Flour Fajita/Taco/Gordita Tortilla Recipe: Store versus Homemade

 

Our family was feeling like some tacos and decided to take my first attempt at making these from scratch, but figured it would be a good opportunity to going a little more homemade.

The Contender – Store Bought

The competition: Mission 6 inch Flour Tortilla, $3.39 for 8 tortillas

Ingredients: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Vegetable Shortening (Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil), Contains 2% or Less of: Sugar, Salt, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate and/or Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Calcium Sulfate), Calcium Propionate and Sorbic Acid and/or Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Distilled Monoglycerides, Wheat Starch, Amylase, Tricalcium Phosphate, Cellulose Gum, Dough Conditioners (Fumaric Acid, Sodium Metabisulfite and/or Mono- and Diglycerides).

The Challenger – Homemade

I had a failed attempt at making burrito sized tortilla so went with what seemed be a recipe that required much of the skills I appear to be lacking.

Soft Chewy Flour Tortilla (Fajita/Taco/Gordita) Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup milk

Directions: Add dry ingredients to mixer and set to low speed.  Add wet ingredients to separate bowl, whish briefly and slowly add wet ingredients to mixer.  If the dough is still sticky when you touch it add about a teaspoon of flour at a time until it no longer sticks to your fingers.

Knead the dough for about 2-3 minutes and place ball of dough on a plate and cover with mixing bowl and let it “rest” for 10 minutes.

 

After the dough “rests” cut the dough into 8 equal pieces.  I did what seemed easiest to me:

• Cut dough in half: 2 pieces
• Cut those two pieces in half: 4 pieces
• Cut those 4 pieces in half: 8 pieces.

Below you can see my 5 year old demonstrating this technique.

 

Next roll the pieces into balls and let them “rest” on that same plate for 20 more minutes.

 

Use a rolling pin (or 3/4 wooden dowel if you happen to have one) as thin as you can make them.  Don’t worry they will thicken up when you cook them

The recommended method is to use a quality dry cast iron skilled on gas heat.  Not having either of those, I went with my pancake griddle.  Which from my first try I have a recommendation set the griddle to its highest setting.  Otherwise by the time it starts to brown you will have some baked tortilla chips instead of tortilla shells.  Though my daughters loved “my mistake” with a little butter.

Once they lightly browned, flip over and cook until the second side is brown.  If you skilled is pretty warm this should take less than 30 seconds.  Overall the cooking time was about 10 minutes.

Ingredient	Amount	Cost
Flour	2 cups	$ 0.249
Baking Powder	1.5 teaspoons	$ 0.048
Milk	3/4 cup	$ 0.140
Salt	1 teaspoons	$ 0.007
Vegetable Oil	2 teaspoons	$ 0.017
Electricity	510 watts	$0.030
Total Cost		$ 0.492

The Decision…

	Store Bought	Homemade
Low Price
Great Taste
Low Prep Time

So just over $0.49 to make the same number of tortillas as the $3.39 store bought, that is over 6 times more.  To date this is definitely the best cost savings and I must say the taste between the two is not even comparable to the nice warm tortillas off the griddle.  Homemade is the hands down winner!