Whole Grain Spelt Tortillas

I was looking through all of my messy, poorly organized recipe books a few days ago and found some old gems that I first wrote ages ago, like this one. I realized that I don't have very many homemade staple recipes on the blog. There are some, like raw chocolate and different kinds of plant milks, but considering how many of these things I make from scratch, I haven't been sharing enough here. Since we moved to Germany, I've been making things like tortillas and other things that are either really expensive or just not very good here (so pretty much any central/south American foods). If you've never made tortillas at home before, they're dead easy and much tastier than store-bought. So after a little more testing to make sure this recipe was good enough to share, here it is!

You might think you don't have enough time to make these, but you probably do. The trick is to toss whatever you're filling them with in the oven while you make them so that you end up with dinner on the table in the same amount of time anyway. I often make refried beans with the tortillas and then just have a burrito with raw veggies. It ends up taking about 15 minutes total, but that's with some practice quickly rolling and frying, so it might take a little longer the first couple of times you make them. The trick is to roll them out as thin as you can, and use enough flour so they don't stick to the counter. If you tear one just squish it back together and roll it again and don't worry if they're not perfect. 

The tortillas are a little crunchy when they first come out of the pan, but they soften up quickly and are definitely roll- and fold-able. They're made with all whole grain spelt flour, but you can use half light and half whole spelt if you prefer, or even all light. This is a really simple five ingredient recipe and I'm sure it could be adapted to make flatbreads if you roll the dough out a little thicker, but I haven't tried that yet. You can try adding different spices to change up the flavours, too.

Whole Grain Spelt Tortillas

Makes about ten

2 cups spelt flour*

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup hot water

2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil

Coconut oil, for cooking

Add the flour, salt, and baking soda to a large bowl and mix to combine. Stir in the water and olive oil, then stir or knead with your hands until the dough forms into a ball.

Place a large, flat bottomed pan over medium heat. Generously flour a flat surface (a counter) and take a piece of dough that's about the size of a golf ball, or two tablespoons. Flatten it with your hands and then roll it with a floured rolling pin, going in every direction to try to make it round*, as thin as you can. Use as much flour as you need to keep it from sticking.

Add a little bit of coconut oil to the hot pan and use a silicon brush to make sure the pan is coated with oil. Place your rolled out tortilla into the pan and let it cook for 20-30 seconds, then flip it (you can quickly coat the pan with oil again between flipping if you're a stickler) and cook the other side for another 20-30. Don't overcook them.

Repeat the process for the remaining tortillas, placing the finished ones on a plate covered with a tea towel as you go. They'll soften as they sit while you finish cooking the remaining dough but might seem a little crisp at first.

Leftovers don't store very well, so if you have a lot of extras, try cutting them into pieces and baking them at 200C for about ten minutes to make chips the next day. 

Notes:

1. You can use all whole-grain spelt, or a mixture of light and whole, or just use light (I haven't tried this with 100% light spelt but I'm sure it'd work). If you try other types of flour please let me know in the comments!

2. I think I've made one round tortilla ever, ha. They usually turn out wonky but taste the same, so who cares.

3. I usually add a little honey or other sweetener to things like this but really couldn't taste a difference with or without it while I was testing the recipe.