Soft Homemade Flour Tortillas

Soft and yummy! They taste like fresh tortillas from my favorite Mexican tortilleria at home in Imperial Beach (San Diego). But, interestingly, there's an egg in the dough.. and that's actually a Honduran "Baleada" variation. You can use oil (or possibly shortening?) in place of lard; they won't have the same authentic taste, but they're still good. I've tried making these with the KitchenAid and I've kneading them by hand.. perfect either way. I've also experimented with hand-pressing vs a tortilla press vs simply using my rolling pin. I definitely prefer the rolling pin method! If your result isn't as soft as you would like, use a little more lard on your hands when shaping the balls.

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 12 tortillas

Ingredients

• 4  cups flour
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
• 1  large egg
• 1⁄3 cup  lard
• 1  cup warm water
• 1  tablespoon  lard, reserved for shaping balls

Directions

1. Whisk the baking powder and salt into the flour.
2. Mix in egg using a wooden spoon.
3. Cut in the lard (easiest using a pastry cutter, but can be done with forks or butter knives).
4. Add warm water.
5. Mix, then knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth (I do about 5 minutes).
6. Lightly coat hands with some of the reserved lard, and then shape dough into 12 balls. It will be necessary to re-coat hands every 1-2 tortillas. The dough will seem too wet, but it's okay!
7. Lightly flour your board and rolling pin, roll out into thin disks. If you're having trouble getting the tortillas thin enough, use a little more flour on your dough board.
8. Fry in a dry pan (no oil) on medium high heat, flipping once.
9. Keep warm in towel until ready to serve. Or keep in gallon ziplock in the fridge.
10. OPTIONAL: Kitchen-Aid mixer with dough hook will work instead of hand-kneading.
11. OPTIONAL: I actually prefer to cook them as I roll them, instead of rolling them all out and then cooking them.
12. OPTIONAL: Original recipe instructs, after kneading, to place in a NON-metallic bowl, cover with a wet paper towel, and let rest for 20 minutes. Then again, after shaping balls, rest again (similarly covered) for 10 minutes. I usually skip these steps and think they're still great.
13. NOTE: Supposedly you should try to make SMOOTH balls, tucking in the bottom similar to yeast rolls, but in my opinion, it makes no difference.