This is a simple recipe for making great flour tortillas.

Ingredients (makes 1 dozen)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• tiny pinch of baking powder
• 1/3 cup shortening
• a little more than 1/2 cup hot water

Procedure

1. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir well.
2. Cut in shortening. The way I do it is to drop the shortening into the bowl with the flour mixture. Then I take two blunt knives—like the kind you set a table with—and just make a bunch of cross-cuts through the shortening until it's all chopped up into tiny pieces in the flour. Then I'll use my hands to rub the rest into the flour until the whole thing has the consistency of coarse meal.
3. Gradually stir in the hot water, mixing it well. Stop adding water once the flour starts to all hang together well. You can then mash it around a bit with your hands to make sure everything is combined really well.
4. I then plop the ball of dough on the counter and roll it with my hands until it forms a long sausage. Take a knife and cut the dough into twelve pieces (as nearly equal as you can manage without stressing).
5. Put a cast-iron skillet or some kind of griddle on the stove and let it start heating up.
6. While that is happening, start rolling out your little balls of dough into circular disks, perhaps a little more than six inches in diameter. This is how I do it: Pick up a ball of dough. Roll it around in your palms until it is as nearly spherical as possible. Sprinkle a little flour on the counter so the dough won't stick. Plop the dough down on the counter and use a rolling pin to work it into a circle. Very simple and you will get really fast with a little practice.
7. Once the skillet is hot, put one of the rolled-out pieces on there and cook it about 2 minutes on each side. It will puff up while it is cooking. Just take the flat of a spatula and press it down every so often. Periodically check the side facing down so you don't burn it. You may need to turn the heat down if they start cooking too fast.

References

I got my original recipe from page 11 of ¡Delicioso! Cooking South Texas Style. The edition I have was printed in 1994 by the Wyatt Group in Hong Kong. The recipes were assembled by the Junior League of Corpus Christi.