Grandma Sanchez' Homemade Flour Tortillas

One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting in the kitchen watching Grandma Sanchez make her scrumptious flour tortillas. She was an expert at making them -rolling out the dough with the small wooden rolling pin grandpa made for her-  she would pass the dough back and forth in the air between her right and left hand shaping and stretching the dough into slightly thick pillowy tortillas. Hot off the comal (cast iron skillet) we would wait in line for our turn to eat one of the tortillas. We would slather ours with butter, and pop them into our mouths faster than she could make them. 

To get the tender tortillas like grandma used to make you have to use the lard.. 

I like to sprinkle some flour on top of the sections waiting to be rolled. In my mind it helps prevent them from drying out.. not sure if it's true or not, but there's something that makes me happy about seeing them sitting there with flour sprinkled on top waiting their turn to be rolled out.

they don't have to be perfectly round - rustic shapes just add to the charm of homemade tortillas. As you can see you don't really need much flour at all to roll them out. 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour - plus some for rolling

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoons baking powder

3 Tablespoons lard ( or use butter, at room temperature - grandma used lard)

2/3 cup warm water ( you might not use it all - please don't dump it all in -add it slowly)

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Lightly rub in the lard ( or butter if using). Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, then add enough water to form a soft dough. (you might not use all the water) Knead the dough lightly for 1-2 minutes, then cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Roll out each portion on a floured surface to form a very thin round tortilla. Brush off the excess flour from the tortillas. Roll out one at a time, cook one, and then roll out another so they don't dry out. (Have someone roll, and someone else cook them if you want. )

Heat a large non-stick skillet (or cast iron skillet like grandma used) until very hot, then add a tortilla to the pan and cook for 1 and a 1/2 to 2 minutes, or until the surface starts to bubble, and the underside is speckled brown. Turn the tortilla over and brown the other side for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. While the tortilla is cooking , roll out another round tortilla and repeat. You might need to brush away some of the burned flour from the pan in between cooking the tortillas.

To reheat , wrap tortillas in foil and place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes.