I made homemade tortillas once and they were an huge failure. Every time I tried to roll the dough out, it would shrink back. Last night I learned that the gluten needs to be broken down so that the dough is relaxed enough to roll flat. When you make up the dough and try to work it immediately, the gluten just develops more, and the process fails. Any creation you make with dough is about chemistry. If you follow the chemical process correctly, you will have success every time.
Try different types of fat in yours. I like to use my own rendered lard but coconut oil gives it a nice flavor too.
Thanks for the recipe Leah!
Ingredients:
**3 Cups of Flour-Whole Wheat or Bread Flour or go 1/2 and 1/2 for added nutrients. The kids will never know!
**1 1/2 Cups of Plain Yogurt at room temperature-I use greek yogurt for a better dough and flavor-Homemade Yogurt
3 T Olive Oil, coconut oil, or rendered lard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
This recipe will make 8-10 burrito size tortillas.
Combine dry ingredients and wisk together in a mixing bowl-a bowl that has a cover is preferred.
Add oil and yogurt and mix with your hand in bowl until the dough is formed and all the dry ingredients are combined. I mixed my dough in my Bosch mixer and it worked great too and no messy hands. I used the dough hook. A Kitchenaid mixer could be used with the dough hook as well.( I find the Kitchenaid really makes short work of mixing. It also allows you to see if the dough is too sticky. If it is, add a little more flour until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. You still want it a little sticky.)
Leave in the bowl and place the cover on it and put it on the counter overnight (12 hours). If you don't have time to get to the dough right away, then put it in the fridge till you are ready. Only leave the dough for a day in the fridge. It becomes too difficult to handle after that because the yogurt cultures continue to break down the gluten in the flour.
On a floured surface, roll the dough out like this and then cut into even pieces.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to desired thickness and diameter. I recommend you roll them out very thin. Use about 2-3 oz of dough per tortilla. The more you make these, you will work out the thickness you like.
-While you are rolling out the dough, heat an electric skillet or a large skillet on the stove.
-Put the rolled out dough directly in the dry pan or on the dry skillet and let cook for about 1 minute on the first side and 30 seconds when you flip it. I set my skillet at about 375 degrees and after you flip it the tortilla will get large bubbles in it as it cooks. This is normal. Don't use any oil. You don't want them crispy. You want them to be soft and pliable for use with burritos or soft tacos. You can fry them after you cook them if you want to have tacos or tostadas.
-Let them cool slightly on a plate on the counter. As the pile gets bigger I will flip the pile over so the bottom tortillas don't get too soggy and the top tortillas don't dry out.
-When they are almost cooled but still slightly warm, put them in a bag for storage. The slight warmth will create steam in the bag and the tortillas will soften slightly if they are dry on the edges at all.
-These can be frozen for later use or used immediately. Any leftovers will keep in the fridge, but the longer they sit in the fridge the more they will dry out. I usually leave them on the counter just like I would a loaf of bread. Refrigeration dries out any kind of bread
**I tried all purpose flour and still struggled with the shrink back problem slightly. If you use a high gluten flour then the breakdown of the gluten seems to be more effective. The all purpose flour tortillas still tasted great if that is the only kind of flour you have.
**I tried using the cheap yogurt from the store and found that the dough was extremely sticky and required more flour to roll out. Plain yogurt has a high water content. Using the Greek Yogurt solved this problem and made yummy tender tortillas. If you use regular plain yogurt, you will need to strain off as much water as you can to make a thicker yogurt. Take a large mesh strainer and line it with cheese cloth. Then set it over a bowl and pour in the yogurt. Let it sit for about 30 minutes on the counter and the excess water will drain off into the bowl. You can also gather the cheesecloth up in a wad at the top and twist the top to extrude more water from the yogurt. Don't twist too hard or yogurt will squirt everywhere. Now you are ready to use it in the recipe. Why go to all this trouble? Greek Yogurt costs much more than its plain counterpart. If you want to save some money, go for the cheaper yogurt and drain it. Anytime you are trying to save money, the trade off is time. I find it worth it to trade a little time for the money I save. To really save money, make your own yogurt. It tastes so much better and is pennies on the dollar to do it. Homemade Yogurt
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