Taco Night!

For some reason, it has taken me years to start making tacos for dinner. I really have no idea why, as it is a nice, easy dinner. The boys both really seem to love them, too. That always means a meal gets a spot in the rotation! Until this past week, I had always bought flour tortillas at the store for tacos, quesadillas, or fajitas. I had been wanting to try making my own for ages now, but just never did it. After reading yet another post saying how much better they tasted than store-bought ones, I decided to take the plunge. Boy am I glad that I did!! I won't lie, it's definitely quite a bit more work than just opening a package of already made tortillas and nuking them for a minute, but it wasn't hard, so if you have the time, I recommend it. I used a recipe from my favorite food site, Annie's Eats.

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 heaping tsp salt
• 5 Tbsp shortening
• 3/4 - 1 cup water

Directions:
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and shortening (you can use softened, unsalted butter instead, but I chose shortening because that's what I use in my pie dough and I love it!) in a bowl. Use a pastry cutter to mix these ingredients well. Add the water a bit at a time, continuing to knead with the pastry cutter, until the dough forms into a cohesive ball, and the edges of the bowl are clean. Continue to mix well until everything is incorporated completely. You can also use a food processor equipped with a dough blade, but I always make my pie crusts by hand, so I chose to do the same for these, too.




Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface/mat and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Cover these with a clean kitchen towel and let them rest for at least 10 minutes.

It helps to have awesome helpers like these little guys! ;)

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Working with with one dough ball at a time and keeping the others covered, pat the ball into a disc.

Pat it into a disc first.

Dust lightly with flour and roll the dough into a very thin circle, as close to 8 inches in diameter as you can get it.

Time to roll! Flip sides frequently to prevent sticking and roll in different directions to spread it out as far as possible.

Carefully transfer the shaped tortilla to the heated skillet and cook each side for 10-20 seconds, or just until bubbles form and are lightly browned.

Sorry it's hard to see in this pic, but there it is starting to bubble.

Be sure not to overcook, or the tortillas will be too stiff.

They should be lightly browned when you flip them! I cooked them ~20 seconds per side.

Repeat this process with the remaining dough balls, lowering the heat as needed to prevent burning. Store in an airtight bag in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or freeze.

Like I said earlier, it definitely takes a bit of time to make the dough and get all of them cooked, but I still think it's worth it. The tortillas were delicious, and reminded me of what you get at a Mexican restaurant. Much better, and fresher tasting, than their store-bought counterparts! Mine weren't perfect circles, but they worked. ;) We topped ours with seasoned ground beef, shredded lettuce, diced tomato, shredded cheddar cheese, and sriracha sauce. Delicious!

Instead of freezing the leftover tortillas, we made dessert. :) I topped mine with a little butter, cinnamon and sugar and heated it to melt the butter. Yum! Josh and the boys chose to top theirs with melted peanut butter and chocolate chips, also very tasty.

Enjoy! :)