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Old 11-26-2003, 11:07 PM
Ale Ale is offline
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Liquid/fluid recipe for flour tortilla?

I´m having a hell of a hard time trying to make burritos at home; the mix I make needs to be rolled into very thin discs which are impossible to lay on the pan to cook without folding, besides the end result is too crunchy.

I was thinking that a fluid pouring mix would be better, like making a pancake; however since I´m a culinary illiterate I have to seek help here. So, any cooks out there?
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Old 11-26-2003, 11:36 PM
Squink Squink is offline
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If you make
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Old 11-26-2003, 11:37 PM
Squink Squink is offline
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[curses the reply input box for inserting end of post characters]

If you make a liquid batter, you'll end up with something more like a crepe than a tortilla. If you pour it as thin as a regular tortilla, the cooking process will likely put holes all the way through it.
There's a good tortilla recipe in this thread: How do I make a tortilla?
Flour up your rolling pin and the work surface to prevent sticking, and you should have no need to fold the tortilla before tossing it onto the griddle. The trick is to get the right amount of liquid into the dough; too much and it gets all sticky, not enough and you may as well be trying to roll out concrete.
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Old 11-26-2003, 11:50 PM
Ale Ale is offline
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I´m already using Drachillix´s recipe, more or less on the linked thread; but the problems is the mechanical properties of the mix, if I make the tortillas thin enough to be of any use for burritos it´s almost impossible to lift it off the table and put it over the skillet without making a mess; that´s were the problems is.
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Old 11-27-2003, 08:05 AM
Mort Furd Mort Furd is offline
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Practice, practice, and more practice.

My wife and I make our own tortillas. It's sort of Hobson's choice. We can buy them here in Germany, but they've been made to survive the long delivery times from the US to here. The ones that don't taste like sugar smell like vinegar.

The first ones we made had the problems you are talking about - crumbly or sticky and damned hard to make. After a while, you find that the recipes aren't exactly spot on. It takes a smidge more lard or a drop less water or as sprinkle more flour than the recipe says. The recipe gets you something vaguely like a tortilla - learning the skill of making tortillas is what gets you real tortillas.

Keep at it, and remember - unlike a doctor, you can eat your mistakes.

PS:
Try to find a soft plant oil based shortening. We've found that that helps a lot.
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Old 11-27-2003, 09:25 AM
coffeecat coffeecat is offline
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If putting flour on everything as Squink recommended doesn't help enough, roll them on wax paper. My tortilla dough recipe is:

3 cups flour
½ cup oil
enough water to make soft dough - about 1 cup

It has more oil than drachillix's--maybe it's not as sticky. Good luck.
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Old 11-27-2003, 09:38 AM
Chefguy Chefguy is offline
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I know what you're after here, and I used to make these years ago. I no longer have the recipe, unfortunately. As I recall, it consisted of about 1-1/2 cups of water to 1 cup of flour to 1/2 cup of corn meal and maybe a little salt and oil. This created a batter. Then I heated an 8" non-stick pan on the stove, very lightly coated with oil. Pour in the batter by about the 1/4 cupful and quickly rotate the pan to spread the batter thinly. Allow to cook until the crepe forms, then turn to lightly brown the other side.

I don't know how these would work for burritos. I fried them in oil, which made the lightest taco shells imaginable.
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Old 11-27-2003, 09:30 PM
Ale Ale is offline
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Thank you very much Chefguy, that sounds like what I was looking for; perhaps the oil would help to solve the exesive crunchiness of the tortilla... I hope

I´ll try it tomorrow if I have time; pork, olives, onion and parmesan cheese burritos should make a nice treat for my birthday party
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