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Basic Quiche and Tart Dough

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This is another great recipe from Williams-Sonoma.

Basic Quiche and Tart Dough

This dough is perfectly tender and flakey.

  • 1 1/2 C All purpose flour
  • 4 T Unsalted butter (chilled)
  • 1/4 C Pork Lard or Shortening (chilled)
  • 1/2 t. Salt
  • 3 – 4 T ice cold water
  1. In a bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Add the butter and shortening and, using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut them in until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. (You can also do this in a food processor.)Sprinkle in the water, 1 Tbs. at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition and adding only enough of the water to form a rough mass.

    Using floured hands, pat the dough into a smooth, flattened disk. Use immediately, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

    Makes enough dough for one 9-inch quiche or tart shell.

Flour Tortillas

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There’s nothing better than a fresh homemade tortilla hot off the comal!

I was so blessed to grow up surrounded by wonderful women who were passionate about food. Their kitchens were always well stocked and they would spend whatever spare time they had preparing wonderful meals for their families.

When I was a young girl, my family would routinely make the six hour drive from Houston, Texas to Laredo, Texas  to visit my grandparents; my Ula and Papa Grande.

My grandmother was a big influence on my love for home cooking.  She routinely prepared three hot meals a day and always set a perfect table including table linens and her light  blue Fiestware dinner plates. At the time, I was too young to understand or appreciate the effort and work involved in providing those meals.  Fifty years later, I have a very different perspective and appreciation for all the meals she, along with my own Mom, so lovingly prepared for her family. One of her kitchen staples, and that of many Hispanic families,  was tortillas de harina.

Now days, tortillas are served everywhere.  Packaged tortillas are found in any supermarket or corner store. While you can find a decent packaged tortilla, I find most packaged tortillas are spongy, chewy, rubbery and have little flavor. It is quite easy to make fresh tortillas at home and with a little practice you’ll be quickly rolling out fresh tortillas in no time.

Tortillas de Harina

There’s nothing better than fresh homemade tortilla hot off the comal, and, with the use of a kitchen scale, it couldn’t be faster to pull this dough together .

  • 16 Ounces All purpose flour
  • 4 Ounces Pork Lard or Shortening
  • 1 C Boiling water
  • 2 t Salt
  1. In a large bowl add flour and shortening. Using your hands or a pastry blender, work the shortening onto he flour until the mixture resembles wet sand.

    Bring to boil a cup of water. Remove from heat and add salt, stir until the salt dissolves.

    Stir in hot water to the dry ingredients until just combined. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until a smooth ball forms. About three minutes. Wrap dough in plastic a set aside to rest for a minimum of two hours. Do not refrigerate.

    Separate the dough into small round balls. Roughly 1.5 ounces makes a nice size tortilla.

    Flatten the ball on a lightly floured surface and roll once, turn 1/4 turn and roll again, repeat a few more times and continue to roll out until paper thin. Roll out all the dough.

    Heat a cast iron comal or griddle to medium heat. Splash a bit of water to check if the comal is at the proper temp. The water will sizzle and quickly evaporate when ready.

    Place a tortilla on the comal and cook until it just begins to get tiny bubbles, flip and cook until light golden, flip to finish cooling.

    Lay out the hot tortillas onto a clean kitchen cloth to cool flat. Stack the tortillas and store in a plastic bag. They will keep refrigerated for several days or frozen.

Hojarascas

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hojarascas1Hojarascas (pronounced “oha-rascas” – the H is silent), when done right, are light, flakey and absolutely, deliciously addictive cinnamon sugar coated shortbread cookies.

As a child, I recall tasting hojarascas that were purchased from the local Mexican bakery. I found them to be heavy and dry and didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Not until many years later, a friend and coworker brought a tin of hojarascas (that her grandmother had  made) into our office. The cookies were deliciously light, flakey and addicting. So, I thought I would look for a recipe and give them a try.

After hours of hard work, sadly my cookies were terrible! They were heavy, dry and certainly, nothing like the tasty treats my friend’s grandmother had made.

One restless night, as I was flipping through the TV channels, I came across a Mexican cooking show. Note this was back in the early 80’s prior to the well-produced food TV shows we’ve become accustomed to seeing. A young man was with his grandmother demonstrating how she made Hojarascas.

Fortunately, I am fluent in Spanish and was able to follow the broadcast. Her recipe was very similar to the one I had BUT the big difference was the method she used to make the dough. The very next day I made a batch of these cookies using my same recipe with the technique I had learned. SUCCESS! This recipe has become a part of my holiday tradition.

 

Hojarascas

deliciously light, flakey and addicting

  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 T Baking powder
  • 1 C Sugar
  • 5 Cinnamon sticks
  • 1 Lb Pork Lard or Shortening
  • 6 C All purpose flour
  1. Blend together cinnamon sticks with sugar. Strain the mixture into a large bowl. Add eggs, baking powder and lard. Mix until combined. Gradually, stir in flour one cup at a time. Once the mixture becomes difficult to stir in the flour, pour out the contents of the bowl onto a floured surface and continue to work in the remaining flour by hand until well incorporated. Divide to dough into two equal parts, wrapping one piece in plastic wrap until ready to use. Knead the dough until smooth and pliable. You can use a standing mixer fitted with a paddle to make the job easier. Roll the dough out to roughly 1/4″ to 1/2 ” thick, as you would for basic sugar cookies, and cut out using your favorite shapes. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
  2. Combine 2 C. Sugar with ground cinnamon.

    As cookies come out of the oven, gently toss in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Set aside to cool.

    These cookies keep well when stored in an airtight container.