This last step will take about 10 seconds. Remove the tortilla and wrap with a kitchen towel. Keep making the rest of the tortillas.

TORTILLAS DE HARINA (FLOUR TORTILLAS)

Steps:

• Mix the flour and pork lard with your fingers until the mixture is the texture of coarse sand. Then add the salt with the hot (but not scalding) water and knead well. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour; if it's a little dry, add more hot water. The kneaded dough should be slightly tacky but not sticking to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll each one into a round ball. Roll each ball between sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap into as thin a round as possible (the rounds will contract a bit when you stop rolling). As you roll each one, place it on a hot nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat.
• Cook for about 30 seconds, or until the tortilla starts to puff. Then flip and cook another 30 seconds. It should be cooked through and just speckled with golden brown spots. As the tortillas cook, place them in your serving dish covered with a dish towel, which will help keep the tortillas soft and pliable.

AUTHENTIC MEXICAN TORTILLAS

Steps:

• Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Either by hand or with a pastry cutter, cut in the shortening till the mixture is crumbly. If the mixture looks more floury than crumbly, be sure to add just one or two more tablespoons of shortening till it is crumbly. Add about 3/4 cup hot water to the mixture, or just enough to make the ingredients look moist.
• With your hand or a large fork, knead the mixture making sure to rub the dough against the sides of the large mixing bowl to gather any clinging dough. If the dough still sticks to the side of the bowl, add a couple more tablespoons of flour until the dough forms a soft round shape. The dough is ready to roll out now, but it is best to let it rest. Cover it with a dish towel, and let it sit for about an hour or so.
• Take the dough, and pull it apart into 10 to 12 balls. Lightly flour your rolling area, and roll each ball with a rolling pin to about 1/8 inch thickness.
• Place each tortilla on a medium hot cast iron skillet. Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until the tortilla does not look doughy.

TORTILLAS DE HARINA (FLOUR TORTILLAS)

Steps:

• Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, combine warm water and oil.
• Add liquid mixture to the flour one tablespoon at a time, mixing with a fork after each addition.
• Lightly flour a cutting board and knead dough about 4-5 minutes or until smooth.
• Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth for 20 minutes.
• Divide dough into 12 balls. Place on a place and cover with the damp cloth for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pre-heat a comal or skillet to medium/high.
• Using a floured rolling pin, roll each ball into tortillas of about a 6 inch diameter and 1/8 thick. (Alternative: Line a tortilla press with wax paper and press to desired thickness).
• Place a tortilla on comal/skillet for 30 seconds or until the dough begins to bubble and turn brown. Flip and cook other side.
• Keep cooked tortillas covered in a tortilla warmer, or place on a cookie sheet in a warm oven, while finishing all the tortillas.).

TORTILLAS DE HARINA - FLOUR TORTILLAS

Steps:

• Mix dry ingredients.
• Make a "hole" in the middle of your "mountain" of flour.
• Add oil and water and start mixing.
• When the dough is firm enough, knead it a bit on a flat surface.
• "break" pieces off the dough (about the size of a golf ball) by squeezing it with your thumb and index finger (like you're choking it).
• Make several round balls (called "testales"), and placed them on a floured surface (cookie sheet works great).
• Let the testales rest for about 30 minutes covered with a damp towel.
• Place a testal on a floured surface. Flour your rolling pin and roll. Whatever technique you use for rolling... just spread them enough so they are bout 6 inches in diameter.
• Cook your tortillas on a "comal", flat griddle or skillet at medium heat (mine was on 6 on an electric stove). You don't need to oil the skillet (there's enough oil in there).
• Just like with pancakes, the 1st one is never good, but the rest are delicious.
• You can pile up the uncooked tortillas, they won't stick.
• My process is usually: flatten, place in comal, flatten another one, turn the one in the comal, flatten another one, remove the one from the comal and repeat!
• It takes about 1 minute to cook on the 1st side (you will see some bubbles appear on the surface, this is normal), then you turn and it takes about 30 seconds on the second side.
• Eat them warm, but to freeze or refrigerate, make sure you cool them spread out on a flat surface before bagging them.

MEXICAN FLOUR TORTILLAS, TORTILLAS DE HARINA DE CASTILLA

Steps:

• Sift 3 cups flour into a large bowl, add salt and baking powder. Mix well with your hand. Next add the oil and with your hands mix in the oil with the flour really good.
• Now take the hot water and pour in a little. Then mix, then pour a little more and mix again do this until you have made a soft elastic and pliable dough. The dough should come together and the bowl should be clean of all the flour. If the dough is to sticky add a little more flour. If it is too dry add a little more hot water but always in small increments. The dough should be soft and not sticking to your hands. Add more flour if it does this. Take dough and knead with the palms of your hand for about two minutes. Now put dough back into bowl cover with a clean cloth and let the doug rest for about 15 minutes. While the dough is resting; preheat your cast iron griddle or cast iron fry pan. Do not put any oil or grease on the griddle or pan. Tortillas bake on a dry griddle.
• After 15 minutes have passed take dough out knead again for one minute and take pieces or dough and make little balls the size of a little larger than ping pong balls. Sprinkle a little flour on a flat surface and with a palote, "rolling pin" roll the dough ball, roll once and pick up and turn a quarter turn roll again and do another quarter turn continue the same until you have rolled out your tortilla about 8 inches across if you like a large tortilla or 6 inches across if you like them smaller. I prefer the 8 inch across. Once you have rolled out the tortilla place on the hot griddle lower the heat to medium. You do not want to scorch your tortillas. As soon as you see a few bubbles on the tortilla flip it over to the other side; cook the tortilla for about 2 minutes on each side. Watch them closely you can tell when one side is cooked. Have the butter ready and the salt. Yum. As you are making them put them into a large bowl that has a nice clean dish towel underneath. cover each time you place a nicely baked tortilla in you pile. I like to place in the microwave or the oven until we are ready to eat to keep them warm. Do not turn the microwave on. If you keeping in the oven you can turn oven onto the lowest setting to just keep them warm until dinner. Enjoy

TORTILLAS DE HARINA (FLOUR TORTILLAS)

Steps:

• Mix flour, shortening, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
• Gradually stir in water until crumbly dough forms.
• Work with hands until dough holds together.
• on a floured board, shape into a ball and knead until smooth.
• Divide dough into 12 roughly equal parts.
• roll into sphere and let stand for 15 minutes.
• Use a rolling pin to flatten into 8 inch circles.
• Cook on ungreased griddle on medium heat, to cook, when it starts to bubble, flip it over, when it starts to bubble, pat it down with a clean towel or spatula, when the entire tortilla starts to inflate, take it off the grill.

PERFECT FLOUR TORTILLAS

Steps:

• Into a bowl combine the flour and salt. Sift until it has been mixed well.
• Next add the lard one scoop at a time until you have a crumbly mixture.
• Slowly add water while mixing with hands. The mixture should soak up the water right away. Spread a little bit of lard on your hands in order to get the mix off.
• With the lard still on your hands, tear off golf ball sized pieces and roll each piece into a tight ball.
• Once all of the dough is made into separate balls let stand in bowl at room temperature for about half an hour to an hour, while covered with a kitchen cloth.
• After they have sat for the desired amount of time, roll out into a thin round flat shape (you can make them more or less thick according to personal preference).
• Heat dough up on very hot ungreased pan. Each side should take 15-25 seconds to cook. You will know when the second side is done when a large bubble forms. Each side should have several brown spots on them.
• You can place cooked tortillas into plastic bag with a kitchen cloth inside to keep them soft.