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These Homemade Flour Tortillas taste just as good as the fresh tortillas from your favorite Mexican Restaurant. With a few ingredients you can make fresh, warm tortillas at home! Use them to make your favorite burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and more!
Featured With This Recipe
Flour tortillas are the starting point of so many popular Mexican-inspired meals – enchiladas, burritos, tacos, quesadillas and more. Up your taco night game by swapping your regular store-bought flour tortillas for these delicious homemade ones. Sure it takes a little more time, but the resulting taste is well worth it! Keep reading to learn all the tips and tricks to make flour tortillas.
Ingredients To Make Homemade Tortillas
You can make these delicious tortillas by using only 5 simple ingredients, with one of the ingredients being water! Here’s what you need to make this flour tortilla recipe:
- Flour – all-purpose flour works great
- Salt – I like using fine sea salt because it seems to distribute throughout the tortilla better
- Baking powder
- Shortening (or lard if you are wanting to make these super authentic)
- Hot water
Is It Better To Roll or Press Flour Tortillas?
If you have a tortilla press, perfect, use it! A tortilla press will make the process a lot faster. A tortilla press is great when making soft tacos or enchiladas because you can make a lot at one time. However, they aren’t great if you are trying to make a large burrito because most presses are only between 8-10 inches in diameter. When we are making big, Cafe Rio sized burritos or salads we have better success rolling the tortillas by hand.
Things To Keep In Mind
While the most authentic Mexican tortillas are often made with lard, this recipe uses shortening, which can sometimes be easier to find. However, if you are averse to the idea of using shortening or lard, you can swap butter or vegetable oil for shortening in most recipes. One reader suggested trying coconut oil if you’re looking for a healthier alternative. If you try any of these substitutions, let us know in the comments how your tortillas turned out.
If you’re planning to make tortillas large enough for a salad or a burrito, you are going to need a fairly large griddle or pan. For soft tacos or smaller meals, you can use a normal frying pan or a cast iron skillet.
Tips For Making Homemade Tortillas
- When cooking the tortillas, cook until little bubbles form on the tortilla, then flip. Much like a pancake. Don’t overcook or the tortilla will get too dry.
- Remember to let the dough rest. This will help the starches and gluten to expand, making it more pliable and easier to roll out.
- These tortillas will keep well in the refrigerator for 5-7 days when stored in a Ziplock bag with all the air pressed out. Once they are cold they will lose their softness. To re-soften, just place them under a slightly damp paper towel and microwave for 10-20 seconds. They’ll be nice and soft again.
- If rolling by hand, it is helpful to press the dough as flat as you can with a heavy pan or cast iron skillet. Then place the flattened dough on a piece of parchment paper to roll thinner. That way the dough won’t tear when trying to lift after rolling. You may need someone to help steady the paper so it doesn’t slide too much when rolling.
Great Ways to Use Tortillas
Our site is FULL of delicious recipes that start with a tortilla. For example, as mentioned above, Our Version of Cafe Rio / Costa Vida Salad and Burritos. We also love using these tortillas for Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas or Thai Chicken Enchiladas. These Homemade Flour Tortillas are also great for soft tacos. Here are some more great recipes to try with homemade tortillas:
Read Next: 33+ Easy Dinner Ideas for Busy Weeknights
Frequently Asked Questions About Homemade Tortillas
Yes! They really don’t take a lot of time and they taste amazing. If you are in a pinch for time, sure store-bought is going to be faster. But you just can’t beat the flavor of homemade.
No press? No problem! Tortillas are easy to roll out with a rolling pin. Press the dough as flat as you can with the bottom of a cast iron skillet or heavy pan then roll it out further with a rolling pin.
It could be that the water used wasn’t hot enough. It could also be because the dough got too dry when kneading, or the dough wasn’t kneaded long enough.
How to Make Homemade Flour Tortillas
Homemade Flour Tortillas
Video
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 3/4 cup very hot water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Cut in the shortening with your fingers or pastry cutter until the flour is crumbly.
- Add the water and mix until the dough comes together. Place on a lightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in bowl, cover with a slightly damp dishtowel and let sit for an hour.
- Divide the dough into 5-6 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball (if you are making soft taco sized tortillas, divide it into 10-12 pieces). Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla (if you want it perfectly round, get a large round plate or serving platter, flip it upside down over the dough and cut out the circle).
- Preheat a large skillet or pan to medium-high heat. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly, golden, and no appearance of doughy-ness, about 1 minute (DON'T OVERCOOK. Remember these are supposed to be soft flour tortillas, you don't want them to be crispy). Flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side.
Notes
- If rolling by hand, it is helpful to press the dough as flat as you can with a heavy pan or cast iron skillet. Then place the flattened dough on a piece of parchment paper to roll thinner. That way the dough won’t tear when trying to lift after rolling. You may need someone to help steady the paper so it doesn’t slide too much when rolling.
- When cooking the tortillas, cook until little bubbles form on the tortilla, then flip. Much like a pancake. Don’t overcook or the tortilla will get too dry.
- Remember to let the dough rest. This will help the starches and gluten to expand, making it more pliable and easier to roll out.
- These tortillas will keep well in the refrigerator for 5-7 days when stored in a Ziplock bag with all the air pressed out. Once they are cold they will lose their softness.
- To re-soften, just place them under a slightly damp paper towel and microwave for 10-20 seconds. They’ll be nice and soft again.
Nutrition Information
Yummy! I love making homemade recipes especially this one! This was so perfect for our taco night and such a hit! I will be making these again very soon! Love having this recipe on hand!
Amazing! My kids loved these and we even made quesadillas with them!
These are so soft and make great quesadillas.Much better than store bought!
? Is the nutrition information based on the entire batch or 1 serving (6 total as recipe states)
It is for the whole batch!
Your recipe has created tortilla monsters out of my family lol! The kids eat them plain 2 at a time and my husband uses them for breakfast burritos. They are asking for them all the time!! Good thing your recipe is easy! Thanks for sharing it!
“Tortilla monsters” is making me laugh so hard!! I am so glad you guys like them! Thanks for letting us know!
I can’t believe I hadn’t made these from scratch sooner. They are so easy to make, thanks to your recipe!
Just the recipe I was searching for! Thanks for sharing tips..making it tonight
Is there anything better then a fresh, hot tortilla?? This is a great recipe. Thanks for sharing!
these look great! what I love even more than flour tortillas are corn tortillas but I cant find masa harina anywhere, so I usually make flour!
I am making tacos tomorrow night & couldn’t find tortillas at the store this week. Going to try your recipe! 🙂
If you watch the ingredients used at Cafe Rio as they make their tortillas, you will notice they add yeast. While not traditional, it definitely is there.
Thank you! I felt like something was missing when I did this, they tasted great but they were a little more dense then the cafe rio ones
How much yeast do they use? And at what point in the recipe? Thanks so much.
Might try this with lard. Actual Mexican tortillas always have lard…:)
I use bacon grease when I make theses. Delicious.
Great idea! Thanks!
Can I make the dough, roll it, put it in the fridge and cook it the next day? I’m Cooking for a lot of people and don’t want to spend the entire time making these
We have never tried it that way before but I am guessing it will probably be ok! Let us know how it turns out!
Does anybody why they no longer sell the Flore La Pina
I was told at cafe rio that they use palm oil in their tortillas.
I want to make these for a large group. Do you know how far in advance I can make them. How long do they store for?
I would say no more than just a few days. IMO they go stale fast…
What about wheat tortillas?
You could do that, just use whole wheat flour.
La Pina IS the best. Problem is… they don’t make it any more. I happened upon 8 bags of it last night on a clearance rack and bought them all.
your water may not of been hot enough, i boil mine sometimes, this helps to soften the shortening
True authentic tortillas are made with shortening.
Well actually.. True authentic tortillas use lard… Not shortening… But its a healthier option.
I did this recipe exact but they turned out dry. I wish there were more pictures shown on how thin you made them, and the coloring, etc. Anyway, more pictures of each step would have been helpful. Thanks for the recipe though. Maybe mine will turn out on another try.
Do you know if I can substitute oil or butter for the shortening? I don't have shortening in my home.
you can use butter like shortening…or if you want a really heart healthy alternative, use coconut oil. 🙂 works better in my opinions. 🙂
Great tip, thank you!!
One tip that I learned for tortillas is that you should use flour called, "La Piña". I have seen it for sale at some Walmarts but you can get it at a mexican market as well. It made a huge difference for me.