Modern Daisy Hippee

I’ve made several (or more) attempts at making whole wheat tortillas from scratch and none of them have really turned out well.  They either get too crispy, too doughy or just didn’t taste right.  I don’t give up easily though, so I continued to make them, adjusting various details each time.  I got the formula right because this time they turned out AMAZING!

Well, it’s still a whole wheat tortilla, so maybe “amazing” is a bit of an overstatement.  They are an acquired taste if you’re used to white flour products.  The point is, they are fully cooked, still soft a day later and taste pretty much the way they are intended to taste.  That’s success in my book.

I don’t remember with certainty where I got my original recipe.  I’m pretty sure I modified a basic white flour tortilla recipe and incorporated some ideas I found others using.  For example, instead of traditional lard or shortening, I use olive oil.  I’m taking all this time making my own tortillas so they are healthier and olive oil fits that bill best.

There really isn’t much to the recipe…

3 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 2 Tb olive oil, 1 cup warm water

Mix the dry ingredients together, add the olive oil, then mix in the water slowly.  I use my stand mixer, first with the paddle beater to mix everything.  Then I switched to the dough hook to knead.

A couple of things I did differently this time…  Because I’m using whole wheat flour & that takes longer to absorb the moisture, I allowed the dough to sit for a few minutes after mixing.  Then, I added more water gradually, as I kneaded in the mixer, to make sure the dough was nice and soft.  I probably added about another 1/3 cup of water in all.  I did that in stages, kneading quite a bit after each addition to make sure the dough didn’t get too wet.  That’s the other thing that was different…  I kneaded with the mixer much more than I have before.  I let it go until the dough formed a nice, soft ball.  I did let it sit in between some water additions also.  I can do other things while the mixer is kneading, so even though it took a bit of time, I wasn’t standing there watching it all along.

Next, I divided the dough into balls, each weighing about 2.2 oz…  a total of 12.  I put them back into the bowl & covered it so the dough could rest about 20 minutes.  Then I heated my griddle.  I use cast iron on the stove.  I let it get hotter than I usually do…  medium high; this time I let it start out more on the high side.  While it was heating, I started rolling out the tortillas…  Roll each one out once, let them rest, then roll out again.  As I was doing the second roll out, I also started cooking the tortillas, about 30 seconds per side.  I think it was key to have the griddle nice and hot.  It seems counter intuitive, however it seemed to allow them to cook all the way without getting too crispy.

After I cooked each one, I put them in a large freezer bag in a towel.  The moisture created by putting them into the bag seems to help keep them soft.  I’ve done that before to save a batch that was too crispy.  I’m not sure how it would have worked if I had just put them directly in the towel.

It might seem like a lot of work, although I’m sure if I do it regularly, it will be much easier.  It’s worth it to me to know exactly what’s in my food & now that I have it down, these seem a lot tastier than the ones I can buy at the store.

I’m growing radishes and while I was looking up recipes for how to use them, I came across one for radish leaf pesto.  I was wondering if the greens were edible anyway, so it was cool to find this recipe.  I was skeptical about how it would taste because pesto is usually made with basil and I LOVE basil.  I couldn’t imagine radish leaves could compete.

Well, I was sure wrong.  I used pine nuts and grapeseed oil with a bit of salt, blended it together with some radish leaves and presto…  pesto!  (I know, that was totally corny.  I just couldn’t help myself.)  The original recipe I came across used hazelnuts and some other things I didn’t use.  It’s plenty yummy the way I did it.  Grapeseed oil was suggested to avoid the bitterness of olive oil when it’s put in the blender.

I was just happy to know I can use the greens from the radishes.  I don’t like to waste things.  And, the garden can be a bit of work.  It’s awesome to find ways to use what I grow that are so great!  Now I just need to find something as wonderful to do with the radishes!

Well, I had to start over with my starter.  I forgot about it for a couple of days and it grew fuzzy mold.  I’m on Day 10 of my second batches.  I made sure to put the glass jars someplace where I can see them more easily.  That way I’m less likely to forget about them.  I also thought about setting an alarm on my calendar.  I’m finding that unnecessary now though with where I put them.

I’m doing one with whole wheat flour and one with buckwheat.  I had thought I was overfeeding it by adding 2 Tb of water & flour, so cut it back to 1 Tb.  I just realized that was a mistake.  I also hadn’t been discarding any because I wanted it to build up.  Well, now I realize I’m supposed to be essentially doubling it (or close to it) at each feeding otherwise it may not work properly.

I assume as a result of that, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot happening with the buckwheat flour.  The wheat flour has been bubbly for a while now though.  I’m not sure if that’s because I thought I was actually under feeding it or it’s just taking longer.  It reacted right away the last time.

Today I took out some of the buckwheat starter & fed it properly.  I also took off the top layer of the wheat starter & fed it.  We’ll see what happens.

Clearly, I have no idea what I’m doing.  I’m in the trial and error phase of learning how to do this.  That’s fine because that’s how I like to learn things.  Hands on is the way to go!

I’m on a mission to eat more naturally and get all artificial food additives out of my diet.  One of the most difficult types of products to do this with is breads, so I’ve been practicing with making my own.  When I was looking up recipes for English muffins, I found some that called for sourdough starter.  I already knew you could make sourdough starter because I knew someone a long time ago who did that.  So, I looked up how.

As usually happens, when I start something new, that lead me down another path.  I found several recipes or instructions on how to do this.  Some were more complicated than necessary.  I wound up simply mixing a small amount of buckwheat flour with an equal amount of water.  The simplest instructions I found called for rye flour.  I used buckwheat because I had that & didn’t have rye.  It seemed to be working.  I forgot about it for a couple of days and wound up throwing it out.

Now I’m starting over with more buckwheat flour and a second batch just using whole wheat flour.

Here’s the recipe:

2 Tb. flour

2 Tb. water

Mix in a glass container.  Cover loosely.  Feed every 24 hours.

“Feed” just means to add in another 1 Tb. of flour & 1 Tb. water, mix & cover loosely again.

I’ll get into more of the details as I go through the process.  Today is Day 2.  Apparently the starter will be usable in about a week.