[0 - 1] - Hi, I am Saul Montiel.
[1 - 2] I'm a professional chef,
[2 - 5] and today, I'm making flour tortillas.
[5 - 7] I'm gonna show you how to make flour tortillas
[7 - 12] buttery, fluffy, tender, warm, delicious.
[12 - 14] This is flour tortillas 101.
[15 - 16] Making flour tortillas is one
[16 - 19] of the easiest simple things to do,
[19 - 21] and these are the ingredients that you have on your kitchen,
[21 - 24] so there is no excuses for you to do this flour tortilla.
[24 - 28] They're so simple, so good, so delicious, and so fresh.
[32 - 33] So when making my flour tortillas,
[33 - 35] I'm gonna use two cups of all purpose flour,
[36 - 39] a little bit of salt, and I'm gonna add some butter.
[39 - 40] And the reason why I use butter
[40 - 43] is because the butter adds some sweetness
[43 - 44] to the flour tortilla.
[44 - 48] If I use lard, it will be more on the savory side.
[48 - 50] I prefer little sweet flour tortillas
[50 - 52] and that's one of the reasons why I use butter.
[52 - 55] The main thing has to be very soft, like almost creamy,
[55 - 57] so it would be easier for you to whip.
[57 - 60] The texture needs to be very similar to shortening,
[60 - 62] like this, very spreadable.
[62 - 65] And what we want on the dough is we want a smooth dough.
[65 - 69] If you use cold butter, it's going to be harder to mix.
[69 - 71] So you need to make sure we incorporate
[71 - 74] the flour with the butter.
[74 - 77] We don't wanna see no little spots of butter into this mix.
[77 - 78] So what I'm doing right now,
[78 - 80] I'm making sure I dissolve all the butter,
[80 - 82] so it'll be easier to mix with the water.
[82 - 84] This takes a little patience,
[84 - 86] and that's something that sometimes I don't have.
[86 - 88] Now, I'm gonna add the water little by little.
[88 - 89] Your water has to be warm
[89 - 92] because that's gonna help the gluten rise faster.
[92 - 93] So using warm water,
[93 - 97] it will make a nice fluffy tortilla without being too dry.
[97 - 98] Little by little,
[98 - 101] I'm actually controlling the texture of the dough.
[101 - 104] I want you to feel the consistency on your fingers.
[104 - 107] The texture right now is pretty dry.
[107 - 109] When do you know your dough is ready?
[109 - 110] It is when you don't see any flour
[110 - 113] around your bowl, on your hands.
[113 - 115] So see right now, it's a little bit sticky.
[115 - 116] That's not ready yet.
[116 - 117] If it feels too wet,
[117 - 120] you can keep mixing it till you get more elastic dough,
[120 - 122] or you can add a little bit of flour.
[122 - 125] But in this case, I think I'm gonna keep working it, the dough.
[126 - 127] It's been three minutes,
[127 - 129] and I'm already out of breath.
[129 - 130] This is what I'm talking about.
[130 - 131] When you get to this point,
[131 - 133] that means that you're very close to the end.
[133 - 135] So now we're just gonna put it here,
[135 - 136] and we're going to work this dough
[136 - 138] like if you're makin' a pizza,
[138 - 141] 'cause we have to make sure we incorporate all the butter
[141 - 143] and also the gluten starts working.
[143 - 146] Look at my hands, they're almost clean
[146 - 147] and the dough doesn't stick to my hands,
[147 - 149] so this is almost done.
[149 - 151] How do you know your dough is ready?
[151 - 153] When you have a very smooth surface.
[153 - 154] I can see that it is not smooth enough,
[154 - 156] so we're gonna do another three minutes.
[156 - 158] And also, when it's not sticky.
[158 - 160] And we want this elastic dough.
[160 - 162] You see how it broke right here?
[162 - 163] So we wanna work this dough a little bit more
[163 - 166] 'cause we have to make sure we incorporate all the butter
[166 - 170] and also the gluten starts working and resting.
[170 - 173] We did this for almost 10 minutes, right.
[173 - 175] So now, one way to find out if your dough is ready,
[175 - 177] I'm just gonna press.
[177 - 179] And if it bounces out, that means it's ready.
[179 - 180] Now, I'm gonna put it in this bowl.
[180 - 182] I'm gonna let it rest for 10 minutes,
[182 - 184] and I'm covering it with a towel so it doesn't dry out,
[184 - 186] 'cause if it dries out and then you stretch it,
[186 - 187] it will break the crust.
[187 - 189] So we don't want a flakey tortilla.
[192 - 193] When cooking flour tortillas,
[193 - 197] I prefer to use a cast iron grill because it's thicker,
[197 - 200] so it holds heat for a longer period of time
[200 - 203] and also the heat spreads around evenly.
[203 - 206] You can use a cast iron skillet and it will do the work
[206 - 210] or any heavy, thicker bottom pan that can hold the heat.
[210 - 213] Before we start working with the dough,
[213 - 216] we're gonna make sure your grill is medium heat,
[216 - 217] and we're gonna add some neutral oil.
[217 - 219] And we're gonna get a dry towel,
[219 - 221] and we just going to wipe it a little bit.
[221 - 224] Now, I'm going to shape the tortillas.
[224 - 227] We're gonna cut this in half, in quarters,
[227 - 231] so basically, we cut this in even portions.
[231 - 233] Basically, I use this part of my hand
[233 - 237] kind of to push it and then bring it back,
[237 - 238] push it, bring it back.
[238 - 241] But now, we do it faster speed.
[242 - 244] I'm gonna do once again, push it back.
[244 - 246] We don't want to overwork the dough
[246 - 248] because it's gonna be very hard to stretch.
[248 - 250] Now it's time to roll them up.
[250 - 252] Now let's do a little bit of flour.
[252 - 255] It's going to prevent it from sticking to the dough.
[256 - 258] Okay, so it looks like
[258 - 263] we have probably two ounces of tortillas, right,
[263 - 267] so we're gonna make this into 7" tortilla.
[268 - 272] You want to have a perfect circle, like this ones.
[272 - 275] Just start pressing it from the middle.
[275 - 276] There's a line here, there's a line here.
[276 - 277] I just go there,
[277 - 280] and then I flip it and do the same thing.
[280 - 281] The reason why I flip it is
[281 - 284] because I want to make sure it's spread evenly.
[284 - 288] Now if you do this all the way there,
[288 - 290] so you will have a very thin edge
[290 - 292] and when you cook it, you will burn it.
[292 - 294] The thickness of the tortilla is going to decide for
[294 - 296] how long you're going to cook it on each side.
[296 - 298] The thinner, the faster,
[298 - 299] the thicker, the longer.
[301 - 303] When do you know it's ready to turn this tortilla?
[303 - 306] When you start seein' the top a little bit more dry
[306 - 308] and also more bubbles.
[308 - 309] It might look like I'm overworking the dough,
[309 - 311] but I'm not putting a lot of pressure.
[311 - 313] I'm just spreading the tortilla.
[313 - 316] If I put a lot of pressure, it won't be as good.
[316 - 318] I think this one is ready, looks good.
[318 - 321] I don't wanna overcook it because I don't want it to be dry,
[321 - 322] right, and I want this to be elastic.
[322 - 324] Well, this is how my grandma used to do it.
[324 - 326] She will grab one of these tortillas,
[326 - 330] and then if we come back to normal, that means it was right.
[330 - 332] So that was a quality control from her side.
[332 - 334] We want to keep them nice and warm
[334 - 336] 'cause that's going to help with the elasticity.
[336 - 338] If you just leave it like that
[338 - 340] with nothing, with no love,
[340 - 341] they're gonna get dried out.
[341 - 343] They're gonna get cold really fast,
[343 - 344] and they're gonna be tough to eat.
[344 - 346] Let's say that you don't have
[346 - 348] a nice beautiful roller like me.
[348 - 350] Gonna use it by hand.
[350 - 354] Again, from the center to the sides, see.
[354 - 355] It's gonna take a little longer,
[355 - 357] but just don't want you to have excuses
[357 - 359] for you not to make tortillas.
[359 - 362] Now we're gonna do some pizza techniques.
[364 - 366] Then you stretch it.
[366 - 367] Guys, there's no excuses, right.
[367 - 369] Let's make these tortillas.
[369 - 371] With rolling pin or without rolling pin.
[372 - 373] See, this tortilla is yelling me,
[373 - 374] "Turn me around, turn me around.
[374 - 376] "There's too many bubbles."
[376 - 378] You see bubbles, that means it's ready.
[381 - 386] The best part of making tortillas is tasting them.
[386 - 387] Let's try them.
[388 - 389] Oh, they're nice and warm.
[389 - 391] This is how my grandma used to do it.
[391 - 396] She used to put salt, and then you roll it up, Mm mm.
[397 - 399] They're buttery, tender.
[399 - 401] It's the perfect tortilla to put anything you want,
[401 - 404] just avocados, salsa.
[404 - 406] This tortilla won't overpower any other ingredient
[406 - 407] that you might put in here,
[407 - 410] so it has the perfect balance of the flour and the butter.
[410 - 414] Beautiful, nice and warm, soft.
[414 - 418] The trick, it works perfectly.
[418 - 420] I can see they're nice and tender.
[420 - 421] So this is what I was telling you,
[421 - 423] they need to be a little elastic, right,
[423 - 424] 'cause you're gonna roll this up.
[424 - 428] You can, this can easily become a chimichanga,
[428 - 430] put ground meat, cheese, whatever you might need.
[430 - 440] You fold it that way, and there you have it, a chimichanga, a burrito, a taco, a quesadilla.
[440 - 441] The best thing, just eat 'em.
[444 - 445] You should be making flour tortillas.
[445 - 447] Those ingredients, you have it on your kitchen.
[447 - 448] You have butter, you have flour,
[448 - 450] you have salt, you have water.
[450 - 451] There's no excuses.