Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

An easy bread alternative....

Don't know if it's just a Texas thing or not but you can substitute these for bread in a lot of cases.

am I retarted? or is this viable?


Flour Tortilla Recipe

Ingredients:
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1/2 tsp. baking powder
* 3/4 cup warm water<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Directions:
In a bowl, blend flour, salt, baking powder and shortening until it resembles fine meal.<o:p></o:p>
Add warm water, a little at a time, to flour mixture and toss until liquid is incorporated. Water amountwill vary with different flour types.<o:p></o:p>
Form dough into a ball and kneed on a floured surface until dough is smooth and elastic. Divide, and make 12 smaller balls. Cover and let stand at least 30 minutes.<o:p></o:p>
Cooking Tortilla:
Roll each ball of dough on a floured surface to make 6 or 7 inch sized tortillas. Place on a pre-heated griddle or cast iron skillet and cook till medium golden on both sides.<o:p></o:p>
Remove to a basket lined with a cloth towel or put between a towel until cool. After the tortillas have cooled completely, store them in a plastic bag. This recipe will make approximately 12 flour tortillas.<o:p></o:p>

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Very viable.

We use tortillas quite a bit. They store very well, dont require as much in the way of ingredients as regular bread, and they cook quickly.

AS far as your other question? :tongue_ma:

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

That sounds faster and easier than making bread, and my family loves Tex/Mex. Tortillas would be a good alternative for at least some of our bread consumption...along with good ol' cornbread! And somewhere I have a recipe for making saltine crackers, too.

Thanks for the recipe, I'll add it to my survival notebook!:s9:

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Use - Yeah - we eat the heck outuvem.

Just never really cooked any.

I Picked up a bag of "just add water" mix from commie-mart just a while ago.


It's got milk and oil products in it so I'm assuming that's a no go for long term storage -- whereas the ingredients for homemade can be.

I'm gonna start messing with this and see what I come up w/.

Guess I'll be in the kitchen for a while. I wish my wife could cook:bear_cry:

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

We have plans for unsweetened pancakes... they don't keep like tortillas, but don't use a lot of precious oil/fat and are muy fast to whip up.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

I've had good luck rolling wheat flour tortillas with a maple rolling pin but found that method totally useless when making corn tortillas. Finally bought a tortilla press and that worked great. Am I the only one who has had trouble rolling corn tortillas?

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

We started making ours when prices hit $3+ per dozen, and haven't bought them since even though prices have dropped some. Homemade tortillas are easy to make and are the BEST things to eat hot off the griddle. Also a good way to cycle through the flour, which we buy bulk, so it doesn't sit around losing nutrients for too long. My 11 y.o. daughter makes ours; it is a great recipe that a kid can handle entirely and working with the dough is fun for them. Great way to get your kids to learn to cook, and while you're at it, point out that it turns like 25 cents worth of ingredients into $3 worth of food.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Merlin - I have not tried to make corn tortillas just yet. But I used a Maple rolling pin for the flour tortillas I made this afternoon.

They turned out ok..:bath:


The first few were too doughy. The next ones came out too thick and bready. THen I had some come out like 6" communion wafers.:rofl:

I finally got the right balance... They were ALL edible.. It just took some time to get afeel for the right consistancy.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

My experience exactly. But, when you get to the corn flour, first they'll stick to the rolling pin (even if it's floured) and then they'll fall apart when you try to pick them up some way to get them onto the griddle/pan. With the tortilla press (sold in the Hispanic food aisle at the grocery store in light-weight aluminum for under $20) slit open a zip lock bag so it is hinged on one side, insert it between the plates of the tortilla press, put your little ball of dough between the two pieces of plastic, and press it out. It is then easy to transfer the perfectly formed corn tortilla to the skillet. I have a friend whose Mexican grandmother does them by hand, LOL; but that takes years and years of practice, preferrably starting when you're a little girl.:s9:

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Well sir... I'm a little behind then - because I've never been a little girl:biggrin:

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

See, we're both behind and we're never gonna catch up. Gotta buy an inexpensive tortilla press if you want to make the corn kind. Just sayin. Unless, some of our GIM brothers and sisters have a better suggestion.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

We make flour and corn tortillas from scratch sometimes, but the Costco uncooked flour tortillas and the fresh corn tortillas from the carniceria down the street are just too handy, most of the time.

Nevertheless, we know how to make them perfectly if need be. We tend to make all of our risen yeast breads ourselves, as we can't buy bread that tastes as good as what we bake ourselves.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

I don't use shortening either. Try an equivalent amount of olive or coconut oil. Either of those has to be better for you than the typical hydrogenated glob of agri-chem in shortening.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Pilot bread- lasts for 10 years or more. Tortillas much tastier though.:s9::tongue_ma:

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Actually, pork lard would be perfectly fine to use instead of shortening. You can also use rendered beef fat. Either would be healthier for you than shortening.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Warm bannock with jam... yum.

Bannock Recipe
Ingredients:
� 4 cups flour
� 4 teaspoons baking powder
� 1 teaspoon salt
� 4 tablespoons oil
Directions:
1. Mix ingredients and add water until you have a doughy consistency. Knead approximately 10 minutes.
2. You can add cinnamon/brown sugar to make it taste a bit differently.
3. Grease and heat a frying pan. Form the dough into cakes (sort of like tortillas or pancakes) about 1/2
inch thick and dust lightly with flour.
4. Lay the bannock in the frying pan.
5. Wiggle the pan every so often to keep the bannock from sticking.
6. Once a bottom crust has formed and the dough has hardened enough to hold together, turn them.
7. Cooking takes 12-15 minutes.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

The Spanish verb for doing corn tortillas by hand is "tortillar". I have seen it done in Mexico many times and have tried it but mine fall apart. I suspect that as said above this takes a lifetime of practice. In terms of survival bread; the Mexica people have been surviving on them for centuries.
If you wnat to make these from scratch, soak corn in water with lime or wood ashes overnight. A gallon or so of corn with approx. 2 gallons of water and a cup or so of lime or wood ashes. The proportions of the lime / wood ashes is not very critical------all you are really doing is making hominy.
Anyway when the husks are slipping wash the hominy in fresh water, to float out the husks and grind with a Corona mill, hand flour grinder or in a stone morter and pestil---a metate in spanish. At this point you have prepared masa which is ready to be baked on a skillet, on a piece of sheet iron or on the head of a barrel which has been sawn in half with a large "rat hole" cut in one half for tending the fire to heat the head of the barrel. If you use the end of the barrel with the bung you can screw a piece of pipe in it to make the fire draw better. An advantage of this arrangement is that the barrel head is thin and it takes a relatively small amount of wood or charcoal to heat the large head of the barrel where multiple tortillas can be baked at one time. The barrel head can also be used simultaneouslly as a general cook top for skillets etc. to cook beans, meat or whatever elce.
To break in your new "range" put a hot fire under it and the paint will blister and come off, scrub it good with a wire brush after it is well burned and while it is still hot. Follow up with a good scouring with SOS pad sand etc.
Oh well! I have run on, you probably did not want to know all this anyway.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

Oh well! I have run on, you probably did not want to know all this anyway.[/QUOTE]

The hell I didn't, please tell more as far as I am concerned.

And if that is all you got/are going to share, thanks either way.

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

The hell I didn't, please tell more as far as I am concerned.

And if that is all you got/are going to share, thanks either way.[/quote]


No kiddin'

That was a fantastic contribution for a first post...

Re: Survival Bread - Tortillas
 

BTW, not exactly SHTF> flour torts freeze well. I go to the local Grocery Outlet and pick them up fairly cheap, then stack them in the freezer.