Homemade Crunchwraps

Homemade Crunchwraps - A Tutorial

Disclaimer - I'm in no way affiliated with Taco Bell. The name "Crunchwrap" and/or "Crunchwrap Supreme" are soley theirs. I also have no idea how they actually make their stuff. This is my own doing. Please don't sue me Taco Bell.

In my quest to be a bit more fiscally cautious (on a personal level), one of the biggest expenses I've cut back on is going out for meals. This means lots of grocery store time, as well as coming up with ideas for things to cook. My ladyfriend and I are big fans of burritos and such, so we often have American-Mexican cuisine. Assembling it into crunchwrap form is a very new idea for us. Also it was kind of a random idea, seeing as I haven't been to a Taco Bell (or McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, ...) in years.

That all being said, it's turned out really well and is easy to make! So by popular demand, here's some instructions on how to scheme up your own crunchwraps.

Ingredients. Keep in mind most of this is flexible to whatever you like:

Ground Meat (1.3lbs of turkey made about 5 of these, so ~2.6 lbs for 10)
Lettuce
Tomato
Onion
Cheese (an 8 oz. block should last us the week, or about 10 crunchwraps)
Soft tortilla shells (10)
Hard taco shells. (10 or so. We found some kind of mini-flat-circular shells which worked out great. Highly recommended.)
Refried beans (2 regular sized cans)
Sour Cream (1 regular sized container)

The above should hopefully last two people about a week (two crunchwraps a night).

Tools you'll want or need:

A Panini Pan (or a George Foreman Grill).
A spatula.

Now for le cooking.

Prepare a soft shell with refried beans and sour cream. I pretend this is a glue to hold the folded shell together, though it probably doesn't. You may want to get more of the glue-like materials on the edges better. This helps with the folding.
Throw on a small layer of cheese. Note that in this photo, I added the hard shell too early. You actually want the hard shell added last. It helps with eating and cooking it later.
Throw on your other toppings. After that, throw on your hard shell. Notice how most of the materials stay fairly centered. This is to help with folding in the next step.
You now want to fold this bad boy into a hexagon-like shape. Start with any side, and fold up toward the center of the tortilla. Rotate clockwise, and fold the next edge up. Repeat until hexagon is formed like shown.
Throw this beast onto the grill or pan of your choice. Apply the lid to actually do the pressing. I suggest setting the temp to just above medium (on my oven, this is about 6/10). Cook on each side for 1.5-2 minutes, or until golden brown and line-y. Flip and repeat.
Flop onto plate. Add sides as you wish. Push into ones own face as quickly as possible.

And that's all there is to it. Keep in mind, the main aspects of this are how things are cooked in the pan, the order of the shells, and possibly the glue material. You can basically change anything else and have it work out fine I imagine.