Soaked Spelt-Kamut Tortillas
Makes 24 large or 32 small tortillas
- 4 cups whole spelt flour (preferably freshly ground)
- 3 cups whole kamut flour (preferably freshly ground)
- 2 cups cold filtered water
- 7 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or Kombucha
- 1 1/2 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- extra virgin olive oil or olive oil spray for frying
In bowl of mixer, combine flours, baking powder, and salt. Turn mixer on dough setting and add oil. Add Kombucha. Then add water gradually until mixture cleans sides of bowl and forms ball in center of bowl. Let the machine knead the dough for 2 minutes. Remove dough. Divide into 32 parts for small tortillas or 24 parts for large tortillas. Place in a covered bowl to rest for about 12 hours, or overnight. (Oil the tops of the balls if desired.)
Heat a flat cast iron frying pan over medium heat and add a small amount of oil. Oil a clean, flat work surface, such as a countertop. With an oiled rolling pin, roll out one ball of dough into a circle that is approximately 1/8″ thick, or your desired thickness. Place rolled out tortilla in the pan. Let it cook for about 25 seconds or until there are several bubbles in the dough. Flip the tortilla with a spatula and cook the other side for another 15 to 25 seconds, or until the bubbles are browned*. Remove tortilla from pan and place between towels to stay warm and moist. Meanwhile, roll out the next tortilla. Repeat until all of the balls have been rolled out and cooked. Add oil to pan and/or rolling pin as needed. Store in a zipper seal freezer bag in refrigerator or freezer.
*Adjust heat or cooking times to account for your stove, pan, or thickness of tortilla.
© 2006-2009 by Wardeh Harmon
About Wardeh
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So do you think you will continue to make them this way in the future? How did the family like them?
Happy Birthday Dear Micah, the thing I noticed most about your Birthday pictures is your smile has gotten brighter each year, you are such a happy young man!!
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Mona, no need to apologize — it’s an easy mistake to make! Mikah says, “Thank you” for the sweet birthday message!
Yes, we did really like the tortillas. We didn’t notice a difference in taste, we just enjoyed the lighter texture. We like to vary our grains, so we’ll have them this way again. Next batch, I am going to try exclusively with kamut and see if they won’t be so fragile yet still be lighter.
Wardeh,
I was wondering, do you use spelt in your bread baking at all? I’ve been really unhappy with the results of the hard white wheat that I’m getting from Azure, so I’m looking for other grains that produce the same results as the Prairie Gold wheat.
Lori,
I haven’t used spelt for a long time. This is the first time in a couple years. It is alot like oatmeal in that it is thirsty and I don’t think has enough gluten to make a good bread all by itself. A good add-in but not a base. One of the ladies on the Real Food Living group uses spelt alot. I think you should ask her what she thinks.
Are you really not happy with the white wheat from Azure? I can’t wait to get a Bosch so I can see how it does with the white wheat. I feel I don’t really know what good bread is right now
. I would say kamut would be a better grain to try because it has a high gluten content. But I’ve never tried it on its own for bread either. I’m sorry I can’t steer you in a better direction. But I am curious why you’re not happy with the white wheat from Azure?
Hi Wardeh,
I’m not happy with the white wheat from Azure. I don’t know if it’s that the moisture content is higher than the Wheat Montana Farms Prairie Gold or if it’s that the protein content is lower, or maybe a combination of both. But my results in my bread for the past year since I’ve started using the Azure Farms Hard White Wheat have been less than desirable (no one has complained, but I surely have noticed!). You have seen my bread, you know how high and fluffy and light it can be….my bread has been denser (quite a bit), and as it’s rising it always splits/separates. Which results in not so nice looking loaves. This wouldn’t be a big deal except that my bread is usually very nice looking. I did an experiment recently….we were at Whole Foods in Fresno so I got 10# of the Prairie Gold wheat and I made two batches of bread side by side. The batch made with the prairie gold was perfect. The one with the Azure wheat was smaller, denser, and not as soft. All of the other ingredients and proportions and timing was identical!
Now this past couple of weeks I have been experimenting with other recipes that I either haven’t made before, or that I haven’t made in a while, and they have both yielded great results, even with the Azure white wheat. The difference in these other recipes is that I’m adding other grains in…..one of them was rolled oats. The other was ezekial flour. Both added more gluten/protein. Today I’m making my regular daily bread recipe using 1/4 of the grain is Azure white wheat, the other 3/4 of the grain is kamut. We’ll see
That’s really interesting… And also perhaps explains why I haven’t noticed a difference. I almost always add other grains (and mostly kamut) to my bread because we like to have variety. On the other hand, the few times I have made plain ww bread recently, I hated the result and went back to adding other grains because it made much better bread. But instead of blaming the hard white wheat, I was blaming my mixer for not being able to knead pure ww dough.
I’m curious to see how your bread today turns out. You may be on to something…
Have you tried adding more than the usual amount of gluten flour to your plain ww bread to see if turns out better? That would either verify or disprove your suspicion that the gluten content is lower in the Azure white wheat.
I don’t have access to anything else but Azure white wheat. Soon a Whole Foods is coming but it is still an hour away. When I can, I might buy some prairie gold and see what results I get. By then I hope to have a Bosch so the mixer problem isn’t an issue in my bread baking results anymore.
Thanks for sharing your issues. I do appreciate hearing about it.
Hi Wardeh,
Well, I cut into the bread that I baked today and it is similar in texture to the Prairie Gold, and it rose nicely and the crumb looks good. The true test will be tomorrow….the day after is always the true test of bread, in my opinion. If it is still soft tomorrow, then I will know that the kamut did the trick.
Hi Wardeh, I’ve been trying out varies of grains since annalee is gluten intolerant. She seems to handle a little of spelt so I’m excited to make these tortillas. I also use xthan gum to help bind non-wheat flours maybe it will help with the fragileness of the tortillas.
I’m really happy to find this recipe because I’m allergic to wheat but not gluten, and am having difficulty finding good bread replacements (loaves, tortillas, flat bread, everything). A quick question though, does the pan have to be a cast iron pan? Would it not work in t-fal, or aluminum, or stainless steel, as long as you adjusted the heat settings?
Noha,
No, the pan does not have to be cast iron. I only have stainless steel and cast iron skillets. I feel the cast iron works best. If you grease the stainless steel well, it could probably work. I haven’t done it this way, so I can’t say for sure.
The tortillas will also work in non-stick pans, like t-fal, although I don’t recommend those because I don’t believe they’re healthy for cooking at high temperatures.
Hope this helps!