Soft White Wheat Tortillas

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My family loves taco night with freshly milled flour. Buttery and flexible flour tortillas you can make ahead or eat them right off the pan. With so many toppings to choose from, these soft white wheat tortillas are the perfect bread to hold it all together. I use them for crispy quesadillas, mini burritos, enchilada hot dish, or fajitas.

Soft white wheat tortillas are made with freshly milled wheat berries. I always measure out my berries in grams first instead of relying on measuring cups. I sometimes use hard white wheat in this recipe. Hard wheat gives the tortilla more flexibility when substituting oil for butter.

When it comes to soft white wheat, it is best used in baked goods that do not need yeast to rise. Things you can use soft white for are pancakes, waffles, cookies, and pizza dough. This is because, there is less protein in soft wheat verses hard wheat. The more protein, the more gluten forming properties to give those breads a high rise. I rely on the baking powder to rise this dough.

I have been milling my own wheat for awhile now. When I found out about the chemicals and toxins in the store bought flour, I knew I had to make a big change. Thankfully the processes of milling flour is easy. Only one more step was added to my baking steps. Freshly milled flour has more nutrients and minerals than the flour from the store. This is because, when milling flour, the flour looses its nutrients from oxidization. Oxidization is a normal process food goes through. Think about a banana turning brown or an apple turning brown after being cut, the same thing happens for grain when being cut or milled. After about 3 days the flour has lost nearly all of its nutrients and can even become rancid.

A long time ago, people wanted to make flour available to everyone easily at a store. These people knew the flour would spoil after three days. So they invented a steal rolling mill to separate out the bran and germ, which contains natural oil that spoils the flour, from the endosperm. This was a miracle at the time as the flour was now able to store for a long time. Many years go by and we now know that the endosperm contains mostly starch and lacks almost all of nutrients wheat was to contain. By digesting the store flour, people now have gluten intolerance, cancers and diseases that were never around 130 years ago. Thankfully when you freshly mill flour and bake it, most nutrients will stay intact.

For more information on the history of flour visit the deception of flour page.

Start by measuring out 200 grams of soft white wheat berries and mill into a large mixing bowl. It's about 1 &1/2 cup of freshly milled flour. Add salt and baking powder.

To see what grain mill I use and how to mill wheat berries, visit Milling Wheat Berries.

Measure out 5 tablespoons of cold butter and blend with a pastry blender until butter is the size of peas.

You can use oil instead of butter. I will just use about 40 grams (2-3 tablespoons) of oil and make sure to use hard wheat flour instead.

Add milk and mix together. Combine until dough starts to form. You can let dough rest for a few minutes to hydrate at this point. I find it helpful to walk away because the freshly milled flour takes longer to absorb the liquid, which makes it easier to form into dough.

Start kneading dough until it is smooth and glossy. This could take 10 minutes.

Cover dough and let it rest for at least an hour to relax the gluten. The gluten is simply to part that causes the dough to be stretchy and can make it hard to roll out.

Cut dough into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Cover balls while rolling or pressing to keep from drying out.

Use a tortilla press or rolling pin and flatten dough balls into 7 inch across tortillas. I use two parchment papers to cover ball before pressing down. This helps the balls from sticking to the press. Follow your press directions if needed. I use the Victoria Cast Iron Press.

Heat skillet to medium or medium-high. Very lightly oil pan. Place one tortilla at a time onto skillet to cook. Flip tortilla to cook each side about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Tortilla should bubble up and have slight brown spots.

Serve warm with your favorite toppings or roll up to use in hot dish.

Store in an air tight container for up to 7 days.

May freeze and use later but fresh is always best. I find that they can get slightly dried out when not fresh off the pan. I do keep some in the freezer for fast quesadillas.

Yield: 8 (7 inch)

Soft White Wheat Tortillas

Print

Soft buttery tortilla

Prep Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 200 grams (about 1&1/2 cup) of soft white wheat berries
• 5 tablespoons of cold butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 123 grams (about 1/2 cup) of milk

Instructions

1. Measure out 200 grams of wheat berries and mill into mixing bowl.
2. Add salt and baking powder.
3. Add 5 tablespoons of cold butter and blend with a pastry blender until butter is the size of peas.
4. Add milk and mix together.
5. Combine until dough starts to form. May rest for a little while to let liquid absorb.
6. Start kneading dough until it is smooth and glossy.
7. Cover dough and let it rest for at least an hour to relax the gluten.
8. Cut dough into 8 pieces.
9. Roll each piece into a ball.
10. Use a tortilla press or rolling pin and flatten dough balls into 7 inch across tortillas. Cover until cooking so they do not dry out.
11. Heat skillet to medium or medium-high.
12. Very lightly oil pan.
13. Place one tortilla at a time onto skillet to cook.
14. Flip tortilla to cook each side about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
15. Tortilla should bubble up and have slight brown spots.
16. Serve warm with favorite toppings or roll up in a hot dish.
17. May freeze and use later but fresh is always best.