Homemade flour tortillas are surprisingly easy to make! With just a simple list of ingredients and a few turns of the rolling pin, you can have warm, fresh, delicious homemade tortillas ready to serve in about a half an hour!
It's been more than twenty years since I had first ate a warm, homemade flour tortilla. The memory is as fresh as if it had happened yesterday.
I remember watching in fascination as our cousin Leah, the Mexican-born daughter of Christian missionaries, rolled out one tortilla after another, flour motes dancing with each turn of her pin.
In well-practiced rhythm, Leah rolled, flipped, turned, and fried each circle of dough with machine-like consistency; quickly building a stack of warm, floury flat-breads tall enough to feed our small army of children. Watching her work was a moment of pure grace, and I remember feeling immense gratitude for her efforts.
Soft, flavorful, and tender, Leah's homemade flour tortillas made nearly every tortilla I'd eaten up until then taste like flattened papier-mâché. If you have never made homemade tortillas, it's high time that you do. And once you do, you will never go back to store-bought. (OK, maybe you will sometimes, for the convenience; but after these, those store-bought tortillas will never taste the same again.)
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How to Make Homemade Flour Tortillas
Now, here's the big secret about homemade tortillas... they are surprisingly fast and easy to make!
(For ingredient amounts and further instructions, scroll down to the recipe card below.)
The dough should be soft but not sticky. You can always add more flour if you need to.
Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding flour as needed if the dough gets sticky.
Step 2: Allow dough to rest.
Form the dough into a large ball and wrap in plastic or cover with a towel.
Allow dough to rest on counter for about 20 minutes.
Step 3: Form dough into balls.
After the dough has rested, divide it into 2” balls (about the size of a golf ball). Form all of the dough into balls before progressing to the next step. Cover the balls with plastic or a clean cloth. (I like to use a gallon-size reusable bag for this.)
Step 4: Roll out tortillas.
Flatten a dough ball with your palm and dust each side with flour, then roll into a 5-6” circle. Turn and flip each tortilla a few times as you roll them out.
Want to make an awesome tortilla warmer like the one in the picture above? Check out my Tortilla Warmer DIY tutorial here!
Homemade Flour Tortillas
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 ½ cups warm water not HOT
Instructions
- Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Drizzle in the olive oil and mix with your hands.
- Mix in a little water at a time with your hands until you have a soft dough. (The dough should be soft but not sticky. You can always add more flour if you need to.) Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding flour as needed if the dough gets sticky.
- Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic or cover with a towel. Let rest for about 20 minutes. (This allows to gluten to rest.)
- Divide dough into 2” balls (about the size of a golf ball). Flatten a dough ball with your palm and dust each side with flour, then roll into a 5-6” circle. Turn and flip each tortilla a few times as you roll them out. [See note]
- Heat a frying pan or griddle over medium heat. DO NOT grease or spray pan with cooking spray. Place a tortilla in the pan and cook until it bubbles a little – around 20-30 seconds. Flip it and cook the other side 20-30 seconds.
- Place cooked tortillas in a tortilla warmer, or inside a folded kitchen towel. The steam from the hot tortillas softens them.
Notes
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.
Our flour tortilla recipe is an adaptation of "Flour Tortillas Diaz." I love that it doesn't call for lard or shortening, and the tortillas it makes are soft and pliable even after they have been sitting for some time.
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POST UPDATED 2.15.2020 - This post was originally published June 30, 2014.
Such a great tutorial. Thanks, Renee! Quick question: can you freeze these, and if so, for how long can you keep them in the freezer?
When making fresh tortillas, you should have an extra disclaimer that there is a certain loss that occurs because you end up putting a little smear of butter and folding up the tortillas and eating them fresh and hot off the pan...
Great recipe! I have an enchilada recipe that I would definitely use these for!
I am desperately wanting to try this. Can I sub GF flour? I need to go off gluten again, and would miss my fave food very much! Ty!
I've never tried this recipe with GF flour, and I don't really know how it would turn out because the tortillas rely on the gluten for their structure. If you do try it, please be sure to come back and let us know how it turned out, and if you have any tips for making GF flour work.
We eat a LOT of breakfast burritos in the morning. These look like they would taste SO good!. I'll make some to try it out and letcha know!!
Thanks for the recipe. I've been wanting to try making homemade tortillas. Have you tried mixing in spices or herbs?
You should make them - the first time I made them, I discovered that they are so much easier than I thought they would be! And yes, adding spices really pulls them into a meal. I love making naan to serve when I make Indian food, but it takes a lot of time for the dough to be ready, so if I'm in a hurry, I throw a little curry or garam masala into the tortilla mix and - Voi·la! Indian tortillas! So yummy!
Homemade flour tortillas are the best ever!
Homemade makes all the difference when it comes to tortillas. Coincidentally, today I'm actually working on perfecting my corn tortillas for a future post.
Homemade tortillas - I love this and especially love that they use olive oil! I am definitely going to try this.
These look fabulous! Can't wait to try them.
These look perfectly light and fluffy; just in time for taco Tuesday tomorrow! Delish!
They are so good, Sara!
This looks so easy! I am definitely making these for our next taco night!
I need to give these a try! I’ve never made them at home but it looks so simple and delicious!
The first time I made them, I was so surprised at how easy they are to make!
I'll have to try this! I've never tried to make my own tortillas before. I'll have to see how these turn out.
You should definitely try it! They are so easy to make!
The tortillas recipe that is worth coming back to over an over again - fabulous results!
Thanks o much, Elaine!
Once I tried homemade flour tortillas, it was impossible to go back to storebought (except in case of a Taco Tuesday emergency). Yum!
So many of the tortillas you see at the store are loaded with a long list of unpronounceable ingredients. Much healthier to make them at home, so thanks for the recipe!
I love that I have all the ingredients in my pantry already! I never thought to make my own tortillas but now this is definitely something I'm going to do.
I use tortillas so often! I love the idea of making them at home.
I used to make homemade flour tortilla's but sometime after our fourth was born I stopped making them because it took so long to make so many for our crowd. Now that I have some older kids I think we could try again because they could help. Homemade tortillas are the absolute best.
The fresh ones always taste so much better! I have to try this homemade flour tortilla recipe!
I have always wanted to do this but we only have two people in my family and we dont need that many tortillas at once. Once we turn into a family of four I will!
I tried making homemade tortillas once, the city I lived in could have used them to patch roads!. So I haven't tried making them since. I will definitely try your way. They look easy and yummy!
Haha! Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to figure things out, right? I like this recipe because it's so forgiving, and the olive oil keeps the tortillas soft. You should give them a shot!