tastiness of homemade tortillas justifies the effort it takes to make them. Up until now almost all the recipes I have posted have been easy to make, but I must admit that this one is definitely an exception to the rule. I will also say that I actually tried a couple of different methods for making tortillas and this is the easy (easier) version. Please trust me when I tell you…it is worth it!
Once the dough has been made it takes me about 30 minutes to roll out and cook a dozen of these tortillas. Everyone in my family (including me) practically scarfs them down as soon as I make them, and if used as wraps they can add some variety to your lunch over typical sandwich bread. My 3-year-old’s favorite combination (which she lovingly calls a “roll up”) is to have hummus and cheese wrapped up in her tortilla. I actually love a “roll up” myself although I usually add diced tomatoes, cucumbers, or spinach to mine. My kids also just like to snack on plain tortillas too and if you have time to make a big batch then you can freeze some for later!
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Whole-Wheat Flour Tortillas
Yield: 12 tortillas
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (I used King Arthur’s white whole-wheat flour)
- 1/2 cup oil (I used avocado oil)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water (heat in the microwave for 1 min)
Directions
- In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer set with a dough hook, pour in the flour, oil and salt. Beat with the paddle until crumbly, about 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape the sides as needed. If your hand-held mixer comes with dough hooks those can be used as well.
- With the mixer running, gradually add the warm water and continue mixing until the dough is smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Take out the dough and divide it into 12 equal sized pieces. I do this by making the dough into a big log shape that is about 8 – 10 inches long. Then I cut it in the middle. Then I cut each of those pieces in the middle and so on until you have 12 pieces.
- Using the palms of your hand roll each piece into a round ball and flatten it out on a baking tray or board. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes or up to one hour.
- Heat a cast iron skillet, griddle or 12-inch skillet over med-high heat. The pan should be fairly hot before you begin cooking the tortillas.
- On a lightly floured board or counter top, use a rolling pin to turn each ball into a 8 to 10 inch flat circle (measure against your recipe if printed on a 8.5X11 sheet of paper). Be careful not to use more than a teaspoon or two of flour when rolling out each ball into a tortilla because too much excess flour will burn in the pan.
- Grease the pan with a touch of oil (or ghee) and then carefully transfer each tortilla, one at a time, to the pan and cook until puffy and slightly brown, about 30 to 45 seconds per side. Set aside on a plate to cool slightly. Eat within an hour, refrigerate or freeze.
I’m a newbie to your site and had to try this recipe. Love it!
I have never made my own tortillas, & I am going to do it! Can you use a tortilla press for flour & corn tortillas?
Not bad. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, except that without any of the machinery, I was forced to knead it all by hand. No big problem as I am used to making pastry dough, so cutting fat into flour is something I’m used to. However, when I did it, I had way too much water and way not enough flour. So I had to go from feel. In the end though it made very nice tortillas, but I’d say that as with pretty much any recipe, your mileage may vary in terms of specific amount of what.
What have you tried that works as a freeze/thaw method? We are having a cinco de Mayo party & I want to make these ahead of time.
You can freeze them cooked in a ziplock bag and then just thaw them on the counter…works great!
Made these for lunch today and they were wonderful! My 4 year old ate them right up and that is a sure sign that these will be our new family tortilla! I thought the dough was going to be too wet after adding the water to my mixer but once I started seperating the dough into 12 parts I realized it was perfect. Thank you for a GREAT new recipe to add to our diet.
Love your website! My tortillas ended up being really greasy though. Had to use vegetable oil. The dough was hard to transfer into the pan. Was it too thin and stretchy possibly?
If the dough is sticky then it likely needs more flour.
2nd time around was much better… I have improved on my technique of rolling out the tortillas! I modified the recipe by reducing the oil to a little more than 1/4 cup, because the first time I made these they were really oily. When I was making them everything was coated in oil and even when we would eat them through the week our hands would be oily… so it worked much better with less oil! Thanks for the recipe & this website!
[...] is a great recipe I found over on the 100 Days of Real Food Blog. Yes, it does have a lot of oil in it but they taste delicious and trust me, when eating a [...]
These are delicious! Another thing I will not be buying from the store anymore. thanks for the great recipe!
What is your take on using regular wheat flour? I’ve looked at buying ORGANIC wheat flour — but it’s super pricey and there are never coupons. What do you think? I use the King Arthur whole wheat flour for everything!
We personally try to buy everything organic if we can, but I suppose if you had to pick it would be best to stick to organic produce and dairy over flour.
I did it! Starting my journey to real foods for myself and my family. We made smoothies for snack (pb&j and tasty smoothie recipes), whole wheat blueberry muffins for breakfast tomorrow and whole wheat quesadillas tonight. The quesadillas were AMAZING! I am so not a cook but planning to become one and couldn’t be happier with my outcomes today. The kids gobbled most everything up!
Thanks for being such an inspiration!
Just got done making these and they are delicious! I also cut back on the oil a little bit, I think I used around 1/3 cup.
I have been doing this for awhile – but I only use about 6 or 7 tbsp of oil in my recipe though…. (and tortillas get eaten as fast and I make them around here too lol and yes freeze wonderfully -if I manage to still have any left lol )- I also make all my own bread – hate store bought kind…I also grind my own wheat as needed..I just use a high speed blender for that..(was well worth saving a year for that blender!) Anyway nothing tastes better than homemade breads!!!!!! Definitely worth the time it takes to make these!! and WAY cheaper than store bought! Here (I am in western North Carolina) bread runs about $2.50 to $3.50 a loaf (for whole wheat that is actually healthy – (not the basically white bread that looks brown and gets passed off as whole wheat stuff)!!
Here is my recipe for tortillas :
(hope its ok to post as this has less fat)
Flour Tortillas
3 1/2 cps flour (I grind my own whole wheat)
1 tsp salt
1/2 to 2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp vegetable oil (home processed lard or shortening)
1 cp very hot (hot tap water is perfect) water ( or less – water need varies with dough)
mix first 4 ingredients together til texture of wet sand then add the water if need to add more or less in order to get a soft elestic texture.Knead for a few minutes til elastic and soft.Pinch off balls (you will get about 8 golf ball sized balls) then let rest for about 15 minutes .Now flatten tthe rolls and cook in pan on medium/high heat about 1 or 2 minutes (watch for it to bubble) then flip for a minute or 2 on other side – will get slightly browned. Careful not to over cook..