Mix the top four ingredients as for a pie crust. The butter must be worked into the flour to make a pebbly meal. Slowly add the water, mixing only enough to make it all stick; the dough should be soft, not at all stiff so add enough water. Do Not Knead. You want to treat this like a pie crust, else the tortillas will be tough.

Roll the dough lightly into a "log" and cut it into 12 equal pieces. Roll the pieces lightly in flour to keep them from sticking together. Cover with plastic while you prepare the fajitas. The tortillas need time to rest before you roll them or they won't stretch enough. When the dough has relaxed (at least 15 minutes later) start heating a cast iron skillet. The skillet needs to be medium-hot to hot (but not as hot as for corn tortillas). On a well-flowered surface, roll each little ball of dough, flipping it and turning it to form a perfect round, thin tortillas. It will take practice before you get this right and learn what is too thin or too thick. I usually roll my tortillas until they are about 6-7 inches in diameter.

After each tortillas is rolled, you must keep them moist by layering them between plastic (I use plastic supermarket produce bags) or layers of wax paper. When all tortillas are made, you can start baking them in the iron skillet. Place one tortilla at a time in the skillet and flip with a thin metal spatula. You want little air pockets to form and pressing lightly on the tortillas with the back of the spatula as it cooks will encourage steam to form and the tortilla to "balloon". Cook only until there are light brown patches on both sides. Place each tortilla in a towel lined basket and cover with another towel. This will steam the tortillas.

Enjoy tortillas (both kinds) plain, buttered, or stuffed with an almost infinite variety of fillings. Nothing beats homemade tortillas!

Colleen

Colleen Wirth Annals of Mathematics wirth@math. Princeton. Edu Princeton University