I’ve been working on perfecting homemade tortilla shells, for 2 main reasons: 1) I love cooking and I love tortilla shells, so I figured I should try cooking tortilla shells; and 2) I can’t believe how much they cost at the store! So I’ve made flour tortilla shells on many occasions, with varying results. Haven’t made a batch yet that I’ve been absolutely thrilled with, though my last batch was decent. I love to make my own because I can make them whatever size I like. I make 11" for the Family Sized Baked Burrito recipe in one of my Pampered Chef cookbooks, 8" for regular tacos or quesadillas or fajitas or homemade burritos, and 6" to use as breakfast or snack burritos with eggs or veggies or whatever I happen to want at the time. So I’ll mix up the dough and then take out my rolling pin and begin the exercise that is making tortillas. To make one batch of shells takes me roughly 2 hours, most of that time spent rolling out the tortillas and trying not to burn them. And by the time I’m done, I’m burning up from the heat of cooking them just as much as from the workout it has been to roll out the dough.
I just knew there had to be a better way to do this, but I figured I’d keep it up, for who knows what reason (maybe I like to torture myself). And so I (and my family, because they have to eat my cooking) have suffered through these tortillas for several months now, each time making a little change here or there while hoping for something miraculous to happen.
It finally occurred to me that they would be a lot softer if they were warm (like they serve them at your favorite Mexican restaurant) and so I began trying to figure out how to make my tortillas nice and warm when we were eating them. I knew I wanted a tortilla warmer, but just hadn’t gone out and bought one yet. Instead, I was making do with what I had. The best way I found was to wrap the tortillas in a damp towel and stick them in the microwave for a minute or two (if they were frozen – most of mine were – less if they’re coming from the fridge). Then toss them in a pan with the lid on (towel and all) and they’ll stay warm for a while. Or if you have an oven-safe pan/lid combination you can toss them (wet towel and all) in the oven for about 20 minutes at a lowish temp and accomplish the same thing.
So anyway, all set with my huge arm muscles and my wet towel/pan combination, I made tortillas again. And the experience was much better, but still not what I was looking for. I had to make the tortillas at night, after the kids were in bed, because if I tried during the day everything went south very quickly. I can’t seem to manage to simultaneously roll out a tortilla, cook the previous one, wipe tears, noses, and tables, and sing ABC’s while reading the latest library book. It just doesn’t work – I lose what little of my sanity I have left very quickly that way. So I waited for the kids to be in bed and then put in my 2 hours of tortilla making and cleaning up. They were good (though chewy which I think may be a result of over-working the dough?), but not wonderful.
So yesterday we had Baked Chicken Cheese Enchiladas. I had been planning on making these for a week or so, and had decided to splurge and purchase a few things to make it easier on myself (including some corn flour so we didn’t have to eat chewy flour tortilla enchiladas). Last week, in anticipation of this meal, I bought a tortilla press and a tortilla warmer. I had no idea what to buy, and so I bought the cheapest things at the store. Turns out the press I got was smaller than I was hoping (6.5"), and came with no instructions or recipes, but it works great and I found instructions and a recipe online. The warmer also had no instructions, other than saying "microwave safe" on the label sticker.
So, armed with my new tools and my corn flour and a handy online recipe, I embarked on my quest for homemade corn tortillas. I’m pleased to say that in a total of about 45 minutes from start to finish, I managed to make 10 beautiful, even, round, soft corn tortillas while feeding snacks to my children and cleaning up after them and myself. I gave myself 3 hours before dinner, knowing it would take me about 45-50 minutes to assemble and bake the enchiladas and cook the ears of corn, and I had PLENTY of time to spare – I even washed the cooking dishes before dinner.
I was so pleased with this experience that I’m planning to purchase an 8" tortilla press in the near future (if I can figure out where to get one – the store where I bought my 6.5" press only had that one size), and if I can find an 11" press I’ll buy that too! The instructions/recipe I found online has a link at the bottom for flour tortillas and when I get a chance (hopefully next week) I’ll give those a shot as well. I’m very hopeful, since this recipe turned out so well.
The only sad thing about finding the right way to make tortillas is smaller arm muscles. But those I think I can survive without.
