Tortilla Making

[stacey]

We heard tortilla makers are a miricle. Had to order from the US and ship to Canada via friends (not easy). Very excited at the prospect of fresh torilla's and lunches with gluten free tortilla sandwiches.

Bubble was burst, as we saw the flat bread break-up each time we tried to make it. Tried and tried and now feel cursed.

Anybody with success they can share?

[tarnalberry]

I haven't gotten one myself yet, but is there enough moisture and/or fat in the tortilla? Just a thought. Have the 'griddle' sides been sprayed with a bit of oil to make them not stick? Or, if the temperature is adjustable, is it hot enough to "sear" the surface - like when making pancakes?

Tiffany

[Guest jennwillard]

Hi! I hadn't heard of the tortilla maker before but it really would be nice to be able to make my own! Let me know if you try different things with making the tortillas as it would influence whether or not I ask for one for my next birthday. I already have a pasta maker on the list!! hehehehe! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Jenn Willard

[jendall]

Those tortilla makers sound great. I usually buy the corn tortilla's for my husband who just loves them .

Jendall

[donnalois]

Tortilla making is great with a tortilla maker! I assume you have a manual tortilla press (the silver coloured aluminum kind like they advertise on the internet.) For your first attempt, keep it simple, pick up a bag of "masa harina". Check your local mexican/south american section of your grocery store. This stuff is pure corn flour with a little lime added. Make sure when you mix it up that the water you use is warm, a little cooler than what you would be comfortable washing dishes in. Mix with a fork according to directions on side of bag. Now this is where we cheat a little, get two pieces of wax paper and cover both plates of the tortilla press with the waxed paper. Next put a little vegetable oil on the wax paper to prevent sticking. Let the kids make golfball size balls out of the dough for you. (stuff is almost like dry playdough). Put doughball in centre of greased waxed paper on tortilla press, cover with second greased wax paper sheet and press. A perfect shape tortilla, carefully peel wax paper off tortilla and fry in a "CAST IRON" frypan. I have tried the no stick surfaces and the stainless steel frypans. Only Cast Iron gives it a good texture and even cooking. Once you have success with the masa harina, try substituting your favourite Gluten Free flour mixture instead but substitute by weight, not volume or you will have a sticky mess!

Good Luck!

Donna

[tarnalberry]

just a quick note on the pasta maker - I haven't tried mine on gluten-free flours yet (used to make my own wheat pasta all the time before going gluten-free), but I understand that it's much better to roll out gluten-free pastas on a table. Without the gluten, the dough isn't "sticky" enough to hold together, and hence will fall apart when you try to feed it through the rollers. (Based on my experience with not having kneaded the dough enough to make use of the gluten in wheat doughs, I can tell you that having it fall apart through the rollers is a pain! Argh!) Perhaps some gums can be added to give it a similar texture that a pasta machine can handle, though...

[Guest aramgard]

I have an old manual pasta maker and have had good luck with it. Has anyone else tried Chebe bread pasta??? I made Chebe bread with eggs, with sunflower oil and a little xanthan gum in my food processor, kneaded it well, then let it sit in wax paper in the frig for several hours. Then I flattened it with the roller on my noodle maker and then ran it through the noodle part of the noodle maker. Those were the best noodles I've tried since going gluten free three years ago. I really missed good egg noodles. How come no one has come out with a good commercial gluten free egg noodle? Not all of us have problems with eggs.

Shirley Whitley

[ccbergren]

The tagliatelle made by Glutano are eggless , but they certainly taste as if they have eggs as ingredients. They are excellent. I found them at Wegman's, but you can also order them. As far as flour blends, I have had good luck with Bette's Gourmet Four Flour blend. I have made three regular recipes with it:1) Banana chocolate chip muffins ;2) Jacques Pepin's plum cake;3) an apple cake from Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts. They all turned out extremely well. I always add some xanthan gum.

[janet]

I have an Atlas pasta maker and I've used it with Bette Hagman's recipe for Fresh Egg Pasta to great success. My mother-in-law can't have eggs so I substituted ENER-G egg replacer and it still worked great. I use the pasta dough to make perogies and and am very happy with the results.

[DawnM]

Corn tortilla's by "Mission" can be found in most grocery stores. They do not say Gluten Free, however, when I called the company, they have no ingredients which contain gluten.

[gf4life]

I had seen the electric non-stick tortilla makers at the store before, but I wasn't willing to pay the $30+ for one. I wasn't sure it was worth the money. WE can buy corn tortillas, but since we are also dairy free the one gluten-free wrap available is not okay for us. We missed having flour tortillas.

Today I was so excited because I found a tortilla press at Rite-Aid pharmacy (of all places!) and it was only $6.99! So I bought it. I have already used it to make flour tortillas and also to make individual apple pies! They both came out great. My kids said the pies tasted like a cross between homemade and McDonald's pies and they said the tortillas tasted like "regular" flour tortillas. I used my cast iron skillet to cook the tortillas and it worked great. The dough I used was the Mock Flour Tortilla recipe from "Incredible Edible Gluten-Free Food for Kids" by Sheri L. Sanderson.

The dough for the pies I got from another cookbook called "The AiA Gluten & Dairy Free Cookbook". I recomend this book for anyone who has multiple intolerances and allergies. For each recipe it states what it is "free" of in addition to gluten and dairy. There are recipes for things that are:

CF = Corn Free

EF = Egg Free

FF = Fruit Free

SF = Soy Free

SGF = Sugar Free

TF = Tomato Free

YF = Yeast Free

Some of the recipes are a bit gourmet, that I'm not sure my kids would like, but they might surprise me! This is the best pastry recipe I have found since going gluten-free!

God bless,

Mariann

[Boojca]

I made the flour tortilla's yesterday from Bette Hagman's book...and was TOTALLY frustrated at rolling them out by hand. They kept sticking to the plastic wrap. I had to use so much cornstarch to keep them from sticking I hope they don't taste horrible!!1

Bridget

[tarnalberry]

I found rolling out corn tortillas to be pretty easy (between sheets of plastic wrap), but I haven't tried "flour" tortillas yet.