Gluten-Free Flour Tortillas

I am gluten intolerant (bad medical juju). Simply put that means I can’t eat anything with wheat, rye, or barley in it in any form or I get real sick. Oats themselves are probably ok, but because many oats are processed on the same equipment as wheat, it is not usually safe for me. That means no Chicago pizza, no great pasta, no Wheaties, no burritos, no bread of any kind (except gluten-free – most are yuck). I can’t even take communion at church. I have really missed being able to use flour tortillas and this is a good solution.

My wife has to suffer by eating a lot of my meals even though she isn’t gluten intolerant. So last night, I tried to make my own flour tortillas. I was surprised. They were not the nice soft flour tortillas we all love but they were pretty good, howbeit, somewhat thick and stiff. I picked up the basic idea for the recipe on the Net of course and used what I had around the house to make em. Here is the recipe that I used:

2 cups of All-purpose Gluten-free flour (from Bob’s Red Mill this time but usually I make my own)
2 t of xanthan gum
1 t of baking powder
2 t of sugar
1 t of salt
2 T of shortening
3/4 to 1 C of water

1. Heat a skillet or griddle or something flat that gets nice and hot
2. Throw all the dry ingredients into a KitchenAid with the heavy duty blade and mixed em well
3. Add the shortening and mix very well – oh, I suppose you could have done this with a pie crust knife thingie to get that pea size mixture or a food processor would have been good too
4. On high, slowly add the water until it sticks together well and forms a ball
5. Once mixed, break off large egg sized pieces and smash ’em flat – I used two pieces of parchment paper and a rolling pin – a tortilla press would have made this real easy – I made like 6 rectangular tortillas with the rolling pin – I am guessing a tortilla press would have been able to make 8 or so and have been a lot easier
6. Make em all, with wax paper between each one – Ok, in reality I made one threw it in the skillet and while it cooked, flatten the next one – time saver!
7. Cook each one on the griddle until it get all bubbly and brown on bottom, flip it and cook the other side – this doesn’t take a lot of time depending on how thick you made them
8. Use em as you like – some put wax paper between each, and into some kind of container (or some go so far as to get a one trick pony tortilla keeper – see Alton Brown for my opinion on on trick ponies)

I used these for a great enchilada dish I make – it is based on a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. Look for Chicken Enchiladas Suizas.

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