Easy Whole-Wheat Tortillas

I love tortillas – you can turn them into some tasty and fairly low-carb meals. Cover the surface of a tortilla with spinach, tomatoes, ham and mozzarella, fold it in half, dry-fry it and you’ve just made yourself an Italian-themed healthy quesadilla. Alternatively layer several tortillas with taco-seasoned mince, onions, salsa and mountains of Mexican cheese and you’ve got a great Mexican casserole for dinner.

I previously mentioned how very limited bread-wise we are in Tenerife. Tortillas are about as bad as it gets. You’d think that we would be surrounded by loads of fantastic Spanish and Mexican food, living on a Spanish island, but oh no. I can’t even get my hands on jalapenos here! There is only 1 type of tortilla available in the supermarkets, so it really is take it or leave it. The tortillas are perfectly fine, but I wasn’t happy with fine, I wanted amazing.

I always go for the whole-wheat option when available, so when I came across this recipe for 100% Whole-Wheat Tortillas, I just had to try it. I couldn’t believe how easy these were to make. Barely any kneading – all the kneading was taken care of by the mixer, anyway – and no time waiting for the dough to rise. The only difficulty I came across was making the tortillas round. If you know your way around a rolling pin maybe you can do a better job than I did.

I quite like my oddly-shaped tortillas anyway – they’re rustic. And they taste so much better than store-bought ones and have got to be much better for you, too. Check out the ingredients list on the back of a packet of tortillas next time you’re at the store. I’m sure there are many more ingredients than the simple 3 required for this recipe!

Easy Whole-Wheat Tortillas

Recipe adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

Makes 10 tortillas

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour

½ cup oil

1 cup warm water

Recipe

1. In the bowl of your mixer with the dough hooks attached, mix together the flour and oil for about 5 minutes. If you don’t have any dough hooks, simply use normal mixing paddles.

2. Whilst the mixer is still running, gradually pour in the water and continue mixing until the dough is smooth – about another 5 minutes.

3. Divide the dough into 10 equal sized pieces and roll each piece into a round ball. Slightly flatten with the palm of your hand and leave to rest in a baking tray for about 20 minutes.

4. Heat a large skillet or frying pan over a medium-high heat – the pan should be really hot before you start cooking the tortillas.

5. Use a rolling pin to roll your tortillas into circles which will fit your pan. Be careful not to add too much flour when rolling the tortillas out – excess flour will burn in the pan.

6. Pour a tiny amount of oil into the hot pan and lightly distribute with a piece of kitchen paper. Delicately transfer each tortilla – one at a time – to the pan and cook until puffy and slightly brown – varies between 30 seconds and 1 minute for each side. If any large air bubbles appear, pop them with a sharp knife and keep your hands away from the scorching air that will escape.

Serve immediately or leave to cool to room temperature before wrapping in plastic wrap and refrigerating or freezing.

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