La Chica y La Tortilla Desperada

I declared that it is Pantry/Freezer Week for my family.  Being in America in the 21st century, we are so blessed to buy food and have excess to store for another day. After a few months of this, my cupboards are full and it's time to use what I've got. Normally during this week, I would plan our meals based on what I have and buy accent veggies or ingredients. But after last week's Migraine Day and Women's Retreat Weekend, there was no time for the store. Yesterday I stood saucer-eyed in front of the fridge/freezer/pantry wondering what the heck I was going to do. Desperate times call for desperate measures and this seriously uncreative person was somehow inspired to make her own tortillas. Otherwise, we would have eaten taco meat in a bowl.

Excited at actually making my own recipe, I thought I'd capture it for the blog.  Here it is, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

What I had was wheat flour (why did I buy this? I had to open it just to use it for the tortillas) so I used two cups and put it in the food processor with 1 tsp of salt (cause Giada says you always need salt to bring out the flavor of whatever your cooking.  Gotta enhance that wheat, right?).

Then I added three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and pulsed until it was mixed. I only used EVOO because that's what I had. If I had a choice, I would have used Canola or Vegetable Oil because they're cheaper and because they do better as dough oils than EVOO in my experience.  I only thought to use oil because I thought it would make the tortillas more doughy.  Just water and flour is paste, right? We're not supposed to eat that as glue in preschool or disguised as a tortilla as an adult.

This is what your flour should look like with the oil.  I took a spatula and knocked that side flour down.

While the food processor is on, slowly add water. I used 2/3 of a cup; I'm not sure if you'd need more or less water if you were using regular white flour, but this was the right amount for me.

The dough looks and feels like the sand at the beach that is still damp after the tide line has moved out. Kinda wet and kinda dry. I took the dough out and kneaded it into a disk, then covered it in plastic wrap and let it sit for 15 minutes so that the wheat flour would absorb more of the water. It's pretty hearty stuff.
Do you have to do this? I don't know. I once saw Ina Garten shape her pie dough into a disk and let it sit, so I did too.

I then divided the dough into 8 pieces and rolled them into balls.

Mommy's helper. Some of the dough balls broke in half, which was okay because those could be smaller tortillas for Pinkalicious. I let them sit for 10 minutes under plastic wrap, willing them to congeal.

Then I rolled them out. I don't know how to get them as thin as store tortillas, but I did my best!

My "lightly floured surface" made the most massive coating of flour!!!  I had to dust it off!  Cuidado with this wheat flour!  It is different than white, fo shizzle.

For reals, I have no idea how to get a tortilla into a circle shape, other than to trace a plate and cut along the line.  I fancy myself that this looks like Northern Ireland, and that I am the interpretor of a divine calling to the British Isles this summer.

After rolling out a tortilla, warm it up on the stove for a minute or two on each side and then keep it warm to use it.


These wheat tortillas were very hearty, both because they were wheat and because they were thicker.  Although they were not round, they were still very usable.  I think I'll be using the left over tortillas tonight for breakfast tacos - some egg and cheese filling. Oh! And the slices of bacon I have left!!

Que Bueno!