To adventure or no to adventure? We wouldn’t have flour tortillas today if people had been able turn down such a intriguing question!
Charting out to the unknown to build a new life not only requires great courage to make the leap but persistence to keep going even when everything starts to shatter into pieces.
Sailing around the globe to reach the far shores seemed just like such a mad idea. Although many scholars have proven in Ancient Greece that the Earth is round and made approximate calculations about its size, in medieval Europe those studies were less than underpromoted, due to the flat Earth views the catholic church favored.
Luckily, Colombus had heard about those books, due to being a navigator and he was convinced, he could manage such journey just fine. Tales tell that although he knew about the roundness of Earth and had some rough idea about its size, the exact calculations that were done to estimate the size of the Earth and used by Colombus, were based on incorrect data.
Had he known the real size of Earth he would less likely set sail to discover what lies behind the horizon. Luckily for him, there was a continent between Spain and Asia, so he didn’t have to sail all the way round to Japan on those things that barely hit the size requirement for a proper ship.
Where did flour tortilla come from?
New things were introduced to both worlds with some justified unease from the inhabitants of the recently discovered one. Although many things were changed, and some disappeared forever, including native populations, some good things also happened.
Flour tortilla was created to replace the labor-intensive corn tortillas. Flour was introduced by the Spanish “conquistadores”, and it seems that slowly but surely flour tortillas are not only conquering the Mexican cuisine but spreading all over the world and even beyond.
What heights has tortilla reached?
Even though pre-packaged flour tortillas taste revolting compared to the homemade ones, they achieved number two spot, overtaking bagels and muffins, in the packaged food sales race. Not like flavor would matter to anyone who buys packed white bread that holds the first place so it’s no surprise that flour tortillas came this far and even going beyond infinite.
Interesting fact that flour tortillas made into space too, due to their ability of not crumbling around in zero gravity. We have already known that dropped breadcrumbs can cause quite a havoc when it comes to ants, but it seems that the humble, almost invisible flying food bits aren’t compatible with space station grade instruments either.
Why make homemade flour tortillas?
It explains a lot why shop bought tortillas taste like they do. The good news, for those who absolutely abhor pulling out the rolling pin, is that scientists are looking for a solution that uses only the four main ingredient in flour tortilla production, reducing the need of preservatives and the rest of the stuff that mask its flavor.
Until then we still have to make it by hand, but luckily making flour tortillas is, actually, pretty easy and it only needs two eager hands with a rolling pin and a loving heart to make them in no time.
Ingredients
(makes 8 x 50g)
- 2 cups/ 240g Flour
- 1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
- ¾ cup / 180g Water
- 3 tablespoons / 40g Olive oil
How to make Flour tortillas
- Knead flour, water, salt and olive oil until it comes together.
- Divide the dough into eight. Roll them into balls.
- Flatten the balls out into 4″ / 10cm discs.
- Place each side onto a medium to high heat cast iron skillet until golden brown spots start to appear, for about a minute. They may puff up and that’s a good thing.
- To make sure the tortilla doesn’t stick and burn, flip it every 20 seconds. If it burns with 20 seconds flipping time then the skillet is really too hot, if no golden brown spots start to appear after 80 seconds of flipping then the skillet is probably not hot enough. Keep the tortillas under a kitchen towel so they soften up and keep warm.
Enjoy!
There are more things to wrap our food around!
Flour Tortilla Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ cup Water
- 3 tablespoons Olive oil
Instructions
- Knead flour, water, salt and olive oil until it comes together.
- Divide the dough into eight then roll them into balls. (8 x ~50g)
- Flatten the balls out into 4″ / 10cm discs.
- Place each side onto a medium to high heat cast iron skillet until golden brown spots start to appear, for about a minute. They may puff up and that’s a good thing.
- To make sure the tortilla doesn’t stick and burn, flip it every 20 seconds. If it burns with 20 seconds flipping time then the skillet is really too hot, if no golden brown spots start to appear after 80 seconds of flipping then the skillet is probably not hot enough. Keep the tortillas under a kitchen towel so they soften up and keep warm.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!
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