Have you ever tried homemade flour tortillas before? Let me just say that the taste and texture are far superior to tortillas that come in a plastic bag at the grocery store. Honestly, they don’t even deserve to be called tortillas compared to the real thing!
Luckily, the 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!
Whole-Wheat Tortillas
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, I used King Arthur’s white whole-wheat flour
- 1/2 cup avocado oil, or other oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water, heated in the microwave for 1 min
Instructions
- 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.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Facts
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Collard Greens
I don’t have a heavy duty mixer but I do have a good processor with a dough blade, would that work the same? Sorry, I’m so new to making anything from scratch but I’d love to give these a try.
While we haven’t tried, we’ve also seen mixed reviews from other readers about using a regular mixer with beaters, but our suggestion would to just knead it by hand. – Nicole
Great and simple recipe. I followed the recipe exactly as is the first time. It did seem too oily for me, so i ended up adding about 1/2 a cup of flour to help absorb the oil and make it easier for me to roll. I also noticed that my tortillas got a bit hard, even though I used a thick towel to keep them warm.
My second time trying the recipe, I used 1/3 cup of coconut oil. I also used about 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of boiling water. I used a spatula to mix the ingredients in a bowl and once it was crumbly, I used my hands. This ratio worked much better for me, it was easier to work with and the tortilla did not get hard edges as my first batch.
Glad to hear they finally worked out for you. – Nicole
Authentic tortillas are heated on “a comal” made of cast iron. Every Mexican household has one. Tortillas are cooked on these and reheated as well. We never microwave them to reheat. No oil is ever added to the comal to cook them or to reheat them. I’ve had mine for 20 years and it is well loved and broken in. Enjoy! Buena suerte.
haha true!! i didnt finish reading the directions. I rolled out the dough then placed them on my comal with no oil.
Lisa, the “new math” is a bit challenging for me. Can you explain how you get to 12 pieces but cutting the 8-10 in log in half, and then cutting those pieces in half, “and so on”. When I do that I get 2 pieces, then 4, then 8 and then 16.
Thanks.
To get 12 cut the first piece in half then the two into 3rds to get 6. Then decide those in half to get 12….
Assuming you’re an adult, I think it’s fair for her to expect you to figure out how to get 12 pieces out of 4 without her having to spell it out.
These tortillas rolled out nicely and cooked up nice, but are way too oily.
I won’t be this making this recipe again.
Okay, I’m confused.
In the first paragraph of instructions, you say to put the ingredients in “a heavy duty mixer bowl set with a dough hook.” Gotcha. But then you say to “beat with the paddle until crumbly.” Huh? Do we start with the dough hook or the paddle?
I’m excited to try these; I mill my own flour and bake my own bread, so I look forward to making my own tortillas.
Hi Mary, Lisa was using those two words interchangeably. Your dough hook is what you should use. – Nicole
Thanks for the clarification!
I made these with olive oil ‘cause thats all I had on hand and I thought it was a little too much. I’ll use 1/3 of a cup next time. You could really taste the oil, which isn’t such a bad thing. I love olive oil.
They’re really good, though, and definitely worth the effort. I froze the leftovers and they were even better the following days.
I agree. I was using 1/3 cup olive oil and they tasted good. However, today I tried using 1/4 cup olive oil and they STILL tasted good. So that’s the amount I will be using from now on.
Made my oven baked tortillas and realized I had no tortillas. So I made this recipe. My family LOVED it and said to never buy tortillas again. I ordered a tortilla press as not rolling these out on a regular basis! :-)
Can i use Ghee instead of oil for preparing dough? ( As ghee is supposedly healthier than oil)
Try whatever fat you like. It’s traditional to use lard, which is a solid, so I don’t think ghee would be a problem. Just adjust the recipe as needed.
I used fresh ground hard white whole wheat flour and lard gleaned from making carnitas last week and put it all in the bread machine on the dough cycle, allowing the lard to knead in to a crumble before I added the warm water. Once it all combined, it seemed too oily/fatty to me, so I added about 3/4 cup additional whole wheat flour and let the cycle complete. After resting 30 minutes the dough felt right and handled well. during the roll out. Really delicious tortillas! It could have been my fresh ground flour was to fluffy and airy since it had not yet had any time to settle and compact and so it skewed my measuring.
I grind my own flour too and I always add extra to account for (not) settling. I guess we could be more accurate if we weighed it, but I’m content just adjusting the recipe as needed.