Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Tortillas
Time to ramp up those boring white tortillas!! These super flavorful and colorful tortillas totally enhance your favorite Mexican dishes and those work or school lunch sandwich wraps. Make them ahead of time and freeze for a quick meal or snack whenever you get the hankering. They have so much flavor, they are wonderful eaten alone or simply with cheese.
Servings: 10 large or 20 small
Ingredients
- 2 whole red peppers or 6-7 mini peppers
- 6 garlic cloves skins attached
- 420 g (3½ cups) all-purpose flour fluffed, scooped, and leveled if using a measuring cup
- 1½ tsp (6 g) baking powder
- 1¼ tsp (~7 g) salt
- 6 tbsp (72 g) vegetable shortening or lard (diced into small pieces) butter or coconut oil
- 4-8 tbsp warm tap water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425˚F(220˚C). Cut whole peppers in half. Place peppers and garlic on a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes rotating the peppers and garlic as needed. They should char (blacken) as they roast.TIP: Use 6-7 whole mini peppers in place of 2 large red peppers.
- Use tongs to place the peppers and garlic in a heat-proof bowl and cover immediately with plastic wrap. Allow them to cool for 10 minutes. When they are cool enough to touch, peel off the skins of the peppers and garlic.TIP: You can roast several peppers and more garlic at once reserving what's not being used for this recipe for later use. Remove the skins and place in a sealed freezer bag or container until needed; be sure to thaw in the fridge first.
- Place the peppers and garlic in a food processor or blender. Process until smooth and puréed ~15 seconds.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached, add flour, baking powder, and salt. Turn machine on low and mix until combined. With the mixer on low, add shortening and mix until the shortening is dispersed. Switch to the dough hook attachment and with the machine on low, add the pepper and garlic mixture and continue to knead. The dough will look crumbly. Add warm tap water (1 tbsp at a time, 4-8 total depending on amount of moisture in the pepper mixture and humidity in the environment) until the dough comes together into a cohesive mound as it spins in the machine. The dough should be soft. Knead for 5 minutes increasing the speed to medium.TIP: Instead of using a stand mixer, mix ingredients in a large bowl and knead by hand on a lightly floured work surface. Add water as needed to create a soft ball. The dough should not be sticky but tacky.
- Remove the bowl from the machine and use your hands to form the dough into a ball and place it at the bottom on the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and allow the dough to rest on the counter for at least 30 minutes.TIP: You can prepare the dough a day ahead of time. Place the dough in the fridge overnight or until you’re ready to divide, shape, and cook the following day.
- Remove the dough and place it on an unfloured work surface (you can add a little flour if the dough is sticky). Divide the dough into preferred sizes either 10 large pieces (~76 g each) or 20 small pieces (~38 g each). You can weigh or eyeball the sizes.
- Roll each dough piece into a smooth ball in your hands. You can place each dough ball on the work surface (all flour moved aside), cup your hand behind each ball, and roll the ball towards you along the surface so the friction creates a smooth ball all around.
- Cover them with a towel and allow the dough balls to rest for 15 minutes.
- Heat a large dry (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Use a rolling pin to roll out one tortilla into a 10-inch circle for a large tortilla or a 5-inch circle for a small tortilla. Roll thin enough to see through the dough. Keep the surface well-floured to prevent the dough from sticking. Flip the tortilla over as you roll. If the tortilla retracts as you roll, allow the tortilla to sit for a few moments to get used to its new shape and continue to roll. If the dough begins to curl, flip it over and roll on the other side. Keep all resting, untouched dough balls covered, or they will dry out as you roll out and cook the others.TIPS: Skillet has heated enough to cook the tortillas when a splatter of tap water sizzles when it hits the skillet. Adjust the stove temperature as you go. Start out high and decrease as needed. If you cook the tortillas at a temperature too low, they will be stiff. If they are cooked at too high of a temperature, they will brown (even burn) too quickly.
- Cook each tortilla as you roll out the next one. Turn down the heat to medium. Place a tortilla in the skillet and cook for 1 minute or so (until brown spots appear on the underside). Flip the tortilla and cook for another 30 seconds or until brown spots appear. Set the tortillas aside on a heat-proof, foil-lined plate with another sheet of foil on top to keep them warm. Continue to roll out and cook the remaining tortillas stacking them on the plate as they cook. Keep foil over the top tortilla.TIPS: Use a paper towel to wipe loose flour out of the pan as needed to keep the flour from burning. The tortillas should be soft and foldable. They should form bubbles, but they will deflate as they cool. You can also place a heat-proof, foil-lined plate in a 200˚F (93˚C) oven and stack tortillas as they bake to keep all the tortillas warm before serving. Keep a sheet of foil over the top tortilla, so they don't dry out.
Video
Notes
Serving Suggestions:
Use tortillas in any recipe that calls for soft flour tortillas.
-pinwheels
-burritos
-chips (brushed with oil, topped with salt, cut into triangles, & baked at 400˚F for 10 minutes flipping at 5 minutes)
-enchiladas
-fajitas
-quesadillas
-sandwiched wraps (rolled flatbread sandwiches filled with cheese, meats, veggies, & preferred condiments)
-tacos
-taquitos
Storing Suggestions:
Store the cooked tortillas in a sealed plastic bag at room temperature for up to a week. For longer storage, freeze for a couple of months. Reheat in the microwave between 2 damp towels or in a dry skillet over the stove until warm.