What's your laziest/most efficient way to make a batch flour tortillas?
What's your laziest/most efficient way to make a batch flour tortillas?
I followed this recipe and scaled it to 500g of flour (I made 15 tortillas).
It took me an hour and a half (2 hours if you count cleaning). I was wondering if there are better recipes out there to streamline the process.
I am trying to meal prep, that's why I want a big batch of flour tortillas so I can make a wrap and freeze (or freeze the tortilla individually).
The laziest way involves buying a big pack of Guerrero
Reduce the amount of water from 200g~227g (66~75%) to 180ml (60%). The dough should be less messy = faster to work with.
Working too fast on anything with gluten is counter-productive, as it starts fighting back. Instead it's better to work small steps on each chunk of dough, like this:
- form all chunks of dough into balls
- turn all balls into UFOs (discs with thick cores and thinner borders), by hand
- turn all UFOs into properly shaped discs, using the rolling pin
This way, as you're working with a chunk of dough, the other chunks have some time to rest.
Table space is usually a concern when you're making tortillas, and that makes the process slower. If possible recruit the help of someone else to fry the tortillas for you, as you're rolling them.
Ivxferre has good advice. My go-to is 3 cups flour, 1/4 c lard/butter and 1 C warm water gets me 12 tortillas depending on size, I get about 7-8 inch. I prefer em pretty light and thin, I don't like the Cozumel thick kind. 4 cups flour/ 1 1/3 cup water, etc. to make 16. I can't say what the measurements are by weight, but I don't spoon my flour into cup measure, I scoop and level.
I usually make the dough and let it rest while I take a break and do something else so it's not such a laborious process. If you can get a partner to work the pan while you roll it can go very fast. The more times you do it the faster you will get, it's always slow the first time to try a new thing.
the trick to tortillas is take a basic flatbread recipe (cup of flour, pinch of salt, half cup of water) and let the dough rest in the fridge for about 15 minutes
why the 15 minute fridge rest? What does that do?
It's the autolyse method, see this : https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2017/09/29/using-the-autolyse-method
My recipe is basically the same as this one from Rick Bayless.
12ounces /385 grams (2 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour, plus a little extra for rolling the tortillas
5tablespoons fresh-rendered lard (look for it at a butcher shop or Mexican market) or vegetable shortening
3/4teaspoon salt
About 3/4cup very warm tap water
Note that this is a low hydration recipe, the way tortillas should be, at 46%
Also there is no baking powder. I can't think of any reason to add it.
Full recipe is Here including video