Tortillas

For most of my life I have taken the art of tortilla making for granted.  I mean in most of the the towns I have lived in I could go to a local restaurant and buy them freshly made. In India a national favorite food is called the chapati.  They are a bit different than the Texas tortilla.  They usually would make them with whole wheat flour and while rolling them out they would add a spoonful of oil about three different times in the process.  You end up with a really greasy whole wheat tortilla. We had a precious house helper in India and we had her to make "chapatis" but only with no oil and white flour.  The product was close to a tortilla.  It worked.  She has also spent most of her life making chapatis so the rolling them out round was a piece of cake for her.  One time we even had triangle ones.  :)  Well, now I live in a country where I can either spend about 3 dollars on 10 tortillas or figure out how to make them myself.  I made one batch and they turned out horrible.  I told the kids we were playing a game.  Each tortilla was in the shape of a different country and they had to guess which country they had.  We ended up putting butter and honey.  Anything can be good with butter and honey!

I found this new recipe over at Sprinkled with Flour along with some great advice about making tortillas.  I decided to give it a try again.  I figured out several things I was doing wrong...not rolling them thin enough, cooking them too long thus making them hard, and not keeping them in a Ziploc bag when they are finished cooking.  When I did all the things she suggested they turned out amazing! My shapes were better each time I rolled them out, then on the very last one...it was round!!!  I had to take a picture to document this life long dream of making round tortillas.  I am not sure it will ever happen again, but I do have proof it happened once.  

 

A friend of mine is coming from India this week and I have emailed her and asked her to bring me a tortilla press.  She advised me that the one she had didn't work.  That the dough would stick to it.  She said she has one that presses and cooks it for you and she loves hers.  She is bringing me one that press and cooks too.  I can't wait!