My dad is a junior-high football coach. Parents love him. He knows that football is for fun at that age, and if a kid goes home from a game without a dirty uniform, the kid probably didn’t have fun. Win or lose, second string gets to play.
Maybe the mark of a cook who had fun is how dirty the apron got, or maybe not. But if Colette in Ratatouille is to believed, “Mark of a chef: messy apron, clean sleeves.” I, however, never claimed to be a chef, so I get messy sleeves too.
Today, I made homemade tortillas. Usually, I use a sifter to mix the dry ingredients, cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter, and then mix in the water with a spoon until the flour is almost a dough. Then, I take over and do the kneading by hand. (But if I had a KitchenAid mixer or a bread machine, I’d let a machine do that part too.) I’m a working mom, and efficiency is paramount when I’m cooking. But cooking lost its entertainment value long ago, when I ran out of time to “put the love in,” and my husband does most of the cooking these days. Today, I made tortillas during my tiny girl’s nap, and today, I was reminded why I used to love to cook.
To make tortillas, I use spelt flour, which is a low-gluten relative of wheat. Spelt is great for denser and/or flakier breads (such as tortillas or flatbreads) because gluten is what make cakes and breads fluffy and springy. This recipe works great with whole-grain or white wheat or spelt flour, though.
Three cups of flour, two tsp of baking powder, and one tsp of salt went in first. Rather than using a sifter, I massaged the dry ingredients together with one hand, “sifting” them through my fingers and rubbing out the lumps. I then put in 4 Tbsp (the recipe calls for 4-6) butter-flavored vegetable shortening. Using the same hand used for sifting the flour, I pinched off lump after lump of shortening, massaging it into the flour. Finally, I gradually added one cup of warm water (the recipe calls for up to 1.25 cups), folding it through the pebbly-looking flour/shortening mixture. Already, I could tell the difference. My dough was smoother, doughier, and less sticky than usual, and it kneaded into a perfect tortilla dough in no time. After their 10-minute “rest,” I rolled out each tortilla (the recipe makes 12), and the difference in the dough was even more obvious. My tortillas usually roll out too flat or stick to the rolling pin. These were perfectly smooth and springy, and they made just the right size and shape on first try. Cooked on a dry skillet at 325 degrees, they went great with my husband’s amazing fajitas.
My dress (who needs an apron?) was white with flour, I had a smudge of flour under one eye (like a football player’s anti-glare), my hands were happily tired, and I felt remarkably calm.
Tags: cutting in, dough, shortening, spelt, tortillas, whole grain
