Homemade Tortillas

When we moved from California to our little town in Pennsylvania 22 years ago, I went to the local market to buy some tortillas for dinner. To my shock, they did not carry any! For a Californian who loves Mexican food, this was a catastrophe. Burritos and tacos were staples in our menu, so I knew I needed to find out how to make tortillas myself.

Here is the recipe I used back then. I'm not sure where it came from, and let me tell you, it took a few tries before I got the "feel" of how moist the dough should be to be just right for rolling. I did not have a tortilla press, so I had to roll them out by hand to get them thin enough for burritos, but I made many a tortilla by this recipe until our local store finally started carrying packaged tortillas.

TORTILLAS

4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. Crisco
14 oz. boiling water

Instructions:
Mix dry ingred. together; cut in Crisco. Add boiling water all at once, and mix with spoon until smooth. Knead dough with hands until elastic. Pinch off balls of dough one at a time and roll out on lightly floured board. Keep remainder of dough covered with damp cloth while working. Bake in non-stick ungreased skillet or on griddle, on med. high heat. Makes abt 18 med size flour tortillas.