Generally I prefer corn tortillas to the flour ones, which seem bland, but for breakfast recipes they are perfect (or perhaps I’ve been brainwashed by the wheat-industrial complex).

They are easy to make, and better than store bought.

Ingredients:

• 2 C. flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 C. cold lard or other fat (I use Crisco), to repeat, COLD – keep it in the fridge for at least half an hour
• 2/3 C. water

Method:

Stir together the flour, salt and baking powder. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, mix the fat and the dry ingredients together for a couple of minutes.

Note that because of the small amount of fat, it will just look like a bowl of flour:

Add about 2/3 of the water, and stir. The dough won’t come together. Then continue to add another 2 Tbsp. of water, stirring vigorously after each addition, until the dough looks like this:

On a floured surface, knead it for 2 minutes, then cut it into 8 pieces. Roll them into something resembling a ball. Refrigerate them for 1/2 hour. DO NOT SKIP THE REFRIGERATION, it’s your key to success!

Dust each ball heavily with flour, then push down on it with your floured rolling pin to make an X (or however you want to squash it).

Roll it out into a 9″ circle. My version of a circle is always approximate. 🙂

Cook it in a non-stick pan, NO OIL, on low to low-medium heat, for a minute or two, until it starts to develop brown spots. Taste the first one (not where the brown spots are) to make sure it’s cooked all the way through. If not, lower the heat.

Flip it over and cook for less time on the other side.

All of which makes cooking them seem a bit tricky but really isn’t. Everything like this (crepes, tortillas, chapattis) the first one is generally a disaster and the rest are perfectly fine.

Yum!

-R