Homemade flour tortillas

Being an Arizonan girl in England, one thing I miss terribly is good Mexican food. There are some decent places in London, but Leicester is seriously lacking in this department. Because of this, I took it upon myself to start doing my own taco night (which revolves around when the avocados ripen). My vegetable tacos turn out pretty good, especially with a side of avocado, black beans and rice. The only thing that really lets them down are the horrible, spongy, store-bought tortillas over here.

So Thursday night I decided to push the boat out and try making my own tortillas.

At this stage I thought they looked pretty good, but I was still very nervous as this is probably only the third time in my life I’ve ever cooked a pastry-type dish or even used a roller… and all this flour was making me nervous. Regardless, I pushed on.

The tortillas themselves turned out pretty good! And actually, they were so much better than the spongy faux tortillas you get in shops over here that I think I will continue to make my own from now on. Now if only I could find a way to predict the ripening of avocados…

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (white or whole wheat) 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/2 cup warm water (plus up to 1/4 cup extra if needed)

Directions:

1. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl
2. Into the dry ingredients add the oil and mix with your hands to combine
3. Add the water, working the liquid into the dough until a sticky ball forms
4. Wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes
5. Divide the dough into 8-10 balls for taco-sized tortillas
6. Lightly dust a counter or pastry board with flour and roll out each ball of dough into a circle  approximately 1/4″ thick. If you want nicely rounded tortillas, trim off any ragged edges and discard. Don’t roll the dough out more than once or the tortillas will be tough
7. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat for a couple minutes
8. Cook the tortillas 30 seconds on each side or until the dough looks dry and slightly wrinkled, with a few brown spots forming on both sides. Do not overcook or they will be hard. Keep the tortillas wrapped up in a warm towel while you finish the rest.
9. Enjoy!

Watch my YouTube tutorial below: