Homemade Tortillas

My husband has Mexican heritage and grew up on authentic Mexican food. Me - not so much. I have learned some tricks and tips, but I am still a long way from authentic. One thing I try to do though is to keep tortillas in the house. Saul has converted me - and we can eat them with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. = )

BUT. . .I was SHOCKED when I saw that one little tortilla had 190 calories in it!! What!! It seems so healthy - you can make wraps with them - and I could easily eat three in one sitting!! Once I saw this, I knew that I could not keep up the tortilla addiction. 

Saul kept talking about how yummy homemade tortillas were though, so a few months after we were married, I tried my hand at it. They didn't turn out too badly and they weren't too hard to make. No, they weren't quite round on my first try either, but they were close enough.

I finally found a recipe that I really like - and that doesn't have nearly the calorie count that store bought ones do. In fact, this recipe only has 90  calories per tortilla - less than half of store bought. Plus, they are super cost effective. Yeah!!

Here is the recipe I use:

Homemade Tortillas

Yield: 8 tortillas

Time from start to finish: 30 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 Tbs. lard/shortening

3/4 cups water

1. Mix flour, salt, and baking powder.
2. Add shortening and mix with hands until the mixture is crumbly.

3. Slowly add water and mix until a dough forms.
4. Kneed dough for a minute or two or until dough becomes smooth and elastic.
5. Roll dough out into a log and cut into 8 semi-equal pieces.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Roll each piece into a ball.
   
   
   
7. Turn skillet on high.
8. Dust the counter with flour. Using a floured rolling pin, flatten dough into tortilla shape. You'll want them to be thin and as large as possible - they usually shrink and puff up when you put them on the skillet. Also, you probably won't end up with a perfect circle - just do your best. Practice makes perfect. = )
   
   
   
9. Place tortilla on skillet - approximately 20 seconds on first side, 10 seconds on the second side.
   
   
   
10. Place finished tortillas in a tortilla warmer or wrapped in a clean towel until it is time to eat.

11. Enjoy!

These tortillas can last awhile in the fridge. You can also flash freeze the dough (either in balls or flattened) then defrost and cook when you want them.

I feel so much better about eating these tortillas - I know exactly what is in them, they taste great, and they have less calories than the store bought ones. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Kathryne

My First Attempt At Making Bread Was. . .

A SUCCESS!! 

I had been wanting to make bread for awhile now and finally convinced myself to try it this past Saturday. We do not have a breadmaker or anything, but I still felt up to the challenge.

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com (a favorite site of mine = ) and we loved how it turned out!!! Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside!

Here are a few pictures from the bread-making process.

After the long hours of kneading the dough and letting it rise, I put it in the bread pans to rise again. (After seeing the smaller loafs of bread, Saul said I could buy bigger bread pans if I wanted too. = )

After letting the bread rise for awhile.

Warm bread, just out of the oven! The smell of fresh bread baking is FABULOUS!!

We couldn't resist eating a few slices while it was warm!!

My bread-making experience made me wonder why I hadn't done it sooner. It turned out great! I loved knowing exactly what was in the bread I was eating. I also loved that the one recipe made four loaves. I was able to take a loaf to church the next day for our soup and salad lunch and freeze two other loaves (before they completed the rising process in order to save room in the freezer). Very Yummy!!

My next adventure is making sourdough bread. I am using this recipe for my starter and so far it has been doing great! I haven't made anything with it yet, but am looking forward to trying it soon.

I'm a newbie at this. Does anyone have any starter or bread-making tips! I'd love any help I can get?

Kathryne

Crustless Apple Pie

The other night we had men's prayer meeting at our house. We usually have a small snack after prayer meeting and I felt like I had absolutely nothing in the house - no brownie mix, no chocolate chips, no anything! I had gone into the office instead of working from home that day, so I didn't have a lot of time to work on something.

On my forty-five minute drive home, which is exactly the reason I now work at home, I brainstormed, trying to think of something to make. I finally remembered that I had a few apples, but I definitely didn't have time to make a pie crust. That is when I came up with the idea for a crustless apple pie. I turned to my trusty search engine and found a recipe.

The final product was more like an apple cake, but it sure was delicious - and fairly healthy too! The following is my tweaked recipe.

Crustless Apple Pie - Prep time - 10 minutes; Cook time - 45 minutes
1 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 c. white sugar
3 eggs
3 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 chopped apples (with skin on)
1 c. nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all of the ingredients except the apples and nuts. The batter will be stiff and even crumbly. Add the apples and nuts to the batter. The juice from the apples should make the batter easier to mix. Pour batter into a greased pie plate (it fits perfectly in a 9"). Bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Here is a picture of the batter. I forgot to snap a picture before we ate it. Maybe next time!


Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Kathryne