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Who knew homemade flour tortillas could be so easy? With just 5 simple ingredients, you can have tender, pliable, delicious flour tortillas on your hands! Use these versatile vessels for burritos, wraps, quesadillas, and more!
save this recipe!Homemade Is Always Better
I think we can all appreciate good corn tortillas, but there’s nothing quite like a warm, tender flour tortilla, right? It’s like a cozy, floury hug for your taste buds.
As is the case with most of the bread and other baking we do around here (we’re looking at you, naan, cinnamon rolls, and pizza dough), these homemade flour tortillas are super easy to throw together whenever you need a base for burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and other Mexican classics.
There’s something deeply satisfying about making these bad boys yourself. So, roll up your sleeves, get that flour flying, and let’s make some tortilla magic!
Reader rating
“Oh my goodness these are fantastic! My dad absolutely loves them. I weighed all of the ingredients and added a little extra salt. Cooking them was really straight forward. I think I’m gonna be making a lot of these for when we have taco night. I’m never buying tortillas again!” —Holly
Here’s what you’ll need
Homemade flour tortillas require just a handful of pantry staples!
Jump down to the recipe card for exact measurements—this is just an overview!
- Flour: All-purpose flour is great for tortillas. You can also use half bread flour and half all-purpose flour for more elastic and airy tortillas.
- Baking Powder: This is our leavening agent (meaning we don’t have to wait around for the yeast to rise). Baking powder gives tortillas that slightly puffy, pillowy texture.
- Salt: Salt is vital for improving the texture and flavor of these tortillas.
- Butter: To keep this recipe vegetarian, these tortillas are made without lard and use butter instead! Be sure it’s room temperature before starting.
- Warm Water: Warm to the touch water brings the dough together!
Making flour tortillas Is Simple
These wraps are so quick and easy that you can whip them up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! (Jump to the recipe card for the full printable instructions!)
Step 1: Stir The Ingredients
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and butter.
Step 2: Knead The Dough
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead for 2 to 3 minutes by hand (about 50 times). Use the bread hook attachment for just 1 to 2 minutes of kneading!
Step 3: Rest The Dough
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel, and let it rest for 15 minutes. This gives the flour time to absorb the moisture, making the tortillas softer.
Step 4: Roll The Tortillas
Divide the dough into 16 parts, rolling each one into a ball.
Step 5: Cook The Tortillas
Heat a heavy-bottomed pan, like a cast-iron skillet, over medium-high heat. Roll the tortillas and cook on the first side until bubbles form and the bottom is golden. Flip and cook the other side until it’s also golden.
Tortilla filling ideas
Obviously, the fillings should be just as awesome as your homemade flour tortillas themselves! Here are a few of our favorites:
- Tempeh Taco Meat: Make the best burritos with this tempeh taco meat, rice, beans, veggies, and your favorite sauce.
- Vegetable Fajitas: Flour tortillas and fajitas are a match made in heaven!
- Easy Veggie Wraps: Try these veggie wraps for a healthy, vibrant lunch.
How To Make Homemade Flour Tortillas (Step-By-Step)
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour, 300 g
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder, 12 g
- 1 tsp salt, 5 g
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature, can sub vegetable shortening, 115 g
- 1 cup warm water, 236 mL
Instructions
- Stir: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the butter until it reaches a crumbly cornmeal consistency. Add warm water and continue stirring until dough forms a loose ball.
- Knead: Transfer to a floured surface and knead for 2 to 3 minutes by hand (about 50 times). It should hold together in a fairly smooth ball.
- Rest: Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and let rest for 15 minutes.
- Dough Balls: Divide the dough into 16 parts, rolling each into a ball. (This makes 6-inch tortillas; for larger tortillas divide into 10 or 12 pieces.) Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and let rest for another 15 minutes.
- Cook: Heat a heavy-bottomed pan, like a cast iron skillet, over medium/high heat. Working in batches, roll each dough ball out to 6 inches then transfer to the pan. Keep the unrolled dough balls under the plastic or towel until you’re ready to roll. Cook for about 2 minutes until bubbles have formed on top and bottom has light tan spots. Flip and continue cooking another 1 minute. Adjust heat as needed to avoid burning. Wrap cooked tortillas in a towel until you’ve finished cooking them all.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
I love your terminology. It gave me a smile and how fun you must be in the kitchen. It’s super to see a young person enjoy cooking and doing things. I’m 73 and now trying a new recipe. Thank you a bunch. God bless.
Aw, so happy you found the post and are trying something new, Judy! Hope you have as much fun making these as I did 😀
Hello! Many recipes don’t include the baking powder for tortilla. I skip it and found it hard to chew starting from the forth bite onwards. If I just got baking soda at home. Do the baking soda/baking powder and yeast interchangeable? Baking powder and soda also need an hour for them to develop if I want a quick meal in the morning?
Baking soda, baking powder, and yeast are all quite different so you probably can’t use them interchangeably. With that said, these tortillas can be stored for a while (or even frozen), so maybe make them the night before then warm them up in the morning for a quick breakfast! 😀
You can’t simply interchange them. Baking soda reacts to acids; baking powder reacts to heat; yeast expels gasses after consuming sugars. Tortillas don’t have acid in their ingredients so baking soda is out. This leaves you with either baking powder or yeast. Yeast eats the sugars more actively in heat up to a certain point after which they die. Yeast also takes time to consume the sugars and expel gas. Since tortillas are placed in a medium high heat between 20 to 30 seconds, this would probably not be enough time to allow the yeast to consume the sugars in the flour, and the heat would probably kill the yeast quickly anyway. The best option is baking powder.
Do you think a 1 for 1 gluten free flour would work?
Hmm I’m really not sure, sorry Carol! You might try using a tested GF recipe like this. I’m just not sure how this recipe would do without the gluten!
I made these with butter instead of shortening. They were very good but a bit more like Naan than a regular store bought flour tortilla.
Glad you liked them, Thomas! Thanks for letting us know how it went! 😀
Hello!
Looking to make these with whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour.
Any thoughts on this substitution?
Thanks!
Camelia
I haven’t given it a try with this recipe, but given the texture of tortillas I think you could substitute it entirely with whole wheat, 1 for 1.
This recipe looks awesome, and I am going to try it tomorrow. Question: Have you even made using one of those tortilla presses? I am thinking about getting one the lighter weight aluminum presses.
I haven’t used these before, but it would make it easier!
I followed the recipe closely and I even used a tortilla press to make the tortillas. as soon as they hit the griddle they shrunk in diameter and puffed up like a small griddle cake. Thick and chewy and chewy and tasted of baking powder. inedible
I’m sorry to hear it, Kylene! We’ve tested this recipe many times, so I’d love to help you troubleshoot. It sounds like perhaps your griddle was too hot?
tortilla press is for corn tortillas, try a rolling pin🤨
Where is the sodium coming from?
From the 1 teaspoon of salt, which is added for flavor and texture 🙂
Just made em’. Excellent taste, super easy
Hi, I’m going to try these with whole wheat flour instead, but first, I’m wondering if I could use a vegan butter, like earth balance, or olive oil instead of the butter. Would it turn out the same?
Thanks,
That would work! 😀