Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Not As Hard as You Think...


Photo credit:  not a hipster

Flour tortillas scare me.  Its not the carbs, or the white flour, or the fat, or even sodium.  No, no, what scares me about flour tortillas is actually trying to make them from scratch.  Which is a shame, for sure, because it really could not be simpler: flour, fat, water, salt, and maybe some baking powder.  That's it.

Some people will tell you that it doesn't matter if you know the ratio of ingredients, its having heart that makes a good tortilla.  Well, that's rubbish.  I just made them tonight, and I'm pretty much as Caucasian as they come (I'm from the corn fields of Kansas!) and nobody showed me how to put my heart into it, but they still came out just fine.  After years of crippling fear, I finally decided to at least give it a shot.  Maybe it was the 50 pound bag of flour sitting on my kitchen flour, or maybe it was the fact that we're all out of tortillas and we've been eating beans by the bowlful for the past two weeks, or maybe it was due to my husband talking about trying it.  Maybe it was a full moon, or something, but whatever it was, I'm glad it happened, because I can finally check "making your own flour tortillas" off my list of fears and move on with my life.  And I'm pretty sure you should, too.  I cannot stress how easy this was.  If you are a fan of tortillas and enjoy doing this sort of thing, please try it!  But watch out, because you might just want to start calling yourself abuelita or something, because you'll be whipping out flour tortillas at every meal just like David's Grandma Lucy was fabled to have done.  So many stories of how she could make tortillas like nobody's business.  I really wish I could have met her...

I opted for a recipe that uses vegetable oil in place of lard and it worked fabulously.  I found it on The Pioneer Woman's new recipe website, Tasty Kitchen.  So, here are three new things for you to do:

1) Visit thepioneerwoman.com
2) Visit tastykitchen.com
3) Try this recipe for flour tortillas


5 comments:

sohappy said...

I am sooooooo impressed!
I'm afraid of making them too!
Now i'm gonna do it for sure!
You inspired me!!
Yeay for Corynne!!!!
Love,
Hourik

Anonymous said...

I have been talking to a student at school whose mother is great at making tortillas-so she says. I am waiting for the recipe from her and of course a tasty example. I have also asked for a recipe for fidello and chicken and mole. I'm pretty picky about mole. Elliott and Caiden-tomorrow, I'm coming!!!!! Love you, Gramma -Chica-wa-wa

The Montgomerys said...

no MANTECA? JK, I hate lard...ewww...but I'm happy you made out so well. you give me inspiration to try. growin up a little 1/2 mexican girl, loving freshly made tortillas with butter, I just have to at least try to do that for my girls. major props crynieeeee...you are awesome, yet again!

allisonescalante said...

I hate it when my 50 pound bag of flour just sits on my kitchen flour. Mexico has delicious flour tortillas. some come as thin as crepes. yum

Lindsey said...

Yum! these look good. i actually tried to make tortillas when Tim & I were first married... they did not turn out good :( so i've always been scared to try it again, but you inspired me to give it a go.! I also LOVE crepes! they are easy too.