Tortillas

Tortillas

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (wheat or maseca) depending if you want wheat tortilla or corntortilla

1/4 cup shortening (or lard — you can substitute butter or cold vegetable shortening)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup water (warm)

Directions:

With a pastry blender or back of a fork, blend flour, baking powder, salt, and shortening, until it resembles coarse meal.

When well combined, slowly add water until soft dough forms. Add additional warm water as necessary.

Knead for 5 minutes.

Separate into 12 portions for small tortillas and 6 portions for large tortillas. Heat a pan or griddle over medium heat.

Roll each ball of dough out into a round shape,  or press in a tortilla press.

Place each raw tortilla on the hot pan and cook on each side for about 1 minute. If it puffs up at all, you can poke a hole in the puffed area to release the steam. Cook it until it is no longer doughy. I use to press on the tortilla with a spatula to make it puff.

Remove from the pan and place onto a plate covered with a towel. Use the edges of the towel to pull over the tortillas as you cook them, to keep them warm.