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“I’m lazy,” you protest. “Why would I want to make my own flour tortillas from scratch?” I hear you. Chill out. It’s true, no one who lives near a good market really needs to make tortillas from scratch—but when you do, the payoff is well worth the smallish amount of effort you’ve expended.
Homemade flour tortillas are soft, fresh, and hot; weirdly light and dense at the same time. They’re a fun food to cook with kids (just watch out for that burning hot cast iron skillet). And whenever you have the opportunity to answer a question with, “Oh nothing, just whipping up some homemade tortillas,” you’ll find that people will think you are very incredible.
They’re a fun food to cook with kids (just watch out for that burning hot cast iron skillet). And whenever you have the opportunity to answer a question with, “Oh nothing, just whipping up some homemade tortillas,” you’ll find that people will think you are very incredible.
Once you get the hang of making them, you’ll find yourself experimenting with different flavors too (throw in some dried herbs!). One thing you’ll notice pretty quickly is that you want to have high-quality flour and lots of it. Stock up on Einkorn Wheat for when the kids are hungry, and you have time to whip up something hot, fresh, and perfect for any time!
This easy recipe was given to me by a half-French Jewish statistician. If that’s not practically a license to produce authentic tortillas, I don’t know what is. Bon appetit!
Homemade Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ¼ cup vegetable or olive oil
- 1 cup warm water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Drizzle in olive oil and stir well. Gradually stir in the water.
- Knead the dough a little bit, just until it holds together.
- Divide dough into 10 balls and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.
- Using a rolling pin, roll dough balls into flat discs. (Sprinkle a little flour on them if they're sticky.)
- Heat a cast iron pan over medium-high heat and cook tortillas for a few seconds on each side, until texture turns from moist to dry and golden brown spots develop.
Oooooo… I agree, making fresh flour tortillas is so rewardingly simple! I use a recipe that calls for lard, and although I have nothing against it, in the past I’ve used Vegan shortening, and my results were yummy! I find it amazing how thin and stretchy the tortillas become when rolling them. I can never resist pulling one right off the pan, slathering it with butter and a little salt:) hmmm… maybe some tacos are in order for the weekend!
That’s exactly what I did — butter and salt!
any thoughts on if this could be converted to corn tortillas?
I’m not sure, but I would like to try corn tortillas next. I’m sure you can find some simple recipes. If you experiment, let me know!
Years ago I used to live in West Palm Beach, Florida. Two cousins from Nicaragua taught me an easy way to make corn or flour tortillas. They took those flimsy plastic grocery bags, washed them, and then used those to roll the dough onto. Perfect tortillas, no refrigeration needed.
However… it didn’t work for me. Every time I tried to peel a tortilla off of the plastic, the dough would tear. So I came up with an idea. I rolled out a dozen or so tortillas as described above, but I stuck them in the freezer for an hour or two. What I ended up with were cardboard-like tortillas that were sturdy. I peeled the plastic off of them, one at a time, rather than peeling them off the plastic. Every tortilla came out un-torn.