I was getting tired of the pasty, store bought tortilla shells that seem to stick together, so I set out to make my own homemade ones, hoping for a more authentic experience. I looked through a lot of different suggestions on-line and in the end, I landed on something from a few different sources.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup Crisco
• 1 cup hot tap water

Mixing The Tortilla Ingredients

1. Use a bowl that allows you enough room to mix the ingredients with your hands. Electric or handheld mixers don’t really do well with this recipe.
2. Put the flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl and mix it together.
   
   
3. Once that is mixed, add the Crisco and keep mixing with your hands so it gets spread through the flour mixture nicely.
   
   
4. Next, try to move the flour mixture so you create a bit of a hole in the centre where you’ll pour your first bit of water. I like to do a ¼ cup at a time.
   
   
5. Now knead the dough and add water as you go and keep kneading the dough. I knead the dough for about 10 minutes. The longer you knead it, the more likely the tortillas will have some fluffiness to them.
   
   
6. Next, you’ll want to divide the dough into a ball shape. The size of the balls really depends on the size of the tortilla you want to roll out. I make mine thin and medium in size, so I can get about 10-14 tortilla shells from this recipe. In ball form place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and flour them lightly.
   
   
7. Let the dough balls sit for about 15 minutes covered with a clean dish cloth.
8. While you’re waiting to roll out the dough, pre-heat your griddle to 250 degrees.
   
   
9. When the 15 minutes have passed, roll out each dough ball with a rolling pin and start cooking them on the griddle.

Cooking Them On A Griddle 

1. If your griddle is at 250 degrees, cook them about 1 ½ to 2 minutes on the first side and 1-1 ½ minutes on the other side, flipping them once you see bubbles that stop coming up in the dough, or to your taste preference. The time may vary depending on how thing or thick you’ve rolled out your dough ball. If you leave them on the griddle too long, they’ll come out too crispy and rigid and you won’t be able to fold them over.
2. Put them on a flat plate when they’re ready, on top of each other and if you’re not ready to eat them until your other food is ready, cover them and put them in the oven to stay warm (do not have the oven on).

The tortilla’s I made are about 140 calories per shell. 

Some of the ingredients you can buy on Amazon if you can't make it to your local store:

• Baking Powder
• Robin Hood All Purpose Flour

This is an opinion article by Guido Piraino of  The Monthly Social Podcast. It may also be heard on The Path Radio Mix Online. You can read other opinion articles on the blog page. You may also enjoy video content of The Monthly Social Podcast on YouTube or The Path Radio Mix on YouTube.  For sports content, please consider The Coach's Call YouTube Podcast.