The boyfriend has been begging me to make homemade tortillas for months now. We adore Mexican food. Almost every time we go out, it’s to Daniel’s Mexican Restaurant if Eric has his way, and Chapala’s if I have mine. I make Mexican food a lot- chicken tacos are a regular around here. I finished my midterms today and don’t have class tomorrow, so I decided to devote my day to cooking and finally make those homemade tortillas. And then turn them into taquitos.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Add the shortening and mix until the mixture looks crumbly. Gradually add the water until the dough comes together and is moistened. You don’t want the dough sticking to the side of the bowl, so add some more flour if this happens.

Cover with a damp towel and let sit for about an hour. After it has rested, divide the dough into 10-12 balls. Roll each ball out very thin- less than a quarter inch, preferably. They will puff up, so just do paper thin. Eric wanted to do this part.

Get a damp towel and a plate ready. For now, put the damp towel on the plate to let a little moisture get on there. Heat a skillet (most of the recipes say not to use nonstick and preferably use cast iron, but I only have nonstick so I used that and they came out wonderfully) to medium high heat. Really, closer to high. Once it is hot, drop one of the rolled out balls of dough onto the skillet. You only want them to cook on each side for no more than a minute. They’ll start bubbling up, like this:

Once you start seeing brown spots on the other side, flip. Once both sides are done, put them on the plate under the damp towel. This is really important to helping keep them moist. Repeat this process until all your balls of dough have been cooked. I think they turned out pretty good.

I made baked taquitos (essentially tacos) once they were done by rolling seasoned beef and cheese up inside of them and baking them for ten minutes, served with beans and rice. So yummy.

Alright, here’s the recipe!

Homemade Tortillas
Modified from All Recipes

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp teaspoons salt
3/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup hot water (or as much as needed)
Directions
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the shortening till the mixture is crumbly (this can be done with your KitchenAid or by hand). If the mixture looks more floury than crumbly, be sure to add just one or two more tablespoons of shortening till it is crumbly. Add about 3/4 cup hot water to the mixture, or just enough to make the ingredients look moist. With your hands or the hook attachment on your mixer, knead the mixture making sure to rub the dough against the sides of the large mixing bowl to gather any clinging dough. If the dough still sticks to the side of the bowl, add a couple more tablespoons of flour until the dough forms a soft round shape. The dough is ready to roll out now, but it is best to let it rest. Cover it with a damp dish towel, and let it sit for about an hour or so. Take the dough, and pull it apart into 10 to 12 balls. Lightly flour your rolling area, and roll each ball with a rolling pin to about 1/8 inch thickness. Prepare a plate and a damp towel and let the towel rest on the plate until ready to use to get it moist. Place each tortilla on a medium hot skillet. Cook for about 1 minute on each side, or until the tortilla does not look doughy. Place on the plate under the damp towel. Repeat this process until all your balls of dough are cooked.