I don’t know if it’s because I have ‘new baby brain’ or that I am just impatient, but I've noticed that lately when I’m reading information or directions, I’m skimming over the details and basically looking for the Cliffs Notes version. I don’t know why I continue to do this, because I either get lost, show up only to find a “closed” sign, or find myself immersed in a new recipe, only to find that I had completely missed a crucial step. The last one happened just the other day. I decided to try a new recipe and expand our Real Food horizon by making my own tortillas.
I recently searching one of my fave blogs 100 Days of Real Food and found a recipe for whole wheat tortillas. I thought to myself, “Hey, that doesn't look too difficult… 4 ingredients? What could go wrong??” We are definitely a carb loving family, and I find myself constantly trying to find new alternatives to the foods that we are used to eating. The next time you go to buy tortillas, take a look at the ingredient list. I’ll bet it’s longer than 4 ingredients. The challenge is always to find food that is not only healthy and fresh, but also tastes good.
Every night when I get home from work, I walk in the house, hang up my purse, give hugs to the kids and husband, and then it’s go time. I bust out my faithful KitchenAid (by the way, how was anything ever made in a world before KitchenAids??), and got to work. The dough hook was pulling everything together beautifully. I rolled the dough into a log shape, cut it into 8 pieces, and began rolling them out into mini tortillas. “Man I am really good at this! Look at me, making Martha Stewart proud!”
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It was at this point I decided to read over the directions again. Crap!! I was supposed to let the dough rise before rolling them out. Okay, not a problem, I'll just roll them back into ball forms and cover with plastic wrap as directed. It is then that I realized we were out of plastic wrap. Double crap!! I've gone too far to turn back now and abandon my tortillas. I decided to continue to roll out the tortillas and let them “rest” instead of rise! "Can't be too different, right??" After resting for 15 minutes, I let the pan heat up, coat lightly with avocado oil (which smells delicious by the way), and cooked my first tortilla.
It doesn't take long to learn the difference between dough that has risen, and dough that has not.
It turns out that if you don’t allow your dough to rise, it remains heavy because the yeast hasn't had a chance to work its magic lighten the dough. Of course I read later on that I could have also covered the dough with a clean kitchen towel (mental note for the next time I am caught without plastic wrap). Once again, I was not going to let this get in the way of my first go around with homemade tortillas. They were clearly heavier than traditional tortillas, but still looked like they belonged in the tortilla family. When my husband cruised into the kitchen, I gave him a piece of the tortilla to try. Moment of truth…. “Not bad. Flour is better. But not bad.” He ate 2 that night. I consider that a success in my book!
The tortillas may not have turned out 100% as they were supposed to have, but hey, that’s what this journey is all about- learning and trying new things along the way. I’ll definitely be making tortillas again. But next time, I’ll let them rise, not rest, and probably use a different type of flour. I thought that the whole wheat that I used was a bit too grainy. I don’t have a big problem with whole wheat flour, but my husband and son are still not 100% on board with the super health-food taste that it has. I definitely recommend giving this one a try, and if you do, let me know what flour you chose, and how it turned out.