Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup shortening or lard (you can substitute butter) cold
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup warm water
Preparation:
With a pastry blender or back of fork, blend flour, baking power, salt and shortening, until it resembles coarse meal. When well combined, slowly add water until soft dough forms. Add additional warm water as neccesary. Knead for 5 minutes. Separate into 12 portions for small tortillas and 6 portions for large tortillas. Heat a comal or griddle over medium heat.Place a piece of cellophane over the bottom of your tortilla press. Place a dough ball in center and cover loosely with more cellophane. Press the tortilla out with the press and carefully peel the cellophane off and immediately transfer the dough tortilla onto the comal or griddle. You can use the press without the cellophane, but it may be hard to remove the dough from the press. Try flouring the press before each tortilla if you decide not to use cellophane. Or if you don't have a press you can roll each one out approx. 1/8 inch thick.
Place each raw tortilla on the hot comal and cook on each side for about 1 minute. If it puffs up at all, you can poke a hole in the puffed area to release the steam. Cook it until it is no longer doughy. Remove from the comal and place onto a plate covered by a towel. Use the edges of the towel to pull over the tortillas as you cook them, to keep them warm.
