Tortillas

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking powder
3 tbsp lard
2/3 cup warm water

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in bowl. Rub in fat, stir in the water and knead lightly to a soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest 15 min. Divide into 12 pieces and shape into balls. Roll out on a floured surface into 6-7in. rounds. Heat a heavy frying pan or griddle, add one tortilla and cook for 1 ½ - 2 minutes, turning over as soon as the surface starts to bubble. It should stay flexible. Remove from the pan and wrap in a towel to keep warm while cooking remaining tortillas.

WHAT I LEARNED
First off, I didn’t know what the recipe meant by rubbing in the fat. So I called mom. And she explained that it was what I used to watch her do while making biscuits. You hold the lard in your hand and pick up the flour mixture, pressing them together between your palm and fingers and letting the mixture slip through your fingers. You do this over and over until all of the lard is evenly distributed. I found it very interesting how easily I could feel the lard breaking up into the flour and find left over clumps to break up.

Second – when rolling out the tortillas, it takes a lot of flower. The dough is fairly sticky and you need the flour to be successful in rolling it out. Make sure you roll the dough very thin, almost translucent. Otherwise your tortillas will puff up more like a pita.

Third – don’t think you can roll one tortillas out and cook it, then roll out a second and cook it, etc. Roll them all out at once, and then start cooking. The reason is very simple. Your pan is going to be very hot and there is loose powder on the tortillas after rolling them out. If you let the pan sit in between tortillas for any amount of time, the loose flour left behind burns and will get on your next tortilla (and make the house stink).

Last – don’t coat your pan with any non-stick agent, like Pam. It will cause your tortilla to fry instead of bake, making it stiff and tough instead of soft and flexible. Don’t’ worry about your tortillas sticking. They are fairly dry and cooking hot and fast, I didn’t have any problem with them sticking in a pan that is horrid for cooking eggs.