Flour Tortillas

(makes 12)

I never once thought about making my own homemade tortillas, although I do LOVE the freshly pressed ones you get at Pancheros Mexican Grill. However, when Cinco de Mayo falls on Taco Tuesday and the grocery stores are all out of tortillas and taco shells you make your own!

After all, there needs to be some sense of normalcy by celebrating the well know drinking holiday in quarantine.

I was looking up recipes online when the Pioneer Woman came on TV (I always have the Food Network or HGTV on as background noise at home) and announced she was going to make homemade flour tortillas. What are the chances? I quickly pressed rewind and watched the segment from the beginning. I like that her version calls for vegetable oil as opposed lard, simply because lard is not an ingredient most people keep in their pantry. I mad a few slight revisions, but its a very straightforward and tasty recipe!

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups flour

- 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt

- 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons hot water (almost boiling)

Instructions:

Mix the flour, salt and oil in a bowl. Gradually add the hot water until all combined. Kneed the dough onto a floured surface until smooth (add additional flour if necessary). The dough should no longer stick to your hands. Roll the dough into a ball and rest for 5 mins. Divide the dough into equal 12 sections and roll into individual tortillas with a rolling pin.

Using a cast iron skillet (or frying pan) cook each tortilla 30-60 seconds per side. You do not need to add any oil or cooking spray to the pan. The goal here is to get a soft, roll-able tortillas, not crispy. Keep the cooked tortillas wrapped in dish towel until ready to eat (this helps to keep the tortillas warm and soft).

Note: this recipe can easily be divided in 1/2 or 1/3 for smaller batches.

This recipe doesn’t include butter, but if it did I would suggest salted!