Making flour tortillas with only 5 common ingredients is easy and fun.

There are plenty of recipes that use store-bought tortillas, but this post is about making your own flour tortillas. Many traditional recipes call for using lard, which is not the healthiest ingredient. This recipe uses olive oil, so you can enjoy your home-made tortillas knowing you're using ingredients that are healthier.

The process for making your own, fresh tortillas is easier and faster than making your own bread because the dough is easy to make, and they cook quickly (similar to making pancakes).

Here's the basic recipe to make about 16 tortillas:

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 TSP baking powder (NOTE: This makes the tortillas fluffier. You can omit for flatter tortillas)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 and 1/2 TSP salt

1 cup warm water

DIRECTIONS:

Combine and mix the 3 dry ingredients in your EZ DOH mixer. Again, if you want your tortillas to be very thin, then you can eliminate the baking powder. Then add the warm (about 110 degrees F) water and olive oil, and hand crank your EZ DOH for about 4 minutes to mix and knead the dough. Sprinkle some flour onto your counter or work surface and transfer the dough from your bucket onto the flour. Cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for 45 minutes. This resting period will make it easier to roll out the dough into your tortilla shapes.

Next, you can divide your dough into about 16 pieces that will each be about the size of a ping-pong ball. To be precise, you can weigh each dough ball (mine weighed around 1 and 5/8 ounces).

                                                                    

Now it's time to roll those dough balls, remembering they don't need to be perfectly shaped. Flatten them by hand to start, and then roll them out as flat as you can, and they should measure about 6-8 inches across when you're done rolling.

                                                                                  

You'll need a 'medium' heat on a dry skillet or pan, and expect the first few tortillas to be 'experimental' as you adjust the heat as needed so that the tortilla starts to bubble in ABOUT 40 seconds. Then you'll flip it and cook it for another 40 seconds and then start the next one.....like pancakes, once you get into a rhythm you'll find the process goes smoothly. As a rule, when you see bubbles forming, then the opposite side is starting to develop light brown spots.

 

You'll find that the thinner tortillas work best for tacos while the thicker ones can be turned into almost anything. This can be a fun family event, especially rolling the dough into balls. Since each tortilla cooks quickly (and cools quickly), you don't have to wait a long time for everything to be ready to eat.

             

 

Making flour tortillas with only 5 common ingredients is easy and fun.

Using Farro to Make Hearty Bread

Most posts that promote the virtues of farro suggest you eat it as part of a salad, soup, or breakfast bowl. But I found at least one recipe for using farro to make bread, and that recipe is shown below.

Farro is an 'ancient grain' with lots of protein, magnesium, and zinc. It's known for its nutty flavor and chewy texture.

Our recipe is adapted from https://www.thespruceeats.com/farro-bread-recipe-3062249. There are plenty of excellent recipes and insights on this website.

To find out more about farro, proceed to https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/farro-benefits .

RECIPE (makes one medium loaf):

1/4 cup farro
3/4 cup boiling water
1 and 1/2 TSP salt
1 and 1/2 TBSP butter
1 TBSP molasses
1 TBSP brown sugar (add more if you want to sweeten up your loaf)
1 and 1/2 TSP Red Star platinum dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup whole milk (room temperature)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose unbleached flour

Directions:

*Stir the yeast into the warm water and let it activate while you do the next step.
*Cook/soften the farro in the boiling water for 15 minutes or until all the water is gone. Stir frequently during the cooking. Turn off the heat and let it cool for a minute, then mix in the salt, molasses, butter, and brown sugar. Let this cool down for a 3-5 minutes.
*Put the water/yeast into your EZ DOH container, and add the whole wheat flour, milk, 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, and the farro mixture. Use the hand-crank to blend everything together (about 2 minutes), and then add the other 1 and 1/4 cup of flour and hand-crank for another 2-3 minutes  to get a smooth, elastic mixture.
*Empty the dough into a container that is coated with olive oil. Turn the dough a few times to coat your dough ball, cover the container with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to let it rise for at least an hour (or until it has about doubled in size).
*Take the risen dough, shape it into a loaf and put it into a loaf pan that has been lubricated to prevent sticking (we used olive oil). Cover with a tea towel and let it rise again (until doubled).
*Place in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the temperature in the middle of the loaf reads 185-190 degrees.
*Use a knife to coax the bread from the pan and allow to cool on a rack.
                                                                             

This loaf is a hearty, relatively dense bread with a surprisingly rich texture that stayed fresh for days. In some ways it resembled a pound cake in texture, and I had to be careful when toasting it so it wouldn't fall apart.
                                                                               

The dark color is a result of both the whole wheat flour and the molasses. If you want to find ways to incorporate ancient grains like farro into your diet, this recipe can be a good starting point.

Using Farro to Make Hearty Bread