The taste is divine. The shape? That takes practice! No worries though, they are so good, though you will need a bit of time for these. The dough will need to rest in order to ease the rolling.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup shortening or lard, cut in 1/2" pieces
1 cup hot water (160F - hotter than tap water, but less than boiling)
2-4 tbsp flour for dusting
Instructions
Read Susie's Tips and Tricks below
1. In a large bowl, place flour, salt, and baking powder together. Stir until blended. Now add shortening to the flour and cut it in using a pastry blender or two forks. You want to have the fat fully incorporated into the flour so that it resembles small crumbled peas.
2. Slowly add hot water to mixture, stirring together, so that it comes together as a mass. Don't add it all at once. Depending on the humidity, you may need less or slightly more flour. Keep in mind wetter doughs result in thinner tortillas.
3. Once the ball has formed, turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until soft and smooth. Place in a plastic bag and set aside for 1 hour.
4. Preheat a griddle/comal or large flat-bottomed skillet to medium heat.
5. You can remove a small golf-ball size chunk of dough and shape into a ball. Indent the top with your thumb and use a rolling pin to flatten. If your dough rolls back immediately, set aside another 10 minutes and try again.
Rolling tortillas is an art, typically you roll a few times in one direction, then move the circle/tortilla a 1/4 turn and roll again, until you have a fairly uniform shape. Don't worry, if they are oblong, who cares, they will taste awesome (Optionally you can use a tortilla press to flatten easily).
6. Once placed on the heat source, the dough should puff up within 20 to 30 seconds, then brown in spots. If it gets dark really quickly, then lower your heat slightly; if it takes much longer to brown, increase your heat.
I place mine on aluminum foil and keep in my oven on the warm setting.
Susie's Tips and Tricks
To work quickly you, can manage two comals/griddles at the same time. You may want to double (or triple) this recipe as my kids and husband just gobble them up!
This makes around 15 - 6" tortillas.
Easy & turned out excellent. Making them again today.