Tortillas!

We've been making tortillas for a year and a half or two now. I've tried multiple recipes, but the more closely I follow the recipe, the less we like the tortillas. This is an issue because I made a vow not to buy any more tortillas. Do you know how much those things cost now!?! Or how many we can go through? So finally on Tuesday (May 11, 2010, oh blessed day), Micah and I made perfect tortillas! The whole family loved them, but most importantly, James gave them his highest stamp of approval. It's a good thing we liked them because we made 32. Too many to not like! I make mine a nice mediumish 8-10 inch size. It helps to not make them bigger than your pan. : ) I get 10-12 out of this recipe.

1 1/2 c warm water
1 1/2 t salt
1 t sugar
1 t oil
3 1/2- 3/4 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 t yeast (optional)

I mix these up in my bread machine, just layering the ingredients in order, but you could also mix these in a Kitchen Aid or by hand, following any normal bread recipe mixing procedure. Anyway, I throw everything in the machine, and mix until the dough is nice and smooth, but not the whole cycle. Just a few minutes will do.
Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Spread a little oil on the counter top, and dump the dough out on it. Divide into golf ball size pieces, about 8-12 ish. Grab a rolling pin and start rolling. Sort of pat the ball of dough into a round disk to get started. If the dough is sticky I dip one hand in the flour, and pat a little on both sides. You don't want too much, because if it doesn't stick some, you aren't going to roll it out very thin. Just keep those critters as round as you can, and go just about as thin as you can. You can do thicker ones to the a "gordita" effect.
After you get several (or all) of them rolled, heat a dry (no grease) frying pan or two to a mediumish heat. (You know it's too hot if you get a lot of browned spots on your tortillas.) Lay a tortilla in the pan. When it starts getting little bubbles, flip it over and bake the other side. this will only take 45-84 seconds per side. It goes fast. This is good because everyone is getting hungry by this point.
I like to have a team effort going. I roll for dear life, and a kid (usually either Micah or Amanda) cooks.
As you remove the tortillas from the pan place them on a towel, and cover with another towel. Tortillas need to be kept kind of steamy. Don't let these guys dry out. Oh yeah, the goal is to keep these moving fast enough so they DON'T brown at all. Beware of the "cook-it-until-it-is-done" impulse. The paler, the better.
The nice thing about these is that it only takes me about half an hour to 45 minutes to make these, start to finish. Faster than a trip to the store!