How to Make Homemade Flour Tortillas
- Yield: 40 1x
Ingredients
- 2lbs. flour (about 7 cups) (1kg)
- 2 tsp. baking powder (8gr)
- 1 tbsp. salt (4gr)
- 1 1/3 cups lard, butter or vegetable shortening (250 gr)
- 2 cups hot water (480ml)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt. and shortening. Knead well with your hands. Add in the water a little at a time until you have a smooth dough.
- Knead the dough for about 90 seconds, until elastic.
- Form the dough into 40 small patties. Return the patties to the mixing bowl, and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Heat up your griddle.
- With a rolling pin, roll out the patties into tortillas, as thin and round as possible (this takes a lot of practice!).
- Place tortilla on the hot griddle. Flip tortilla to cook on the other side after 45 seconds. Flip again after 45 seconds. Flip one more time. The tortilla should puff up.
- Take tortilla off the griddle after 20 seconds and place in a clean towel to keep warm. Continue with the remaining dough.
Practice Makes Perfect
I have only one thing to say about flour tortillas: practice. Getting the dough part right is not too hard. Below is the classic flour tortilla recipe, measured in kilos. I converted it to cups for you, but to get consistent results, I would do it a la Mexicana and weigh the ingredients on a scale.
The hardest thing about flour tortillas is to get a round tortilla. Flour tortillas are rolled out with a rolling pin, not pressed with a tortilla press. The thinner the tortilla gets, the more difficult it becomes to control its shape. The goal is to achieve whisper thin tortillas that are a complete 360° circle.
Frankly, the fact that you have undertaken the project of making homemade flour tortillas is admirable enough to outweigh any misshapen results. Make a game of it. Ask the kids what they imagine the shape of the tortilla to be, like looking for images in the clouds. You never know what you will see (Look Mom! It’s Elvis!).
The 3 Secrets: Extra flour for the surface, extra practice roll round tortillas, and extra time for dough relaxation
The most super secret tip for making round flour tortillas is to let the dough relax for a couple of hours either in the fridge or at room temperature after the dough is well combined. Our recipe instructs you to allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes, but that is a minimum amount of time. If you can, leave the dough in the fridge overnight covered, so it does not develop a crust on the surface of the dough. You will be surprised how easily it rolls out the next day. Also, use a little extra flour on your rolling surface, so your dough doesn’t stick.
I haven’t tried the recipe yet but i recognized the amounts and ingredients from watching my mom make the most delicious weightless flour tlrtillas ever from scratch with no recipe to go by.
I’ve tried to replicate her tortillas but couldn’t quite get the quantities down pact.
I believe you hit on it and I will try it very soon. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your email! The trick is to let the dough sit there at least an hour, or even over night. It makes all the difference. xoxo
I never did make tortillas dough ,because i didn’t know the ingredients to use. But i will try it soon.. My mom use to make them fresh and i would always have one with butter..and cup of coffee
The trick is to let the dough rest before you try rolling them out. Even leaving the dough in the fridge overnight makes them easier to roll into a perfect circle. Best wishes!!
Great recipe! A small edit. ‘cup’ after the shortening. I made hummus as a side last night for family dinner but couldn’t go to the grocery for pita so I made tortillas instead. The family called them, ‘torpitas’.
Thanks for catching that I will fix! ‘torpitas is a clever substitution!😂 Hugs!
Melissa, I’ve made tortillas once before and the recipe called for lard. I never have it but I do have shortening so I’ll give one a try. Thanks so much for these recipes!
Hi, shortening works perfectly well. In fact I use shortening when I make tortillas for my vegetarian friends. No problem at all! Enjoy!
I’ve tried to make tortillas before but can never get them to bubble or inflate. They always turn out heavy and dense with an all over crust after hitting the pan. Any ideas?
Hi Chrissy! Are you letting the dough rest before you make the tortillas? I recommend that you leave the dough to rest for at least 1 hour, if not overnight in the refrigerator. It behaves much better after resting (as we all do!) You can email me directly if you have more questions or message me through IG melissa@melissaguerra.com