Tortillas de Harina
When I hear people saying that flour tortillas are not Mexican, I get a little offended, as a norteña, I grew up eating delicious wheat flour tortillas, they are just delicious and totally different from the ones you see in the supermarket shelves.
A good tortilla de harina is always made with pork lard, roll with a rolling pin and it is thin that you can almost see through. As a child, they were my favourite tortillas, I loved eating them freshly made with melted butter, yum! the best flavour in the world.
My dad, who was a wonderful cook, used to make them from scratch. Him and my mum ran the school cafe for a while of the school where my dad used to teach and one of the best sellers were my dad’s deshebrada burritos. My mum used to make the guisado (shredded beef stew) and my dad was in charge of making the tortillas de harina.
He would wake up very early and prepare the dough and roll out each tortilla with the rolling pin, the whole house would smell amazing. He was so good at it, all the tortillas were perfectly round, thin and so flavoursome. He was just an expert.
Unfortunately when he passed away, we stopped eating tortillas de harina freshly made, as he never taught us how to make them, it wasn’t until recently that I learned to make them and since then, I never buy flour tortillas in a packet.
I hope you like my recipe and start making flour tortillas from scratch at home more often.
Love,
Karlita x
Flour Tortillas
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- non-stick frying pan
- spatula
Ingredients
- 300 g white all purpose flour
- 125 g vegetable shortening
- 1 tsp table salt
- 130 ml hot water
Instructions
- Place the flour in a large bowl. Add the salt. Mix well and set aside.
- Add the vegetable shortening and mix with your hands until the flour and the shortening are combined.
- Then add the hot water bit by bit, using the fork, so you don't burn your hands, mix well until a dough is form.
- Then using your hand mix the dough until all the ingredients are perfectly combine and you have smooth dough ball, this takes around 10 minutes. Place the dough ball in a large bowl and rub with a bit of the vegetable shortening. Cover and let it rest for 1 hr.
- Knead the dough again and separate the dough into 40 g balls. Make them very round (see picture below) and place them back into the bowl, then cover them with a kitchen tea towel and let them rest for 30 minutes.
- After they have rested, heat the frying pan to medium heat. Slightly flour the surface and the rolling pin. (Do not use a lot flour)
- Once the frying pan is hot. Get one dough ball and place it on a slightly flour surface, then use the rolling pin to roll the tortilla.
- Roll it once and turn it around and then roll it again. Then pick it up with your hands and stretch it with your hands to make it pectectly round,
- Place it on the hot frying pan and heat it for a few second and flip it over. Do these a few times. The tortilla will start puffing. It needs to cook quick, but try to avoid burning it.
- Once the tortilla change colour and puffs, take it out of the frying pan and wrap it in a kitchen tea towel and put it in a tortillera.
- Enjoy the first tortilla with some delicious butter and use the rest for some amazing tacos de carne asada.
Notes
I would love to hear if you liked this recipe, tag me on social media #mexicanfoodmemories to see your creations. And if you want to learn to make this recipe and more, join me in one of my Mexican Cooking Classes in North London.
Listo!
Provecho!
I love flour tortillas. My best friend growing up was from New Mexico, so they favored the flour, but still had corn as well. Sopapias with butter and honey are one of my favorite snacks.
The best flour tortillas are from the north of mexico. My dad used to make them all the time. I love flour tortillas as well.