I have noticed with this lockdown and global pandemic certain things are really hard to get hold of. At the beginning of the lockdown for us in the UK immediately, Pasta, Tinned tomatoes & toilet rolls dissapeared overnight…. closely followed by eggs, soap, disinfectant, brown sugar and flour of any variety.

Luckily, my pantry was stocked with flour, each mason jar had a decent amount of plain, self raising bread and pasta flour. What I was lacking was yeast. Fresh yeast, forget about it…. dried yeast, well as everyone in the uk suddenly decided they would bake bread, became as hard to find as a unicorns gold tooth.

Thankfully, as the panic buying subsided, items came back on the shelves, but I have noticed a lack of yeast. To combat this, I am growing my sourdough starter, (he is on day 5 and nearly ready to be used) and if you saw my previous post, I have developed a love of flatbreads.

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Yesterday, I made tortillas to go with our Katsu curry…. I know its a total clash of cultures, but they are super easy to make, and go well with any lunch or dinner.

To make these tortillas you need

175g Plain Flour
A pinch of salt (mine was a very generous pinch)
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
5-6 tablespoons of warm water

If you want to get really fancy, a tortilla press really helps, but the dough is so pliable its really easy to roll out. I was fortunate enough to have a press so it made the job of creating these breads a lot faster. Also, kneading….. I used the breadhook and my stand mixer, but again a little bit of mixing and kneading is all these tortillas need.

Place the flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in your oil and water. Be brave, put it all in… Then bring the mixture together until all the flour is absorbed and you have a nice slightly sticky dough. If the dough is too wet, add some more flour, half a tablespoon at a time. You want to avoid it becoming too dry, but it needs to come together. You may notice on my pictures that I added some bread flour to the mix as it was too wet, and my bread mix has seeds in it. Its actually quite nice to add some seeds to the dough if you are feeling fancy! Either use your machine and dough hook on a slow speed for 5-10 minutes or kneed by hand for 10.

Once kneaded, and you have a smooth dough, leave it to rest for about 20 minutes. I made my dough in the morning and didn’t come back to it until later that day. It can last in the fridge for 3 days, or on the side resting for 24 hours. Just store it in a covered lightly oiled bowl.

Dust your surface with flour, tip out the dough (If you have stored in the fridge, let it come to room temperature), divide into 6-8 pieces and then roll out (or press) until it is about 7inches in diameter (18 cm). You can stack your tortillas by placing some parchment between them.

Put a sturdy pan on a medium heat, no need to add oil, and when nice and hot, place a tortilla into the pan for 20 seconds. The tortilla will cook really quickly. Flip it and cook for another 20 seconds. It will be cooked, slightly puffy, but still pliable. Stack on a plate until all the tortillas are cooked. Serve immediately.