Recipe

Sonoran Flour Tortillas

by lorelei on August 5, 2009 in Breads

5.00 Mitt(s) 2 Rating(s)

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Recipe Description

Unlike the other flour tortilla recipes already posted, this one is Sonoran style which is thin and chewy instead of slightly puffy and tender. The use of baking powder for leavening is what makes the other recipes tender rather than chewy. This recipe does not use any leavening.

Preparation Instructions

Stir together flour and salt. Mix in vegetable shortening by rubbing it into the flour mixture with your finger tips. Add water, stirring it with a wooden spoon or your hands until a sticky ball forms.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead vigorously for a minute or two to develop the gluten in the dough. The dough will be soft but no longer sticky when you are done.

Let the dough rest, covered with a damp cloth, for about 15 minutes to let the gluten relax a bit.

Divide the dough into 6 or 8 balls depending on how big of a tortilla you are attempting to make (there is enough dough to make six 12 inch or eight 10 inch tortillas in diameter).

Let divided dough rest another 30 minutes, covered with a damp cloth.

Tentatively roll out each ball of dough as thin as possible. You can roll them out between sheets of waxed paper if it is easier for you. Because of the high gluten in the flour, the tortillas will tend to shrink back a bit after rolling it out so you will want to roll each of them out and then set them aside as you work on the remaining balls of dough and let each of them relax again under the damp cloth.

After about another 15 minutes, starting with the first tortilla you rolled out, flatten the relaxed dough again in order to work the tortilla further as thin as you can.

Heat a comal or heavy dry skillet over high heat. Carefully cook the first tortilla for about 10 seconds on each side, flipping back and forth for another 10 seconds per side, until the tortilla looks slightly dry with a few brown spots on each side. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Ingredients

2 cups High-gluten Bread Flour Or All Purpose
¾ teaspoons Salt
3 Tablespoons Vegetable Shortening Or Vegetable Oil
¾ cups Warm Water

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Reviews

frankiesmama on 9.4.2010

These are the perfect texture tortillas, thin enough that you can use them for burritos, tacos, etc. I’ve tried many other recipes, but they are usually much “fluffier” and I was looking for one that is more authentic and this is the one! My family is so excited because they love fresh tortillas and we’ve finally found the right recipe.

I used canola oil, not shortening, and they were perfect. I also skipped the rest after rolling them and stretched them out a bit before flinging them in the pan.

Thank you for the awesome recipe!

Aja on 5.10.2012

I wake up thinking about food, and what we are going to have for dinner tonight. Yesterday morning, I woke up and read an article on a food writers trip to a mexican avocado farm. They were out in the fields, slicing tree ripe avocados, and squishing them into fresh tortillas with a little salt and avocado honey. Now, I live in Texas, and while we have some pretty good tortillas at the joints around town, NOTHING compares to the handmade fresh tortillas at Old Town Mexican Cafe in Old Town, San Diego. So, I went searching, to see if possibly this blond girl could replicate the amazingness of the old mexican ladies that stand in the window of OTMC day after day. These tortillas are EXACTLY like the ones at OTMC. After much internet searching for a recipe that tried to replicate their tortillas, I came upon a as-yet unknown to myself term – Sonoran. I read about some failed attempts at creating these thin tortillas and figured that since I had all the ingredients, I would give it a go. I used plain crisco for my shortening, and since I only had sea salt, almost a full Teaspoon. Following suggestions (and failures) from everything I had read, I used a sharp knife to cut (not rip) the dough into 8 portions. I set the balls far enough apart so they wouldn’t stick together if they expanded a little, I used my french rolling pin (a much thinner version of a rolling pin with tapered ends) and the key thing I did when rolling them out was to flip them over and over while rolling, and use a well floured surface. I skipped the roll/relax/roll step since I was only making a couple yesterday to see if they were any good. And boy were they ever. I used my Emeril non-stick saute pan on med-hi heat on my electric stove. And used my fingers to pick them up and flip them back and forth.
I can’t urge you enough to make these. They are PHENOMENAL! And don’t forget to try rubbing a pat of butter in them as they come off – if you can wait that long before you cram them in your mouth.
Also. I wrapped up my remaining 6 balls in some plastic wrap – each one separately and put all six in a ziplock in the fridge. I rolled out two more this morning for breakfast, and they were just as yum as yesterday.

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