For the love of Tortillas

When I was a little girl we lived many years in Texas, often near the border of Mexico. That's where my mother learned to make tortillas, which became our main food staple throughout most of my childhood. They were our main bread, we ate them with almost every meal and sometimes they were the meal.
My mother would make a huge batch, 60 or more tortillas at a time, all those little balls resting under towels for their turn to be rolled out and cooked.

The first tortillas were always the best. My younger sister and I were almost always hungry and my mother would usually give us fresh hot tortillas. I loved those sacred first tortillas, there was something very special about them to me.

Now I make them myself and I still love them just as much. The simple basic recipe is perfect because it's so very versatile. As it is, the tortillas can go with anything, sweet, spicy, sour or bland, they fit right in. Over the years I've experimented by adding different things and discovered hundreds of different ways you can make them.

To the basic recipe some of our favorites adds are ...

cinnamon and sugar
garlic, onion and cayenne
garlic, some Italian herbs and ground parmesan
cayenne, chili powder and onion
sun dried tomato paste
chopped dried herbs
chopped dried spinach
chopped black olives


You can substitute up to half the flour with ...

corn flour (ground cornmeal)
oat flour (ground oatmeal)
whole wheat flour

(up to half because if the flour is too dense it won't cook properly)


You can make them as thin as you like or make them a bit thick for a heartier flat bread. I often make them double thick for that purpose.

You can make the tortillas into chips by cooking as usual, then brush with a little vegetable or olive oil, cut into wedges, sprinkle with things you like (the add list above works well) and bake for a few minutes in the oven until they're crisp. Our favorites for chips are parmesan chips, cinnamon-sugar chips and chips from the corn version.

Here's my mothers recipe and the only one I've ever used ...

Tortillas
4 c flour
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
4 T shortening (I have also used margarine and it worked fine)
1¼ c water
flour for rolling

Kneed together with hands working the dough well. Form 12 palm sized balls and set aside. Prepare a rolling surface and roll each ball out round and thin. In a large, dry skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, cook on both sides until done. Cool each tortilla seperately. Makes 1 dozen.


Now you guys experiment and share your favorites and what you come up with :)