I am on my quest try to make some of my favorite, shall we call them "store bought" items at home without adding preservatives or other harmful ingredients. There are so many things I love, but refuse to purchase because of what they contain and the cost of these items. I became so frustrated in the grocery store with the scam of products stating they were healthy or natural, I decided then and there to do my best to make these products at home.
My latest quest is to create a great tasting tortilla without using the one ingredient that gives them their wonderful flavor and texture~~LARD~~dreaded LARD. An ingredient that our forefathers used with zealous to create delicious, artery hardening delicacies, and one that is still used today by the daredevils who care nothing about what they put into their bodies, bless them all. I have found a non-hydrogenated, non-toxic substitute~~virgin or unrefined coconut oil!
It can easily be substituted in any recipe that calls for lard or Crisco, but also can be used in place of vegetable oil as well. I love burritos, tacos, roll ups, just about anything you can put into a tortilla, but do not buy them from the store anymore because of the hydrogenated oils and high fat content. I DO NOT BUY anything that says light, or fat free, or reduced calories, because of in my opinion, these are more detrimental to you than the real product due to the techniques they use to make them "healthier" (the word "healthier" is oozing with sarcasm).
Anyway, I found this wonderful recipe on line, www.survivingthestores.com. (the website shows pictures of what it is supposed to look like). I made one small alteration to the recipe. Instead of using all whole wheat flour, which I find difficult to work with, I broke it down into four different flours, spelt, white whole wheat, whole wheat and unbleached all purpose flour, all organic.
Here is the recipe and I urge you to try it. It is wonderful. I just used them to make chicken burritos and they were fabulous!!! They are easy to make, a little time consuming, but worth it!!!
Ingredients: (I use organic but you do what you wish)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup spelt flour (wonderful tasting)
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup unrefined/virgin coconut oil
1 3/4 cup BOILING water
Extra flour to help with rolling them out
The recipe calls for using a kitchen aid mixer with dough hook. I unfortunately do not own a kitchen aid, even though I have hinted for the last five years how wonderful it would be to own one, so I did it the old fashion way, pastry cutter.
1. Mix all of the dry ingredients, then cut coconut oil into them. Should be coarse consistency.
2. Once everything is mixed, slowly pour the boiling water into the dry ingredients. I used a spoon to mix them together, but then turned the mixture out on a flour counter top and kneaded it for about 5 minutes, until the dough became smooth and not sticky. (Trick I use is push my finger into the dough and when it bounces back it is ready).
3. Form dough into ball and put them on cookie sheet. I used an ice cream scoop so they would all be about the same size. With this recipe, you can make about 35 balls, depending what size you want the tortillas to be. Cover the cookie sheet with kitchen towel and let sit for at least one hour. I let them sit on the counter, covered with a towel for 2 hours and it worked well.I used a large square non-stick pan, but recipes says you can use cast iron if you want. DO not oil the pan, just heat it.
5. Spread flour on flat surface and place a dough ball in the middle of flour. Sprinkle more flour on dough. Recipe says to flatten with a pie pan and then use a rolling pin. I just use the rolling pin and it worked fine. You do have to make sure that you roll the dough very thin, about 1/4 in. thick and 5 or 6 inches in diameter. Mine were all different shapes, mostly in a somewhat circle, but that is the fun of homemade, not perfectly shaped.
6. Make sure the pan is hot, place tortilla on pan and let cook about 30 seconds, flip and 30 seconds on other side. I rolled one while one was in the pan. I put them in a towel and covered them to keep them warm.
I made roasted red pepper and sundried tomato hummus to go with these, OMG FABULOUS!!
Hummus recipe (in case you want it)
1 can (15.5 to 16 oz) can chick peas, reserve 1/4 c. liquid
2 garlic cloves
5 to 6 tablesp. fresh lemon juice
2 tablsp. tahini or 1 tsp sesame oil if you don't have tahini but tahini works better
olive oil
jar of roasted sweet pepper (small) or homemade, which is what I used (I got the small assorted sweet peppers and roasted them)
four large sundried tomatoes in olive oil
Mix chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and tahini in food processor. Blend, adding reserved liquid slowly until mixture mixture comes together. You do not want it soupy. With processor on, add olive oil in slow stream until smooth. Remove from processor.
Add peppers and sun dried tomatoes to food processor, mix adding small amount of live oil, just to form a paste.
Spread this mixture on top of hummus and serve! Fabulous.
If you try this recipe, please comment below and let me know what you think.
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