Make the dough

1. If you’re using whole wheat berries, mill the berries on the finest setting on your grain mill.
2. Pour the boiling water over the all-purpose flour in a small bowl.  Stir everything together until the flour is moistened.  Set it aside while you mix the lard into the rest of the ingredients.
3. Mix the wheat flour with the, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
4. Cut the lard into chunks and rub it into the flour until the lard is broken up into small bits and well-distributed.
5. Mix the moist all-purpose flour into the wheat flour.  Use a bowl scraper to push the doughs together until you form a cohesive dough that sticks together.  Knead it a few times on the counter just until the dough comes together.
6. When the dough is ready it will stick together well and will have no loose crumbs.
7. Divide the dough into 16 pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball (you won’t need to add any flour to the counter) and then cover the balls to rest for about 15 minutes.

Cook the tortillas

1. In the last 5 minutes that the dough is resting, heat up a cast iron pan or griddle over medium heat.
2. Sprinkle a tiny bit of flour onto a counter and then pick up 2 pieces of dough.  Roll out the tortillas into a circle, starting with one piece of dough and then moving to the other one.  Only roll each piece to as thin as you can get it before it starts resisting.  Pick up each circle and rotate it periodically or change the direction of your rolling pin

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   frequently to keep the tortilla round.  By working on 2 pieces at a time, you’re letting each piece of dough relax a little bit.  It’s important to allow for this relaxing time; without it you can overwork the dough, causing it to tear and just generally be grumpy to work with.
3. When you’re done, the 2 tortillas should be nearly translucent and about 7-8” across.
4. Peel the tortillas off the counter and place on the griddle. Cook for about 30 seconds before flipping over.  It will depend on how hot your griddle is, but it will take about 1 more minute of cooking.  You’ll know the tortillas are done when they have a few light brown spots on both sides and the surface is opaque.
5. Wrap the cooked tortillas in a clean kitchen towel and keep on rolling and cooking.  After a few rounds, you should be able to judge the timing of the cooking well enough that you can roll while tortillas are on the griddle.  You can also recruit a kitchen helper to help roll or cook.
6. Tortillas are best eaten immediately, though you can freeze them.  To reheat frozen tortillas, zap them for a few seconds in the microwave to soften them back up.