Homemade Flour Tortillas
Updated March 26, 2019
Homemade Flour Tortillas are very easy to make at home and taste so much better than store-bought tortillas! Serve with any Mexican meal or make them as a snack; you can’t go wrong with homemade tortillas!
Fresh, Homemade Flour Tortillas
Is there anything better than fresh, homemade tortillas? Well, maybe freshly baked cookies, but homemade tortillas are a close second:) I love homemade tortillas! We used to go to Cafe Rio to get our fresh tortilla fix, but last summer we made Homemade Flour Tortillas in our own kitchen and have been hooked ever since. I can get my homemade tortillas whenever I want! And since I have been craving Mexican food like mad, Josh has been making these homemade flour tortillas on a regular basis. Make them once and you will crave them too. Pregnant or not!
How to Make Flour Tortillas
I promise homemade flour tortillas are super easy to make and you probably have all of the ingredients in our kitchen right now!
Mix and Create
Flour tortilla ingredients are simple: flour, salt, baking powder, shortening, and water. Mix these up, and even add flavors you like. Sometimes we like to go all out and make flavored flour tortillas. I love our Cilantro Lime Flour Tortillas. That is why you see green things in our homemade tortillas:) We add a little cilantro and lime zest for extra flavor – feel free to get creative!
Rest and Roll
The hardest part is letting the dough rest for 30 minutes. It isn’t super long, but make sure you plan ahead. After the dough rests, you roll out the tortillas with a rolling pin. If you have a tortilla press you can use it, but we just use a rolling pin. Our tortillas aren’t perfectly shaped, but that doesn’t bug me one bit.
Cook and Flip
Cook the tortillas until they start to bubble up. Flip and cook the other side! Caleb loves watching the tortillas grow bubbles:)
Eat and Store
Homemade flour tortillas will keep in the fridge for up to 3-4 days if you have the willpower to wait or have leftovers. I never wait or have leftovers. ๐
Endless Reasons for Homemade Flour Tortillas
The flour tortillas are good plain or you can use them in your favorite Mexican recipes. You can make quesadillas, burritos, tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, wraps, etc. The choices are endless! But make sure you eat at least one fresh tortilla, hot off the griddle. They are SO good!
Plain or jazzed up, Homemade Flour Tortillas are all kinds of awesome! Plus, you will get major Martha Stewart points for making your own tortillas at home…even though they are super easy to make. You can impress your family and friends!
And look at that little stinker trying to snatch my fresh tortillas. He is a smart kiddo! Fresh tortillas are made to be eaten right away.
Homemade Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
For regular tortillas:
- 2 cups all-purposeย flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 tablespoons shortening
- 3/4 cup water
For Cilantro Lime Tortillas:
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- Zest of 1 small lime
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add shortening and mix with a fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the water. If you are making Cilantro Lime Tortillas, add the cilantro and lime zest. Mix until dough starts to form.
- Place dough on a clean floured surface and knead until dough is smooth. This will take 3-4 minutes.
- Place the dough in a bowl and cover. Let sit for 30 minutes.
- With a dough knife, divide the dough into quarters. Next, divide each quarter into thirds. You should have 12 equal dough portions. Using a rolling pin, roll out each dough portion into a circle, about 6-7 inches in diameter.
- Heat a skillet or a griddle pan to medium-high heat. Cook the tortillas until they start to puff up and are lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook until lightly browned on the other side. Place tortillas on a plate and cover with a towel to keep warm while you make the rest of the tortillas. Serve!
- Note-these tortillas are great eaten plain or you can make tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, wraps, etc. They will keep in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Reheat before eating!
Have you tried this recipe?
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These look delicious! Any thoughts substituting whole wheat flour?
I haven’t tried whole wheat flour yet. You might start with half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose and see how the texture is. Or you can go all out:) Let me know if you try it!
How do you find the texture? I love the taste of homemade tortillas, but I find that I can’t get them rolled out thin enough and they aren’t very pliable when they’ve cooled. I love using them for quesadillas, but when it comes to anything wrapped it’s frustrating.
If you were to sub butter for the shortening, would it be a 1:1 swap?
We like the texture, just make sure you roll them thin enough. I haven’t used butter in this recipe. Let me know if you try it!
I use butter instead! I like the flavor so much more! It’s just to bland with shortening for me.ย
Make the masa softer by adding more water and shortening and let it rest longer covered with a towel or plastic wrap.
I love homemade tortillas but like someone else said, I can’t get them rolled out thin enough. I just found out about Tortilla land tortillas and we love those. Almost as good as Cafe Rio.
I haven’t thought about making my own. Now, I can’t wait to try it. My family LOVES Tex-mex food and we have it all the time. Is this the same ingredient blend as self rising flour?
I haven’t used self rising flour for this recipe.
I’ve wanted to make my own tortillas forever. I just never seem to be able to squeeze it into my dinner time dance. You know? One day, though, I’m going to do it! Thanks for the inspiration. ๐
YUM! We love fresh tortillas and I love your jazzed up version. ๐
Love the addition to tortillas. Thanks for a new creative dish.
These look awesome! I love how you added the cilantro and lime!
How fun is this?! Gotta try making our own!!
Great recipe ๐ We’ve been eating soft tacos and enchiladas like crazy lately, this will be a great way to change it up ๐
These look amazing. I imagine them having that amazing chewy-doughyness to them that the packaged ones never have.
Looks so simple!! Since I am ALWAYS craving Mexican making my own tortillas sounds perfect! Thanks so much much for the recipe! ๐
I’ve never tried to make my own tortillas…they would have to be plain ones though because for some reason flavored tortillas gross me out…these look good..will have to try them out – I love Mexican food and have it when I can get it
These tortillas look so good, love the cilantro lime variation!
MUST try to make these ASAP!
As far as thinness goes- really the key to that is hand making them, not rolling them out. You gotta go old school to get them just right. When we lived in Honduras for two years the housemothers at our orphanage taught me how to make tortillas and I’ll tell you, doing it well is an art. I’ll see if I can find a video to show you how to do this, since my hands aren’t good enough to really do tortillas anymore.
A suggestion to the mom on fitting this into dinner time prep- just do them in the morning. They’ll stay just fine for the day on a plate covered w a towel- unless you eat them all first!!!!!
Alright! You’ve convinced me! I was planning on doing a Mexican theme for my next dinner party and these will be on the menu!
Rolling them to be thin is an aquired skill. My grandmother always made homemade tortillas ( the best memories) and could roll a tortilla in 2 rolls. She made them a couple times a week and had for many years. You can purchase a tortilla press.
What a beautiful combination of flavors – YUM!
I LOVE homemade tortillas– I think this is gonna be the next food project with my little guy.
Can these be frozen? I have frozen tortillas from the store before & they are just fine when I take them out. Would love to make these and also be able to make extras for a future meal.
These look amazing and I swear I can almost taste them. My hubs will be delighted. But for me, alas I have celiac. Do you think a gluten free all purpose flour may be able to be used?
Yum! I’ve never made flour tortillas but these look like a must! Love little Caleb’s hand ๐
Flour tortillas are a go-to in our house. I am definitely making these with whole wheat pastry flour and butter and I am sure they will be just as good as yours. And the ones with cilantro–nice!
I have to try these!! They look perfect!
Thank you so much for this! I had no idea it was so easy. Just made them and they are delicious. No more store-bought for me! ๐
I love homemade tortillas and the cilantro lime tortillas sound incredible!
Mine didn’t puff up only like 3 of them did :/
Is it because they weren’t thin enough?
Have you tried freezing them?
Yes, you can freeze the tortillas.
Love the cilantro lime combo idea !
You need to get a bag of masa harina–its either in the Hispanic section of your store or in by the flour and cornmeal in the baking section. When I was growing up, our
Mexican maid would bring fresh made tortillas if she was making them for breakfast.
I grew up in a border town in Texas and you could buy the cast aluminum presses
in Mexico for about $2. They would last for several years before they cracked. After all
these years, I found one the other day in the back of the pantry.
Wow, I’ve never tried making tortilla’s because it always seemed so daunting to me. Thanks for sharing this, definitely gonna have to try it.
I need to try making my own tortillas!
Love love LOVE homemade tortillas! They simply are the best!
Could you sub coconut oil (it’s the same texture) for the shortening?
Tortillas are also easy to make in a food processor. Pulse dry ingredients together, add shortening or lard and pulse to mix, then slowly add water and pulse until dough becomes a ball, feel to make sure the dough is moist enough and add a few more drops water if needed, spin then shape into balls and let rest under a moist towel until ready to roll out. With practice I can now get to this stage in about 10 minutes.
It may be counter intuitive, but to make pliable tortillas for wraps I make them a little thicker and warm slightly in the microwave before filling and shaping into wraps to keep the tortilla from breaking
I make a variation of these all the time (I have a 1 month old and just made these last night so anyone can do this!). Personally, for tacos and fajitas, I like my tortillas thicker. Wrapping them in a tea towel after cooking will definitely make them more pliable. I also like to use these for breakfast burritos. Look forward to trying your variation!
Can they be made using rice flour
I make tortillas frequently. I make them with my kids at school, also. They are quite easy. We pat them out with our hands. They seem to be thinner and lighter that way.
Wow…. had fun making these and was surprised at how easy it all was. You are right – I don’t think I will ever want to buy these guys in the store again ๐
Thanks……
These are great! Thanks for the recipe. I used coconut oil (solid, not melted) instead of shortening and they were perfect.
can i use oil insead of shorting
I just made these today, a double batch and they’re delicious! My kids love them too.
I made homemade tortillas one time(not this recipe)…they didn’t turn out great. I’m anxious to try your recipe but I was wondering if I could substitute butter for shortening & still get good results?
I haven’t tried them with butter. Let me know if you do!
Why do the tortillas get hard after we rewarm them ?
so, I tried to make homemade tortillas yesterday with my new cast iron press (using a similar recipe). I pressed them into a 6″ thin circle but when I put them into pan, they shrunk up to around a 4″ circle and puffed up to a thicker tortilla. What did I do wrong?
I will try your recipe the next time to see if it acts differently.
Can anyone give me some advice?
Thanks,
I came across this recipe while looking up how to make homemade tortillas. I’m going to be using your recipe for dinner tonight (its close to 1am now). I was thinking about making a lime jalapeno or serrano pepper version with dived peppers and lime zest maybe a bit of spring onions. I know that would probably be too spicy to serve most children. Unfortunately /Fortunately depending on how you look at it its just hubby & I and he likes spicy but I do moderate it down because the g.i. Dr said no hot peppers. But I have an ex military Scottish kilt and scotch drinking till I’m 100 if I’m blessed to live that long type of husband so he still eats them occasionally. Do you think the lime jalapeno green onions idea will work? Any suggestions welcome…hopefully you’ll read this in time! It’s about 14 hours before I start dinner. Otherwise will let you know how it went. Love the recipe! Plan to look at the website more very soon!
hi, what do you mean by shortening? exactly what do you use, like hydrogenated Crisco or somesuch?
Do you dust the work surface, rolling pin or dough with additional flour before rolling out?
The work surface.
Made this the other day, my husband was worried I told him if he didn’t like it there was two of the mission shells left in the fridge he could have, and I used butter because I had no shortening, low and behold mission shells are still in the fridge absolutely delicious good bye store bought thank you for this recipe
Wow- these look like a great way to change up your typical taco night!!
Hello! I am going to try for the firsttime, please can you tell me if the dough can be put in the freezer?
Yes, you can freeze the dough. Defrost before rolling out.
As others have said, the idea of making homemade tortillas seemed almost intimidating. I’ve tried several recipes and I’ve been trying to perfect the task that is the homemade tortilla. This recipe really seemed to work out well. My husband loved them and said “you finally got it!” A large part of the solution was learning to roll them thin enough. It’s taken me several thick ass tortillas to learn how to roll them thin enough. Delicious.
So good! I made these the other night for enchiladas and they turned out great! the dough is super easy to work with and doesn’t stick every where like I thought it would. I used butter instead of margin and loved the flavor it had. the texture and smell are just like Chevy’s restaurant tortillas. yummm!!
I bake some wonderful cracker breads from the Italian Chips blog– A Canโt-Stop-Eating Flat Bread Recipe
I use KitchenAid pasta rollers to make oval- shaped breads. ย It’s much quicker than 60 or 70 rolling pin passes for each bread. ย Is the tortilla dough dry enough to run through pasta rollers? ย If so, I think I could roll the dough in both directions to make a more round shape tortilla or maybe finish with a rolling pin.
My husband made these today after we couldnโt find tortillas at the store! They were so easy to make and are delicious!!
I have tried this recipe and the tortillas turn out very nice, using half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour.
AMAZING! Sooo simple yet genuinely authentic flavor. Iโll never buy flour tortillas again!
Yahoo!