March Challenge: Eating on a Tight Budget : Tortilla Factory

For this challenge, I determined I'd learn to make tortillas.  I used the recipe here.  I thought it sounded pretty easy.  I'd been wanting to try to make homemade tortillas for quite a long while but kept putting it off.  This challenge presented the perfect opportunity to try something new.

John has decided he quite likes whole wheat tortillas.  We've been buying two packs of them each pay period.  He prefers a tortilla over sliced bread most days.  The only brands I can buy all have yeast in them, for no reason I can fathom.  I knew during Passover we'd want an alternative for this bread. 

I had whole wheat flour on hand and substituted for 1/3 of the all purpose flour this recipe required.  I increased the water slightly.  Too much as it turned out.  I ended up having to add an extra cup of flour to bring the dough up to the ball stage.  It was a very soft ball stage.  And I forgot to take pictures of this step.



After the dough came up to a soft ball stage, I removed it to a floured surface and divided into 16 pieces, as the recipe describes, rolled into a ball and flattened.   I let the dough rest as suggested.  At this point I began to roll out a few of the flat dough pieces at a time. This dough was easily rolled into thin pieces.  I wish I'd been able to get the noodle dough this thin last month!

I heated a cast iron griddle to cook the tortillas on.  I didn't get the temperature as precise as suggested in the recipe, but the tortillas cooked rather nicely just the same.  I had only one get a little crispy.  The rest took a little longer than 1 minute but definitely not more than 1 1/2 minutes per side.

Notice the sort of bubbles in the upper right and lower left edges here on the side I'd just cooked .  That's what you want to happen to the dough as it cooks.

I put the tortillas on racks to cool.  I didn't want to stack them while warm. 

These tasted awesome!  John was pretty pleased when we had them the next day and I told him I'd made them myself.  He complimented me on my industry in the home.  That was the best reward I could have received!

I packed up the tortillas with waxed paper between each and froze the leftovers.  They are supposed to keep very well in the freezer.  I will be removing them next week to use, so we will see how well they do.  All in all, I'm very pleased with this recipe and with my first attempt at homemade tortillas.
One more skill to add to my money saving experience.