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If you’ve never made homemade flour tortillas before, you’re missing out on the softest and most tender flour tortilla you’ve ever had in your life! I can’t go back to store-bought tortillas now that I’ve made my own flour tortillas!
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Homemade Flour Tortillas Is My Sourdough Baking
Have you ever been to a truly authentic Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant and watch them make tortillas by hand? When I was in California, all the breakfast burrito places we went to made fresh, in-house tortillas and the difference is there. It makes the burritos and tacos just so much more tender and has the right chew consistency.
Truthfully, for myself, I never truly thought to make homemade flour tortillas because it’s just so much easier to pick up a pack at the store when you’re in a pinch. Of course, that’s where you sacrifice quality, right? Convenience sometimes is greater than quality though but if you have the time, I encourage you to make these homemade flour tortillas! You can even switch it up and make half a batch of flour tortillas and half a batch of whole wheat tortillas! Who doesn’t like options?
Spend your next meal prep day and make a large batch of these homemade flour tortillas and then freeze them!
For ways to use these flour tortillas, you’re in for a treat! Homemade Chicken Enchiladas are a favorite in our household as are Homemade Crunchwrap Supremes. Making Chipotle Shrimp Tacos is a stellar choice too!
How to Make Flour Tortillas
- Add flour, salt, and baking powder to the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix on low for 30 seconds to incorporate the dry ingredients.
- With the mixer running on medium low, add the vegetable oil and warm water and continue to mix until the mixture forms a smooth ball.
- Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and divide dough until you get approximately 16 equal portions then shape each portion into a ball then gently, using the palm of your hand, flatten out the dough. Cover flattened dough with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 15 minutes before proceeding.
- After the dough has rested, roll each dough ball into a 6-inch diameter circle on a lightly floured work surface. Do not stack them on top of each other.
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, place one dough circle in the middle of the pan and let cook for 1 minute OR until the surface of the dough starts to bubble and the bottom starts to brown. At that point, flip it and cook the same way on the other side, but for slightly less time, 20-30 seconds. You want the tortilla soft and to have little brown spots on it. You don’t want to cook the tortilla too much that it becomes crispy.
FAQs for Making Flour Tortillas
Yes! You can absolutely make these flour tortillas to be street taco size, regular taco size, or burrito size. Keep in mind you’ll have more or less dough depending on what size you make them.
Allow it to sit out at room temperature a bit longer. The gluten isn’t relaxed enough yet. You may have overworked it in the mixer.
If they’re from the refrigerator, put them on a plate and using a damp paper towel, cover the tortillas when you reheat them so they don’t dry out. Alternatively, you could use gentle heat in a toaster oven to reheat them.
If they’re from the freezer, put them directly into a skillet on the stovetop over low heat and gently warm them through until defrosted and softened.
Homemade Flour Tortillas
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅓ cup (79 ml) vegetable oil
- 1 cup (237 ml) warm water
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add flour, salt and baking powder. Mix on low for 30 seconds until dry ingredients are incorporated.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder
- With the mixer running at medium speed, add the vegetable oil and warm water.1/3 cup (79 ml) vegetable oil, 1 cup (237 ml) warm water
- Continue to mix on low until mixture starts to come together and starts to form a smooth ball.
- Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and divide dough until you get approximately 16 equal portions then shape each portion into a ball then gently, using the palm of your hand, flatten out the dough.
- Cover flattened dough with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 15 minutes before proceeding.
- After dough has rested, roll each dough piece into a 6-inch diameter circle on lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. Do not stack uncooked tortillas on top of each other.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, place one dough circle in the middle of the pan and let cook for 1 minute OR until the surface of the dough starts to bubble and the bottom starts to brown. At that point, flip it and cook the same way on the other side, but for slightly less time, 20-30 seconds. You want the tortilla soft and to have little brown spots on it. You don't want to cook the tortilla too much that it becomes crispy.
- Place cooked tortillas on a plate and continue cooking the rest of the tortillas.
Nutrition
Photographs by Meg McKeehan Photography
I just tried to make these and my dough was a bit stiff. I follwed your ingredients to the tee. When I heated them up,they turned into lethal frisbees?
Any idea what i may need to do?Also does it matter about room temperature? I always have my hoise at 63F.
What a bummer! I’m not quite sure what would make that happen, my only thought is that perhaps you overworked the dough. House temperature shouldn’t matter. We have our house temperature at 72.
I am interested in using lard or Crisco, do you know how much I would use? I can’t wait to try this recipe.
I would melt the lard or Crisco then measure 1/3 cup of it when it’s in liquid form.
Ahhh! These were so good and a hit with my family. I tested these out, took some photos and shared your recipe! Thank you so much for this lovely treat. :)
Made them today! They were really very tasty!
And what I liked the most was the dough: so easy, soft and elastic to work with. And it is possible to roll out the tortillas incredibly thin without tearing them up.
I used corn oil so my tortillas got even a touch of corn taste.
With chicken shoarma, garlic sauce and tons of fresh vegetable: unforgettable snack!
amazing! I ate 7 out of the 16 tortillas. ? couldn’t get enough! This will become the permanent and ONLY recipe card for our tortillas. So happy I found it on Pinterest, the picture drew me in. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for this recipe, very easy to follow, learned as I went along how to roll out in circles. Tastes great, made baked and fried tortilla chips and steak quesadillas outta them!!
these looked so good but they didn’t work for me I think it was the olive oil instead of vegetable oil… they were super dry.
Yeah, next time, I’d suggest using vegetable oil like in the recipe! I think that might’ve been the issue too. Glad you figured it out.
i’ve made homemade whole wheat tortillas before and they were just OK. So I was a bit skeptical about this recipe. Because I didn’t have enough AP flour, I used 1 1/2 c AP and 1 1/2 c WW flour. They were fantastic! My hubby raved, and my 5-year-old ate two. So tender. This recipe is a keeper!!
Yes! I LOVED how tender these were! I’m so glad this recipe ended up being a keeper for you!
Super easy and super good. Made these twice. My picky hubby loves them too. This is definitely my go to tortilla recipe for sure
Awesome, Angel!
I made this twice and it was a success, i used these for pizza
That’s a great idea!