Homemade Tortilla & Raspberry Salad Dressing.

What a homemade day! I made three things to go towards dinner today, tortillas, raspberry salad dressing, and croutons! I woke up this morning only planning on making tortilla, I found the recipe over on Clockwork Lemon a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to make them, but it kept getting put on the back burner. Last night, I had a dinner that was not so healthy, so I wanted today to be the opposite and decided on chicken wraps. This recipe was so easy, I think I may start making them all the time!! I have a lot of pictures for this one, so be patient if you have a slow connection :-)

Homemade Tortilla.


2 + 3/4 cups all purpose flour (plus a bit extra for rolling).
5 Tbsp vegetable shortening.
3/4 tsp salt.
3/4 tsp very warm water.

Dissolve salt in water. In large bowl, cut shortening into flour until it resembles course oatmeal. Combine water mixture with flour mixture until dough forms. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
Roll dough into log and cut into 12 equal pieces. Roll each of these pieces into a ball, cover with plastic and let sit for at least 20 minutes.

Heat pan on medium. Roll each ball into 7 inch tortilla. One at a time, fry tortilla for 30 seconds, flip tortilla and cook other side for another 30 seconds.

To keep them warm, tent with a clean cloth or tinfoil while cooking. Fresh tortillas will be a bit stiff, tent with tinfoil for a few minutes to soften (while they are still hot).

Store in a plastic bag in the fridge for 2 - 3 days.

As I said before, these turned out very well. I burned a few in a couple places, and the above one was probably the most circular out of the dozen. Mostly, they look like this.

Meh, adds character :-) While i fried one, I rolled the next one, so I had one on the go at all times, it took probably about 15 minutes to do them all. The dough was dry, I ended up using a smidgen more water; maybe about a Tablespoon, but I did not need any more flour to knead it.

I am not very good at cutting things evenly, so some are a bit bigger than others. Again, adds character. Here are my dough balls. They sat for closer to 25 minutes, maybe even 30, because I was trying to do to much at once.

My only real problem was that they kept bouncing back when I rolled them. I had to leave it stuck to the rolling pin once I had it stretched. That was fine though, because of the greasy shortening they peeled right off. I also found them a bit small for what I use, but that is another easy fix; the next time I may only cut the dough into 8 pieces.

While my dough balls sat, I made the rest of dinner. I had chicken wraps and a salad. The chicken was just a boneless breast, i cut it and fried it and then poured some szchewan sauce over it while I made everything else. In the wraps went a bit of lettuce, some shredded cheese and the chicken.

I made the salad to go with it, I chopped some broccoli, tomato, onion, English cucumber and green pepper. The croutons I made by spreading some garlic butter onto a heel slice of bread, then i cubed it and baked it for 10 minutes at about 350 F.

As for the dressing, this is another recipe from Chef Michael Smith's cookbook The Best of Chef at Home, which I got at the library last week. There is a page of different types of salad dressings you can make, and this one was one that I had almost everything for. I only had to go out and purchase the vinegar, but I had done that a few days ago in anticipation.

Generic Salad Dressing.


1 cup extra virgin olive oil.
1/2 cup of any vinegar, lemon or lime juice.
1/2 cup honey, maple syrup or jelly.
1 heaping Tbsp Dijon Mustard.
1 heaping Tbsp any fresh herb or spice (optional).
a sprinkle of salt and pepper, as per taste.

Raspberry Dressing: Use red wine vinegar and raspberry jelly as the sweetener.

Pour ingredients into a clean mason jar, cover and shake until combined. Keeps in jar in the refrigerator for several weeks. Makes 2 cups.

It is hard to distinguish here, but I used a soup spoon to drizzle it over my salad. I found straight from the jar, it was a bit strong, especially the vinegar. I added a sprinkle of salt and pepper and it seemed to help a bit. The veggies cut the vinegary taste as well, and it seemed best after sitting.

I only made a quarter of the recipe, so I used 1/4 cup oil, and 1/8 cup of the jam and vinegar. I do not use a lot of salad dressing, so I thought that would be enough. Also, the oil was not cheap and only comes in a small bottle. No way am I using it all on one recipe!

For the jam, I used my Mom's homemade stuff. I usually get a few jars each year. I am not crazy about the seeds, but i did not even notice them in my salad.

So I managed to have a delicious, healthy dinner, and there is still plenty of leftovers of everything! I can't wait to try another one of the salad dressings from my library book, and I think I may be making tortillas again soon!

Hope everyone had a great Monday, have a good week!!