Jen's Bean Tostadas and Homemade Flour Tortillas

I know I said earlier that I had to nix tostadas, but I changed my mind. I did a "quick" soak on my beans and I am going to try and make flour tortillas for the first time. Nothing else sounded as good as bean tostadas, so I think I will just make it work. Hopefully, it will turn out well.

Jen's Bean Tostadas

Here is the flour tortilla recipe I am using. It is from one of my cookbooks, Food and Flavors of San Antonio by Gloria Chadwick. (Gloria also has daily updates about her Tex-Mex recipes on her blog titled Food and Flavors of San Antonio as well.) So far, I have prepared the dough and it is currently resting. It was surprisingly easy to whip up, and I can't wait to have fresh, homemade flour tortillas on hand!!!

Flour Tortillas
Courtesy of: Gloria Chadwick, Food and Flavors of San Antonio

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 T vegetable oil
1 cup warm water

Directions:
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the vegetable oil and water. Mix with your fingers until well blended.

Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and knead for 3 to 5 minutes or until the dough is soft and no longer sticky. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and set aside for 20 to 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 18 balls about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Keep them covered with a damp cloth.

Roll out each ball on a floured surface with a rolling pin into a circle about 6 inches in diameter and 1/8" thick.

Cook the tortillas, one at at time, on a hot comal or skillet until they are lightly browned on each side. Yields 18.

Jen's Notes:
I am ashamed to say I have a hard time rolling out dough with a rolling pin. It never comes out the perfect round shape for me, but instead looks like an amorphous blob. I think I will just use my tortilla press instead of rolling these out by hand, and see what happens.

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Many thanks to Gloria Chadwick and her publisher, Pelican Publishing for allowing me to re-post her flour tortilla recipe.



The Result:
These tortillas were really yummy! The only issue I had was that I could not get them thin enough with my tortilla press alone. I used the tortilla press to make them the right (round) shape, but then I really needed to use a rolling pin to make them thinner. I did not figure that out until the end of the process, so most of ours were a little thick and doughy...which is not a bad thing by any means. They were still freakin' delicious!!! I will make them again, I just won't skip the rolling pin step next time...it is imperative to make the tortillas the right texture.