"Whole grain" tortillas

Textured tortillas

I really like to make tortillas substituting a cup or so of whole wheat flour for white. The whole wheat adds a nice flavor change. I haven't been able to find whole wheat flour for a long time, but I've since been informed that Paiz is carrying it. I guess that I just gave up looking for it and didn't notice when they started selling it. That happens sometimes. I just forget about the things that I used to miss.

I recently found this packaged "peeled" wheat at one of the import stores that seems to have a big selection of Middle Eastern food now. I bought it not having any idea of what I would do with it just because I really miss having whole grains. I had never heard of peeled wheat.

Last Friday when I was making tortillas for my Tex-Mex guests, I wondered if I could make whole wheat flour by grinding these wheat berries. I ground them up in the coffee grinder leaving some of the pieces a little chunky.

I've since decided that "peeled" wheat must be what white wheat flour is made from because the resulting flour looked more white than whole wheat, but the partially ground wheat berries added a nice flavor and texture to the tortillas. Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense: whole wheat=it's all there; peeled wheat=it's not all there. Duh! ;-)

I used my same tortilla recipe, just substituting one cup of ground peeled wheat berries for one of the cups of white flour. The tortillas received a lot of compliments, both from the gringos and Hondurans. El Jefe liked them a lot.

If you are interested in trying to make tortillas, don't let the length of that article scare you off. I wrote it in the Julia Child style, i.e., five pages for French bread. When I'm making something I haven't made or maybe even haven't seen made before, I find it very helpful to have detailed instructions and step-by-step photos, so that is what I did.

By the way, I recently showed a Hondureña how I form the tortillas using two sheets of plastic. Her eyes got big and she said, "What a good idea! I form them on a plate but it is much easier this way!" Na-na-na-nah!