Homemade Soft Flour Tortillas (Shortening or Butter)
Fresh, warm, incredibly soft, homemade flour tortillas
Servings: 8 tortillas
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting and rolling
- ⅔ cup water
- ¼ cup shortening or butter
- 1 pinch salt optional
Instructions
- Heat a cast iron skillet or grill pan to medium high heat. Do not oil, keep dry.
- Combine all ingredients until dough ball is formed; keep kneading for up to 5 minutes until smooth dough ball forms.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 8 equal portions.
- Using one hand cupped as a guide, flatten the dough into a 3 inch flat circle. This will help to keep it circular in the next step as you roll it.
- Roll with a rolling pin from the center out, from every direction; or press between a large size tortilla press.
- One by one, cook tortilla directly on hot pan, and cook just until brown marks begin to show, about 30-60 seconds each side. They should look like they have a slight sheen, almost translucent center. They will seem underdone in the center but this is what you want as they only need to come in contact with the heat and will set in the center, yielding an extremely soft tortilla.
- Repeat with remaining tortillas, and keep finished tortillas covered with a towel or wrapped up with foil as you go to keep them soft.
- Store in a zipper bag once completely cooled.
Notes
- Dough will seem shaggy and dry at first, keep kneading until smooth.
- If the dough just won't come together because it seems to dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time until it does; giving the first teaspoon time to work into the dough.
- If using a press: Use a very nonstick material to press or roll the dough between; a zipper bag (gallon size) that has been cut at the seams into two squares is the best material I have found to work with.
- If using a rolling pin: keep the surface you are working on, dusted with flour to prevent sticking. Rub flour on the rolling pin periodically too, to prevent it from becoming sticky.
- If you begin to notice black dust spots on the tortillas, that is just the excess flour getting burned. Wipe the skillet out periodically, with a dry towel to keep this from showing on your tortillas.
- Keep finished tortillas covered as you go to keep them soft.
- Recipe makes 6 burrito size or 8 small taco size tortillas. Double recipe as needed.
- Store when completely cooled in an air tight container or zipper bag.