Tortillas de Harina (Flour Tortillas)
So, you decided to turn your back on store-bought tortillas and/or are wondering why I am recommending flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas. The reason is twofold and quite simple: contrary to popular belief flour tortillas were not invented “North of the Border”. They are as common and deliciously authentic as their corn-made siblings who dominate the center and south of Mexico and its cuisine. In fact, proper flour tortillas are very different from the store-bought ones and not only native to the northern parts of Mexico although they tend to be exclusively available there. This causes these misconceptions which even some (more southern) Mexicans fall victim to. This recipe hopes to change all that and the way you experience tacos in general. The recommended filling for these is “Carne Asada” but feel free to load them with any fillings/salsas of your choosing. They also make for amazing “Quesadillas”. Practicing these before inviting guests to a taco night is strongly recommended, as getting them just right can be tricky. Luckily, they store well in the freezer and can be kept there for months without spoiling.
25
pieces1
hour30
minutes30
minutes2
hoursIngredients
500 g 500 all-purpose flour
80 g 80 vegetable fat/oil
200–250 ml of hot water
Salt
Directions
- Form a volcano-like pile of flour.
- Add the melted vegetable fat or a vegetable oil of your choosing and half of the hot water (as close to boiling as your hands can handle) in the cone and start kneading. Add more water to the dough until it turns from flaky to smooth. The dough should be moist enough to absorb all residual flour from your working surface but not so wet that it continuously sticks to your hand and fingers.
- Make little (approx. 25 g) dough balls and let them rest for 15 minutes.
- Roll out the dough balls into thin discs, as thin as possible – ideally the discs are almost translucent so that you can see your kitchen work surface through them.
- Now heat up your comal/griddle/skillet (or any other flat metal surface that you can heat on your stove without using extra oil) to medium to high heat and place the first tortilla blanks on there. The tortillas only need seconds on each side as they are so thin. Don’t cook them until they are golden brown. The goal here is to cook them just a bit: if you did everything right, they should form some small bubbles in the process of cooking them. The reason for not cooking the tortillas golden brown is because we want to maintain a flexible tortilla and not get some sort of cracker. The perfect result should maintain some of its translucence, look slightly undercooked and has formed some bubbles (which deflate quite quickly). This process also prevents the tortillas from burning while they are reheated or us ending up with a hard shell taco.
- Repeat this process until you have precooked all your flour tortillas (they are already good to eat, try some!). To prevent the tortillas from sticking to each other you should lay them out and let them cool and dry out for half an hour. Your flour tortillas are now ready to be eaten, re-heated or stored away in your fridge/freezer. Feel free to scale up your operation or use a fancy stand mixer for preparing the dough but be warned, the only thing that makes these tortillas perfect is practice!
Equipment
- Comal, griddle or flat skillet
- Rolling pin
- Work surface
Notes
- The reason for not cooking the tortillas golden brown is that we want to maintain a flexible tortilla and not get some sort of cracker.
- They store well in the freezer and can be kept there for months without spoiling.
- Feel free to scale up your operation or use a stand mixer for the dough, but be warned: the only thing that makes these tortillas perfect is practice.