Easy Whole Wheat Tortilla (Vegan & Egg Free)

Easy Whole Wheat Tortilla (Vegan & Egg Free)

   July 27, 2019       Lyn Alina

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Tortillas aren't a big part of my family culture.
Being living in an Asian country; Malaysia, our staple carbohydrate source is rice.
Then..migrating to live my adult life in the city of Malaysia has helped me to explore different food choices from all over the world.
Whats more, internet makes our life so convenient that helped to resolves our curiosity on various eating cultures by just a quick search on the search engines.

So this is how I am able to create my own whole wheat tortillas.
I found a few whole wheat tortilla recipes from websites with very simple preparation.
This is my third time I was making my own tortillas and the previous two I made two years ago by using plain flour.
I can't recall how my previous tortillas looked like.
I was so excited to share on the outcome of my homemade whole wheat tortillas that I can't wait to blog about it!
After making few mistakes, especially during the dough resting time, I finally managed to overcome excessive dough retraction when I cook my tortillas.
All I can say is it is easy to prepare yet challenging to produce the perfect outcome.
Here, I am going to share with you on how to reduce your tortillas from excessive retraction when you rolling or cooking them.

I am sure you are familiar with the magical word of GLUTEN.
What does gluten do and how it can affect the shape of your dough?

Gluten is a kind of protein that form elastic network when flour is moistened and manipulated.
It helps to shape and hold the structure of baked goods.
Without gluten, your cookies may crumble at the touch.
RESTING is another important factor in getting the perfect structure of any kind of baked goods and and tortillas aren't an exception.
Resting allows the gluten to relax and easily reform the protein strand for the final dough shape.

During my tortillas making experiment yesterday, I had my dough well rested for 1 hour.
But I was still struggling to shape my dough into a thin, round layer tortillas-like shape.
I wonder what was wrong with my tortillas dough (I felt really frustrated at that time!).
After struggling to shape two portions of the dough, even though the rolled dough is not as thin as I wanted, I still proceed to cook them.
And guess what, both of them were severely retracted during the cooking process and became much smaller in size!
Then, I tried to flatten the rest of the portions into a small disc-shaped like with my palm and have them rested for another 10 minutes.
And finally, I was able to easily shape my dough thinly and my tortillas weren't retracted when I cooked them.  Yeah!

Next time, when I make tortillas, I'll make sure to flatten the dough first before put it to rest.
When you flatten the dough, the protein stands are adjusted into that shape so when you roll your dough, it won't retract.

I added 1 cup of all purpose flour as I don't want my tortillas to be too dense in texture.

Easy Whole Wheat Tortilla

Course : Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Dinner

Yield : 12

2 cups of wholewheat flour

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

Approximately 1 cup of warm water

Methods:


In a large mixing bowl with attached flat beater, add whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt.  Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Slowly add in vegetable oil and warm water while mixing. Knead the dough until a soft, non-sticky ball is formed.  Add in more flour or water when necessary.

Alternatively, if you are using bread machine maker, pour in all the ingredients and select the menu to "dough" and press the "start' button.

Floured your working surface with flour.  Take the dough out of the mixer and transfer it onto the floured surface.



SHAPING THE DOUGH

NOTE: This picture was taken before I flatten the dough. For easy shaping the dough later, flatten the dough balls first.

Divide the dough first into two, then cut each portions with another six small portions like cutting a pizza.  Roll them into round shape balls and flatten the balls with your palm. Store the flatten dough in a container or ziplog bag and let rest for at least 20 minutes.  (To prevent them from sticking, coat each of the flatten dough with flour).

Dust the surface with generous amount of flour and place one dough at the center.  Dust a wooden rolling pin and the top surface of the dough with flour and roll into a thin, round shape.



COOKING THE TORTILLAS

Heat a flat pan or cast iron griddle to medium low heat.  Grease with little oil if necessary.

When the pan is hot, add tortilla. Flip to the other side when bubbles start to formed.  For eating tortillas on the spot, cook until brown spots have formed on the surface.  To make tortillas for storage, cook for about 20 seconds for each sides, just until light brown spots have formed.

Cover the tortillas with a towel to prevent exposure to the air and the cooked tortillas from getting stiff.

Serve warm with favorite toppings and gravy.




STORING THE TORTILLAS

Keep the leftover in a ziploc or air-tight plastic bag and store in refrigerator until ready to use.