I've always wanted to know how to make tortillas.   I tried lots of times but often ended up with a mess, irritable, and a few hours poorer.

Then one day I found the recipe in the cookbook by the creators of www.Lovetolearn.net and had good success.  I modified their recipe recently to allow for the benefits of lactofermentation to make more of the vitamins in the wheat bioavailable.  Voila! A smooth supple dough that rolled out easily, no flouring needed.  The tortillas were strong and pliable and smooth textured.  Hooray!

Soaked Flour Tortillas

5 cups 100% whole wheat flour (I used Montana Gold Hard White Wheat)

2 teaspoons Salt

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 1/4 cups raw soured milk (or place 2 Tablespoons of plain yogurt in a glass measuring cup and fill with enough warm water to yeild 2 1/4 cups.)

Use a heavy duty mixer to beat well into a soft dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight or about 8 hours. 

Divide into 20 balls and roll each into a thin circle (7-8 inches in diameter.)  Cook on a hot ungreased griddle or cast iron pan for a few minutes on each side or until bubbles form and turn brown in spots.

Tip:  I roll mine out on a silicone baking sheet and a well seasoned wooden rolling pin.

Cover with a towel to keep soft.

It took me about 30 minutes to make 20 tortillas with a griddle that would hold 2 at a time.  These store well frozen or in the refrigerator.

How much does it cost? 

It was hard for me to find a comparible product commercially but the closest I came was sprouted wheat tortillas which were around $3.69 for 8 or $9.25 for the amount in this recipe.  The homemade recipe cost is $1.76 and 30 minutes of time.  If you made your own soaked wheat tortillas instead of buying them at the store it's like making $14.98 an hour.

(If you want to know how I found how much the tortillas cost, read the paragraph below.)

On the assumption that there are 3.5 cups of flour in a pound, we need 1.5 lbs for this recipe.  I buy my flour at clnf.org for 50 lbs for 25.50 or $.51 a pound.  I have $.75 of flour in this recipe.  Olive oil at CLNF is 16 oz for 7.25 or $.22 a Tablespoon.  I have $.44 in this recipe.  Real Salt is 26 oz for $5.25.  Assuming .16 oz per teaspoon the cost is $.03 per teaspoon.  Yogurt is $2 a quart (64 Tablespoons) at Walmart or $.06 for this recipe.  I'll assume water is free.  (My raw milk is $3 a gallon or $.37 in this recipe.)

Hourly wage is found by taking what you could have spent ($9.25) minus what you did spend ($1.76) and multiplying by the factor by the time you spent to reach an hour (in this case x 2).

Tomorrow I will share a dinner 911 recipe to use when you have tortillas in the fridge and 10 minutes to prepare dinner.