CAUTION: These homemade flour tortillas could cause marital strife.
There’s somewhat of a running joke in our family. My husband used to be the pickiest eater I knew.
In fact, it would be easier to list what he would eat (his mom’s fried chicken, steak and authentic East coast pizza being his three main food groups) than what he wouldn’t.
His eating habits are now COMPLETELY different.
- The man who didn’t like fish now requests homemade Caesar dressing for family dinners (and yes, he knows it contains anchovies).
- The man who once nearly lost his dinner when he realized his favorite risotto (which he had already eaten a second helping of) contained mushrooms now asks me to sauté some to put on top our pies on pizza night.
- The man who used to despise tomatoes not only requests tomato basil soup almost every soup night, but also puts a thick slice of tomato on his grilled vegetable sandwiches. In fact, the last time I made couscous, he asked me to cut the tomatoes bigger and add more!
This are big steps people. HUGE! Worthy of righting down on the calendar and celebrating!
It’s no wonder that the family looks to him for approval of new dishes and kitchen experiments. If it passes his taste test, you know it’s a winner, and he can’t stop eating these homemade flour tortillas!
I first made homemade flour tortillas because I couldn’t find any tortillas in the store that didn’t have some type of hydrogenated oil. Now I make them because they taste amazing!
In fact they’re so good that my husband said this to me at dinner:
Please don’t ever buy flour tortillas again.
The few minutes you spend rolling homemade flour tortillas are absolutely worth the effort. I use this kitchen scale to measure out 1 oz portions. Then press between two plates. (This tortilla press is on my wish list.)
I always make a triple batch when I make these, because it’s less work and clean up in the long run. Plus I can stick the extras in the freezer and have them ready for a super fast dinner whenever I need them.
- 3 cups flour (any variety)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup slightly warm filtered water
- 5 tablespoons of coconut oil, butter or lard (we prefer coconut oil)
- Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
- Cut in the fat until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
- Add the water and knead the dough against the sides of the bowl a few times until it is smooth.
- Divide the dough into 20 equal pieces, rolling each into a ball. (I weigh the dough into 1 oz portions to ensure they're all even, but weighing is not necessary.)
- Allow the dough to rest for at least 10 minutes, or up to 2 hours.
- Preheat a griddle, cast iron skillet or oven to 400F.
- Working with one ball at a time, dust your working surface and roll the ball into an approximate 6" circle. Rotate and flip the dough and add additional flour as necessary to prevent sticking.
- When the griddle/skillet is hot, lay a tortilla across and cook for 30 seconds. Flip the tortilla over and cook for another 15 to 30 seconds. Repeat with the remaining balls of dough. Stack the cooked tortillas and wrap in a clean kitchen towel. Serve warm.
Cost Breakdown for Homemade Flour Tortillas
- flour: $0.24
- salt: $0.05
- coconut oil: $0.95
Total cost for a batch of healthy homemade tortillas is $1.25. That’s massive savings over healthier versions of store-bought tortillas!
Pair your tortillas for Mexican night with any of these dishes:
Slow Cooker Carnitas // Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken // Tortilla Soup // Southwestern Salad // Slow Cooker Refried Beans // Southwestern Corn // Mango Salsa // Spanish Rice // Red Salsa // Lime Crema // Ground Beef Taco Meat
My families favorite thing to do with ‘leftover’ tortillas is make cheese-crisps – melted cheese folded into a tortilla. I think that might be a regional term, I’ve never heard anyone use it who wasn’t from Arizona.
Lesa,
I haven’t heard that term before, but is it the same as cheese quesadillas? In either case, can’t go wrong with tortillas and cheese! ~Tiffany
Quesadilla? My grandson will eat these for every meal but just
Cheese ……my brekky staple
I rarely hear “cheese crisp” used! That is what my grandmother called them.
P.S. We live in Arizona!
A cheese crisp is a tortilla (open) and cheese on top. It is broiled till cheese melts and side are crispy!! If its folded, or has two tortillas, its a quesadilla!!
Can you make these with butter? I very much dislike coconut oil and dont have good lard available right now, but would like to make these.. erm…. tonight. I have pulled pork in the crockpot and this would be far healthier than storebought thats for sure
Lisa,
I’ve seen other make them with butter before so I’d say go for it. Make sure the butter is cold and you should be fine. Just so you know, although the dough smells like coconut, you can’t taste it in the end result. 🙂 Your dinner sounds delicious! ~Tiffany
I use refined coconut oil- no taste, no smell but still healthy!
I occasionally make chapitis, which are very similar to these but puff up a lot when cooked in the pan. I’ve started making our own corn tortillas with masa harina, but I haven’t decided if my time is worth the savings! 😉 Both the chapitis and tortillas are extremely tasty when made fresh!
Awesome. So easy! I’ve been looking into getting a tortilla press to make it easier to make all of our tortillas myself. Thanks for sharing and for linking up with Nomday Monday, Tiffany. Have a great day!
Totally relate to this post. We only eat home made tortillas..i use a combination of palm shortening and rendered bacon fat. We are so spoiled and I notice we eat a lot less tortillas now that I make my own. It is worth it, but extra work that takes extra time. I started replacing tortillas with crepes in enchiladas…not that it saves a whole lot more time, but it cuts it back a smidge.
Hi Tiffany!
Thank you for linking this to WFF, but I’m going to have to remove it. 🙁 It looks like a wonderful recipe, but one of the rules of WFF is that the recipes have to be 100% gluten free. I’m sorry. Please feel free to link up any other recipes that are gluten free/whole foods! I hope we see you back again!
Megan
Aw shucks, sorry about that Megan! Thanks for removing it for me. I’ll pay better attention next time!
I love the idea of warm freshly made tortillas! Your homemade tortillas sound delicious, and I like that you have provided lots of different options for making them. Thank you for sharing this post with the Hearth and Soul hop.
Yum 🙂 Thanks for sharing on The Creative HomeAcre Hop! Hope to see you tomorrow at:
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/03/the-creative-homeacre-hop-8.html
These sound great. I think I will try them. Thanks for sharing on Wildcrafting Wednesdays!
Oh Tiffany, your post did make me laugh your man sounds very familiar, I have one of those! Rebecca @Natural Mothers Network x
I’ve been making homemade tortillas for awhile now, but not with coconut oil. Can’t wait to try your recipe! I got a tortilla press recently and tortilla making is so much easier! No more weird shapes (you had triangles, my family said mine looked like Australia!)
You crack me up Yvonne! If the tortilla press doesn’t work well with flour, try a rolling pin. The press seems to be hit and miss for me lately… then again, it could just be me! 😉 ~Tiffany
I found a trick for using the tortilla press. I take a gallon size freezer bag (the freezer bags are thicker, and hold up better) cut off the zipper and both sides by and inch or so. Keep the bottom seem intact so it looks like a book. I place this in the press and put the tortilla dough between the plastic as I press. This way it doesn’t stick to the press, peels off easily (as long as you don’t press it too thinly) and I don’t have to use extra flour like I do in rolling. I can reuse the freezer bag a few times before I need to start a new one. Hope this helps.
Nice! I use a plastic grocery store bag in a similar way. Target’s bags work best. 🙂
You all need a tortilla press/cooker. My mom used to make tortillas (no longer feasible for 12-15 people at the dinner table) and her cooker is probably older than I am, but it still works awesome! Put the ball of dough in, press down for 30 seconds, and bam! Fully cooked tortilla!
If I were to use unbleached white flour instead of bread flour would I need to add anything like baking soda? Also, my children don’t care for spelt tortillas, which is why I would be using the white flour; would soaking it make it a healthier option?
Nope, you can use plain white flour if that’s what you have. Soaking breaks down the outer bran of whole grain flour, but since white flour doesn’t have any bran, there’s nothing to break down. If you’re looking for healthier but avoiding spelt, you can try using 100% whole grain wheat, or even another grain like teff or buckwheat. 🙂
Wow! I’ve tried lots of recipes for homemade tortillas, with varying levels of frustration as the result. These were SO easy, SO delicious, and I am SO excited to have this recipe on file now! My five year old sons response was, “Can we have as many of these as we want?” No more buying tortillas! Thank you Tiffany!
Thank you Andrea! I’m so glad you guys liked them, and you’re most welcome! 🙂
Have you tried freezing these? If so, how’d they do? I’m wondering if I make a large batch if I could freeze some to pull out for when we need dinner in a jiff.
Hi Amanda! I haven’t yet because honestly, we eat them all before I have a chance. 🙂 Other readers have made the same suggestion though, and I bet you could freeze them fine. Reheat on a griddle and you’ll be good to go!
I see apple cider vinegar in the ingredients list but not in the instructions…am I missing something? Do I just mix it with the water?
Or is that just for the soaking method maybe?
The ACV is just for the soaking method. I’ll make sure that’s a bit more clear in the instructions. 🙂
I’ve just started making tortillas and find they work great for tacos but I need ones for freezer burritos. I have easily used more dough and rolled them bigger but the problem comes when folding. They aren’t as pliable as store bought so they crack and break. I won’t use store bought anymore and only white whole wheat flour. Any suggestions so my freezer burritos don’t fall apart?
Hi Paula! To make them pliable, try cooking them a bit less. I’ve started adding an extra Tbsp of coconut oil, plus cooking for roughly 20-30 seconds on each side so that they’re more pliable fresh, but also pliable as leftovers. I also recommend rolling them thin, because that seems to help too. Let me know how this works out for you!
To make my homemade flour tortillas soft, I place a slightly damp dish towel on a plate. When each tortilla is finished cooking, I put the hot tortilla on the dish towel and fold the towel over the tortilla. I add additional tortillas to the top and bottom of the pile so that each tortilla is next to the dish towel for a short time (first time I did this I just stacked the tortillas as I cooked them – the bottom one got pretty soggy, so now I alternate them). The dampness of the dish towel plus the heat from the tortillas causes a steaming effect which softens the tortillas. Plus this helps to keep the tortillas warm.
Great tip KathyP – thanks for sharing!!
I made the full batch the first time. The two of us got tired of them by the end. This time I cooked up four and froze the 9 leftover little balls. I’ll try thawing out four at a time and see how that works in the future. Preparing the dough is the most time-consuming part for me. I’ll try to remember to post back here the results of my experiment. 🙂
Thanks so much for experimenting on our behalf Jean, and I’m looking forward to hearing the results!!
Hi Tiffany! I love your blog!! Thanks so much for all you do! I’m wondering with this recipe – where do you add the vinegar? Not seeing that step listed. Thanks 🙂
Thanks Jamie! The vinegar is the “soaking medium” I mention in the note section of the recipe. It’s only used if you’re soaking your flour overnight. Enjoy the tortillas!!
You mentioned the oven. How do you cook them in the oven? The same?
If I use the oven how long do I cook for?
Not long Anna – maybe 30-60 seconds.
Thank you for the recipe and instructions Tiffany! I have made chapati, which uses almost the same ingredients, but had to quit because when frying chapati (I used coconut oil), it made tons of smoke and my family members complained; however, I plan on trying the oven method soon and I’ll let you know how it goes! 🙂
I arrived at this recipe by a link that said there was an option to soak and use whole wheat flour but I’m not seeing that on this page. Are those instructions available somewhere? Thanks!
Hi Adriane! I modified the recipe, but you can still soak! Combine the flour with 1 Tbsp lemon juice / whey / ACV and 1 cup water MINUS 1 Tbsp and mix well. Cover and sit overnight. Do your best to cut in the fat in the morning and continue with step 4 as written. 🙂
How do you get them so thin? My recipe is very similar–ratio of fat to flour is slightly different and calls for baking powder. I roll them as thin as possible but they puff up and thicken while cooking. Maybe it’s the leavener?
I’d say it’s the baking powder Diana. Mine don’t thicken up at all, unless they’re thick to begin with.
Thanks! Will try it tonight your way and see what happens 🙂
Just wanted to say thanks for the great recipe! If it wasn’t for you posting it my family would never get tortillas (as we don’t buy them) These are so good..I’ve been making them for about 2 years now. It really has made a difference for us! 🙂
You are SO welcome Becky!
Hi Tiffany!
I love having tacos with beef and ranch dressing! They taste delicious! Since I’m blind, what would be the best way for me to make homemade taco shells? I usually buy the Old El Paso Stand-N-Stuff taco shells, and they taste amazing! However, I’d love to learn how to make a homemade version of them. I bet they would taste 100% better than the store-bought version! I love the hard crunchy kind, and my sweet love likes the soft kind. I’d like to try that one day, but I’m so worried I might get burned with oil! Also, my mom says most oils have a smoke point that makes them burn easier. Oil fires are scary! I’m not a big fan of coconut, so I’m wondering what the best alternative would be.
Peanut and palm oil have high smoke points, 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Oddly avocado oil, although slightly more difficult to find, has the highest smoking point at 520 degrees. The higher the smoking point of oil the less likely the oil itself will create a “burned” flavor in products.
As for the taco shells, how would I make the Stand N Stuff kind? To me, they sort of have a square bottom, rather than round. Mom says I could get some kind of form, which I’m guessing is a mold.
As for the taco shells, I’d like to learn how to make the Stand N Stuff kind, the nice crunchy ones. Are those like the recipe you make for your corn tortillas? To me, the stand-n-stuff taco shells sort of have a square bottom, rather than round. Mom says I could get some
kind of form, which I’m guessing she means a mold. Maybe a tortilla press? I’m confused on that one!
Has anyone made these with Oat flour? A couple of us are wheat free or limited… Happy to try, just don’t want to if someone else has run the test and already declared it a failure! My boys RAVE over these made with AP flour. I made them for fish tacos the other night and one, who doesn’t like fish, didn’t even realize they were fish bites and not chicken even though we kept saying they were FISH tacos! (I did also change from almond meal to corn flake crumbs for coating the fish… Might have helped a little, too)
The most difficult thing I make that is totally worth the work is Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust. It’s amazing and since I want it to stay feeling extra special, I it make only once a year at Christmas time.
Love your blog. Appreciate healthy food that isn’t complicated or full of boutiquey ingredients.
Thanks!
That sounds SO good!!
Love your blog, so many great ideas and recipes! There are only two of us here…I’d like to make a batch and freeze leftovers. Do you freeze just in a stack? Or separate them with something? Thanks for any tips you can offer.
How do you store the tortilla once they are cooked?
I keep them in a plastic bag in the fridge or on the counter (if I’m using them soon).
These were kid taste tested and approved. I think the flavor is good, but I am looking forward to making them with lard and butter to compare.
I made these ahead of tonight’s dinner. I will say that 1oz size is a little too small for my family’s preference, but your idea of weighing the balls will make this adjustment easier the next time I make them. Thank you for this recipe and your helpful tips.
You’re very welcome! I use a rolling pin to roll these out, and we get pretty big tortillas for 1 oz of dough… I haven’t measured them, but they’re easily 8-9″ across!
Hi Tiffany! I recently discovered your blog and I love it! I just made half a batch of your homemade tortillas to make enchiladas and I also tried your enchiladas sauce. It was amazing and so yummy! I was wondering, have you ever tried making the tortillas with whole wheat flour or some sort of whole grain flour? I’m afraid it would make the recipe too dense and heavy.
Thanks again for the great repices and tips!
Hi Saramaude! We’ve made whole wheat tortillas before and while they weren’t bad, we preferred the flavor of spelt over wheat. WW has a strong flavor, but spelt is so mellow. If you like the flavor of a particular whole grain, I have no doubt they’ll make delicious tortillas!
I just want to thank you because tortillas are a main staple for me, being of latino descent and currently I am trying to eat leavening free and it is very difficult especially since most breads and tortillas have some kind of leavening in them! I could use corn tortillas, but I miss my flour tortillas, so this is sooooo exciting for me!! My friend, who is also always looking for an accompaniment to her meals during a Daniel fast will also be very excited about this recipe.
I might even try my own version of naan bread using your technique and substitute coconut milk for the yogurt in that recipe! We looove naan bread too (although not any kind of Indian descent- we just love it!).
You’re so very welcome Mary!