A few years ago I had to part ways with gluten. It was a sad break up. I had been having digestive issues for a couple of months before I pinpointed the problem. I had a feeling it was the gluten, but I didn’t want to believe it. I’d gladly give up dairy, corn, eggs, anything, but not sourdough bread!! Looking back, I think gluten had been a slight problem for me my whole life. Perhaps if I had been more cautious with it I may not have reached the breaking point. But alas, I had reached the breaking point and the only way to regain my health was to cut out gluten completely. I began noticing that my kids would also get frequent stomachaches if gluten was a staple in their diet as well. They are still able to have it on occasion, like when we eat out, but in order to keep them feeling their best and prevent problems in the future, we are all pretty much gluten free. Fortunately, there are many great substitutes for many gluten containing staples these days. One of my favorites are Siete’s almond flour tortillas. Last summer my family and I got hooked on them. They are without a doubt the best substitute for flour tortillas. I think now I would prefer them over regular flour tortillas. The only downside is the price! In feeding a family of 6, we could easily go through 2-3 packs (each pack has 8 tortillas) per meal. I realized I was spending around $20 in tortillas alone per meal! I had my grocery budget and soon discovered that I needed a separate tortilla budget! It was getting out of hand. But I couldn’t give them up. So my New Year’s resolution this year was to figure out how to make them myself.
I bought a tortilla press on amazon (make sure to get a cast iron one. I don’t think the aluminum ones would stand the test of time) along with 8 inch parchment paper rounds, and one evening in early January, while the kids were working on homework at the counter top, I started experimenting. Dinner that night was replaced with taste testing- batch one with avocado, batch 2 with refried beans, batch 3 with cheese, batch 4 with butter. I got their opinion on each batch. The perk of having kids as taste testers is that they give you honest feedback. You never have to wonder if they are just being nice. My kids tell me the TRUTH when it comes to food. I can’t remember exactly how many tries it took, but somewhere around batch 4,5, or 6 they all agreed that we had arrived. These tortillas were just as good as the store-bought ones but at a fraction of the price. A few days later I repeated the recipe and served them with dinner. As we were cleaning up after, one of my kids gave me a bear hug and thanked my for making tortillas. Seeing their reaction made it SO-WORTH-IT! Now the kids have fun making them too. It has even become an art form. Tortilla art has become a thing in our house. Spiderman or a coffee cup tortilla may not make the best tacos, but they sure are fun. They make a great treat with butter, cinnamon and monkfruit. I hope you love these tortillas as much as we do.
Almond flour tortilla recipe:
- 3 c. almond flour
- 2 c. cassava flour
- 1 t. xanthan gum
- 1 t. salt
- 1/4 c. avocado oil
- 1 1/2 c. water
Mix dry ingredients in stand mixer. Add water and oil. Warm nonstick skillet on medium low heat. Spray with cooking oil if needed. Roll a small piece of the dough (slightly larger than a golf ball size) into a ball. Place between parchment paper on tortilla press. Press dough. Cook for approximately 2 minutes on each side.
