The Tale of the Whole Wheat Tortillas

Okay so since I've been faithfully working out 1 hour a day on weekdays - prepping my body to do some hiking if this snow ever stops and we can actually drive in to the hiking trails - I decided I should try to make some whole wheat tortillas. I also decided I should use olive oil which is actually good for you instead of lard.

I put 2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp of salt in a bowl. Mixed this together thoroughly and then added 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp hot water. Then pulled this mixture out of the bowl to knead for a while.

Normally when I make tortillas, I knead the dough in my hands by twisting it and turning it and as I do this, it turns into a very manageable dough. What i found with the whole wheat dough is that as I kneaded it, it got stickier and stickier.

So I formed it into 6 balls and lightly coated each with a tiny bit of olive oil and left them on the counter to set a bit. While they were setting, I browned up some chopped onion and garlic then stirred in a bunch of chopped green chile and shredded pork. Added about 1/2 cup of water and left that to simmer on the stove.

I then heated up my griddle with the intention of rolling and stretching the whole wheat flour tortillas and cooking them up. I discovered that they rolled pretty good as long as there was plenty of flour to keep it from sticking. After rolling it out as much as I wanted to, I picked it up off the counter to stretch it out. It did not stretch at all. I put it back on the counter and rolled it out some more until it was as thin as I wanted it to be. Then placed it on the griddle to cook.

JW teased me about these saying they would never be able to be used to make a burrito. And since the first one felt a bit crispy, I thought he was probably right. We were both rather surprised when I put one on a plate, spooned on some green chile and rolled it up very easily.

Now came the taste test. We found them to be edible but the whole wheat totally overpowered the green chile. Back-up plan - a bowl of green chile accompanied by bite size Tostitos.

So, while the whole wheat tortillas might be more healthy, the occupants of this house are going to stick with the traditional enriched white flour tortillas made with lard. But, at least, I can say I tried.