How To Make Flour Tortillas From Scratch
Have you ever wanted to make your own flour tortillas, but didn’t know where to start? Some of the best recipes, and many of my favorites, start with flour tortillas. Tacos and breakfast burritos are some of our favorites. I want to teach you how to make flour tortillas from scratch so you can enjoy them more often!
While you can always buy tortillas at the store, nothing tastes quite like the ones that you make from scratch in your own kitchen. You can make up a few batches of these tortillas and have them on hand for when you need them most. Think about the tacos, enchiladas, and even burritos you can make from these.
Related Topic: 13 Surprising Uses for Flour
Why You Should Make Homemade Flour Tortillas
You have probably done the store-bought tortillas and they were probably a bit dry and boring. When you make your own, you are entering baking heaven. I think you should make your own homemade tortillas because they are much cheaper to make than buying them at the store.
With just a few ingredients, you can have homemade tortillas from scratch. You will also want to make sure you have a hot skillet for this! The hotter, the better. You need the simplest ingredients like flour, salt, baking powder, oil, and hot water.
What Is Tortilla Dough Called?
If you are going to make tortillas, you may be wondering what the dough is called. Honestly, there is no special name for the dough, some people may refer to it as flatbread dough, but other than that, it’s very traditional dough. Don’t worry, you will enjoy watching your family gobble up these!
How To Make Flour Tortillas from Scratch
When it comes to making homemade tortillas, there are many benefits to making them from scratch. I think my favorite part of making my own is that I know what the ingredients are. When you buy from the store, you really don’t know WHAT is in your food. Making them from scratch means you know exactly what is in your food.
Step One
You don’t have to use a stand mixer or a food processor, which is really nice. All you need is a large bowl and then use your hands to combine the ingredients together.
This recipe only has four ingredients, flour, olive oil, salt, and water. You can substitute the white flour with whole wheat flour very easily.
Step Two
I dump everything in the bowl and start mixing.
Step Three
Once you add the flour, you will be able to see if you need a bit more flour.
Step Four
Be sure and sprinkle some flour on the countertop before you place the dough on it. This is where you punch it down and start kneading the dough. Form the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap for and let it rest for 15-30 minutes.
Step Five
Divide the dough into eight sections. Form the sections into eight balls. Sprinkle with flour as needed. Roll out each ball into a 7-8 inch circle.
Step Six
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and cook each tortilla 40-50 seconds on each side until lightly browned. They will puff up as they cook. Store in a tortilla warmer.
This is the one I have and I LOVE it! Tortilla Warmer. It can be used for pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, and tortillas.
Step Seven
The finished product!
Step Eight
Now you are ready to serve them with your favorite fillings.
What Can You Do With Leftover Tortillas?
Did you make too many tortillas? You may be wondering what you can do with the leftovers. I love that you can literally use tortillas for anything. We love to use them as pizza crusts.
Another favorite is making quesadillas or tostadas. If I’m really in the mood for something delicious, you will see me making pinwheels! You can do a lot with tortillas.
Can You Eat Tortillas Plain?
Yes! You can totally eat tortillas plain. I like to put cinnamon with sugar and butter on them if I want something sweet. If I’m hungry, I also like packing them for a snack on the go. Little ones LOVE eating these. They are soft and very tasty!
Are Flour Tortillas Made from Scratch, Healthy?
I can tell you that flour tortillas that are made from scratch are a lot healthier than the store-bought ones. You really should know what is going in your food because it’s healthier for you this way.
Flour Tortilla Recipe
- 2 cups white flour (plus a little extra for rolling out)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, soft butter, or lard
- 3/4 cup warm water
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Combine the ingredients in a large bowl, slightly mix by kneading the dough. It will be a soft sticky dough. Knead for 4-5 minutes. Form a ball and place on a floured countertop. Cover with plastic wrap for 15-30 minutes. Divide the dough into eight sections. Form the sections into eight balls. Sprinkle with flour as needed. Roll out each ball into a 7-8 inch circle. Heat a skillet and cook each tortilla 40-50 seconds on each side. They will puff up as they cook. Store in a tortilla warmer.
Final Word
Making flour tortillas from scratch will change the way you enjoy your favorite meals. Knowing that you made something right there in your kitchen you just can’t go wrong.
Tortilla Video by Linda
My Mexican grandmother always used bacon grease for her tortillas. It provides such great depth of flavor to the tortillas.
HI Jennifer, I have plenty of that, I will try that for sure!! Great tip! Linda
These were so easy to make! They taste so much better than the store bought ones.
Hi Alli, I’m so glad you tried making these tortillas! They are so easy to make! Linda
Linda ~
I love flour tortillas! A funny (to me) story about making tortillas for the first time:
It all started when I was on a short job in Page Arizona! I ate frequently at a tiny Mexican restaurant and loved the tortillas. So, I asked the waitress about them and where I could purchase them. She said they were made in house.Then, when I had eaten my meal and was ready to pay for it, she asked me to come back to the kitchen. Well, the owner of the restaurant was this really tiny lady and she was making tortillas. She showed me how to mix up the dough using flour, lard, salt and water; kneading the dough and letting it rest, etc. Basically she showed me start to finish! I think I was there 3 hours after the end of my meal – I was, of course, drinking beer the whole time!!
So, my first foray into making the tortillas myself was a bomb in my mind!! I could not get them round like she did, nor as flat. So, it was back to the teaching! She then showed me her homemade “rolling pin” which was a length of pipe, with caps on the end (just pipe from the hardware store) but the main thing about it was that it was filled with weights (I think she had lead in there, it was so heavy!). The weight of the thing helped with the rolling and the caps on the ends insured the tortillas all had a consistent thickness. She also said that experience was a big thing in getting them round!
Well, I have not made enough tortillas to ever get that experience down but I am good with irregular shaped and thick tortillas when I make them!!
Hi Leanne, oh my gosh, I love this story! I’m picturing that pipe right now and where I could get the weights to put it in!! Love this! I’m with you if they are not perfectly round that’s okay, and I like them a bit thicker sometimes, especially when my grandkids make them. LOL! Linda
Because of pain in my hands, I’d like to know if I can do this in a bread maker, and then press with a tortilla press.
Hi Elaine, yes you can for sure. You can even do it in a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the dough hook because it only has 2 cups of flour. Having a tortilla press would help for sure!! Pain in the hands is not fun, I know, I have to take ibuprofen before I can make these. Darn these hands! Have fun making these, they are so yummy! Linda
Hi Linda,
Thanks so much for the flour tortilla recipe. Have it saved in my computer and just printed it out.
Thanksagain,
I love your recipe. I used to make the flour Tortillas when my oldest son was alive but since he died in 2017 I haven’t made them since. My daughter misses them and I forgot the recipe I made up to make them so your recipe will be a great help. I have a jar of bacon fat in my kitchen that I keep in my kitchen. (I buy a 25#bucket of the stuff. I use it in everything. I used to use Crisco but my husband complained about things and he took me to his grandmother. She was a Tennessee Mountain Grandmother raised in the mountain and grew all her own food. She would make lard each fall when they were butchering the animals. She would make Lard, Beef Lard and Schmaltz. (Schmaltz in Chicken Fat lard used by Jews. She got the recipe from her great grandmother who got it from a great grandmother and I don’t know how many great, great’s it went back. She told me that no good cook used anything that was not natural and I use a mixture of butter and lard in my biscuits, lard in my cornbread and only Butter in my breads and bakery items (cakes taste horrible made with lard I tried once and threw it out. Even the Chickens didn’t want it. LOL
Hi Jackie, the chickens will not eat it!! LOL! I’m so sorry to hear about your son passing, hugs coming your way!!! My mother used lard in pies but that’s all I can remember. She bought it in a rectangle package at the store. She saved her bacon grease so I save my bacon grease! I do not use lard but that’s just me. That would be a great skill to know how to make after butchering animals. I bought Crisco for years because my mom used it in everything. Oh, and margarine, wow memories. I only use butter now when I make bread, cookies, or pies. Life is good! Family traditions, Linda
Can’t wait to try this! Have you or anyone you know ever tried with gluten free flour? My son has Celiacs and I’d like to try making him some also.
Hi Shari, I have not used gluten-free flour for making tortillas. I know King Arthur’s has 1:1 white flour but it cannot be used for bread. This is not bread but…..I’m not sure it would work for tortillas. I would call them. Linda
I tried making these over the weekend. My family loved them! They are so easy and so delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!❤️
Hi Camille, they only have 4 ingredients and they are so easy to make! I’m glad you liked them! Linda
Hello … These sound like so much fun and so yummy .. Has anyone ever tried using Gluten Free flour to make these? Did you have any luck and how did they taste … Thank you
Hi Jaynee, I actually called King Arthur’s Flour customer service and they said their 1:1 GF flour is only good for cakes, cookies, pies, but not bread recipes. I would have to think these would be in the bread category of recipes. Let’s see if anyone else has tried a different flour. Linda
I was interested in a gluten free / keto option too. I found another site that used the following instead of the 2 cups wheat flour, but haven’t tried it yet, so can’t vouch for the flavor. 🙂
1 1/2 cups white rice flour (6 ounces; 170 grams)
1/2 cup tapioca starch (2 ounces; 57 grams)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
And thanks for all your great info, Linda! I’ve learned a lot from this site.
Hi Carolyn, thank you for the information to convert to gluten-free/keto tortillas. That’s one thing that is very frustrating to me in converting bread recipes to GF. We can convert so many recipes with King Arthurs’s GF 1:1 ratio flour, but it does not work with bread. I hope this helps many people. Thank you, Linda
Linda:
Love your Tortilla Recipe. I don’t have a maker but I do pretty good rolling them out. My daughter loves Breakfast Burrito’s. I put sausage, ground cheese, eggs, and hash browns on it and roll it up for her and she has a quick and filling breakfast before she goes to work at the police station.
Hi Jackie, thank you for the 5 stars, my sweet friend. My mother had a tortilla maker so I got a tortilla maker. I guess it’s out of habit. I bet your tortillas are the best!! My favorite thing is breakfast burritos! I love hearing you make them! Linda
The reason you cannot make bread using King Arthur GF flour (which by the way is great) is that you cannot use any recipe that contains YEAST. Says right on the bag in case you didn’t notice the statement. Great for muffins/cookies/pancakes/waffles and any product NOT containing yeast. You might try King Arthur’s GF Flour specifically created for making bread (which, of course has yeast). I know for a fact that KAF’s GF Brownie mix is absolutely fabulous. Hope this info helps you.
Hi Elinor, oh I LOVE your comment. I did not know they had King Arthur GF Flour specifically for making bread! Thanks for updating me! I called them, so I never saw the back of the package. This would be a game changer for so many GF people! Thank you for sharing! Thank you for the 5 stars, my sweet friend. I love learning new things, thanks again, Linda