My homemade flour tortillas are incredibly soft and pliable, perfect for folding and wrapping your favorite fillings. You only need 4 simple ingredients for this incredibly delicious tortilla recipe.
These flour tortillas taste much better than what’s sold at the store (promise)! Freshly made, warm homemade tortillas are truly the best. I always jump at the chance of being the tortilla flipper so that I can sneak a tortilla for myself before sharing it with the rest of the family.
The great news is that flour tortillas are really easy for you to make at home, and I bet you already have what you need to make them! If you love corn over flour, take a look at our equally delicious homemade corn tortillas.
Key Ingredients
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour for these tortillas, but I have successfully used whole wheat flour in this recipe. Spelt flour works nicely, too.
- Salt: Without any salt, these tortillas won’t taste very good. I use a teaspoon in the recipe.
- Warm water: Using warm water instead of cold water helps the dough come together more easily and dissolves the salt in our dough.
- Fat: To make our homemade tortillas soft and pliable, you need some fat in the dough. Use oil, lard, butter, or shortening.
Some tortilla recipes swear by adding baking powder to the dough for softer flour tortillas, but after trying them with and without baking powder, we leave it out. It certainly doesn’t hurt to add it, but we didn’t find that it made that much of a difference in texture.
How to Make the Best Flour Tortillas
When I was learning how to make really great tortillas, my first few batches were okay but not great. I kept at it and now want to share all my tortilla secrets with you. These four tips helped us make soft, chewy, bubbly flour tortillas.
- Dissolve the salt in warm water before you add it to the dough.
- Roll the tortilla dough into very thin discs.
- Get the heat right. I use a heavy skillet over medium to medium-high.
- Transfer your cooked tortillas to a towel or tortilla warmer, which keeps them warm and soft.
Ways to Use Homemade Flour Tortillas
Our family loves these homemade tortillas! We eat them for breakfast with scrambled eggs and a little red salsa. Turn them into lunch for wraps, and enjoy them for dinner.
Some of my favorite recipes that call for these incredible tortillas are fajitas, these green chicken enchiladas, our spicy vegetable burritos, and my favorite vegetable quesadillas.
Easy Soft Flour Tortillas
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
How to make flour tortillas that are soft, pliable, and perfect for folding or wrapping. Our recipe for the best homemade tortillas uses a few tricks. Dissolving the salt in the warm water helps season the dough. I especially recommend doing this if you are using coarser salt. Rolling the tortillas very thin and dialing in the heat of your pan guarantees bubbles, which create that perfect texture (our video shows just how large these bubbles can be).
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2/3 cup (160ml) very warm water
5 tablespoons light flavored oil, melted shortening, melted lard or melted butter
Directions
- Make Tortilla Dough
1Add the salt to the warm water and stir together until the salt dissolves.
2In a large bowl, use a fork to combine the flour with the oil (or other fat) until it looks crumbly. Pour in almost all of the salty water and stir until a shaggy dough forms. If the mixture seems dry, add a bit more of the water.
3When the dough comes together, transfer to a floured work surface and knead until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.
4Cover with a clean dishcloth and leave for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours. Resting the dough makes rolling it out easier.
5Divide the dough into ten equally sized blobs and shape them into small disks. Use a rolling pin to roll each small disk into 8-inch rounds. The thinner, the better. If you get 9-inch tortillas, don’t worry! We also don’t worry too much about making them perfectly round. (See our video to watch us do it.)
6Stack the rolled tortillas with a piece of parchment paper between them. Alternatively, you can roll and cook the tortillas at the same time. Roll one tortilla out, then roll the next tortilla out while it cooks.
- Cook Tortillas
1Heat a wide, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the first tortilla. Within 20 to 30 seconds, you should start to see it puffing up with bubbles.
2When the bottom of the tortilla has some brown spots, flip it and cook until the second side is browned in places and the tortilla looks dry around the edges. Each tortilla will take 1 to 2 minutes to cook. If this is taking a long time, increase the heat. If the pan smokes or browns the tortillas too quickly, turn the heat down.
3Transfer the cooked tortilla to a dishcloth and cover it, then continue with the remaining tortillas, adjusting the heat as needed.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Whole wheat flour tortillas: Substitute whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour. The dough might need a bit more water.
- Make ahead: Divide the dough into smaller balls (this recipe makes ten 8-inch tortillas), wrap them very well, and then place them in the refrigerator for up to three days. About thirty to forty minutes before you plan to cook the tortillas, take the balls out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature before rolling them out.
- Storing: Store leftover tortillas in a resealable plastic bag for a day or two or freeze if they need to be stored longer. Fresh homemade flour tortillas are at their softest when warm, so if you have room-temperature or cold tortillas, we recommend reheating them in a skillet until they are warm and pliable again.
- How to freeze flour tortillas: Store them in a freezer-safe bag or container, stacked with a small sheet of parchment paper between them.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. Calculations included vegetable oil.
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These are so good! I made them tonight for our chicken tacos and they really made the meal. They were so easy and quick. Thanks for a great recipe!
Have been searching for the perfect tortilla recipe. Refuse to buy them anymore with the long list of horrible chemicals. This one was absolutely wonderful. Made them for breakfast burritos, but my son kept swiping them hot out of the skillet. He smeared them with butter and a touch of salt. Yum! Thank you for such a great recipe!
Great recipe! I made these using evoo and AP flour. I tried to use a cast iron tortilla press (works great for corn tortillas) but the wheat flour tortillas would shrink and curl up at the edges. So I used a rolling pin. I didn’t need to use much flour on the board – the dough rolls out thinly very easily, didn’t crack up like sometimes I have experienced with other dough. I cooked them in a hot cast iron griddle and they bubbled up nicely. They were the best tasting tortillas I have ever eaten.
Absolutely worth making!
This was super easy. Even though I didn’t have a rolling pin, I was still able to make these. I was surprised how great these are.
These are the softest and tastiest flour tortillas I’ve made, highly recommend.
Thanks to you, I finally made delicious tortillas! Thank you!
Absolutely loved this recipe, so simple and so delicious. Whole family enjoyed them and gobbled them up at once. Guess I need to make some more. Thank you for sharing.
I came across this reciepe today while looking to change up our taco time. I do not care for corn taco shells so I made these. My dear husband of 54 years is quite the food critic/snob. This was his response. This taco meat and sauce is really good, is the organic beef I picked up yesterday? Yes it is, I said. We continue eating and he says where did you get these soft shells? Do you like them dear? Omygoodness these are the best where did you get them? I made them says me… No really where did they come from? I REALLY made them. For real? Yes dear FOR REAL. Make these again soon. They are the bomb! Thank you dear. 5 stars for the husband’s reaction!
This is the cutest story ever! We are so happy that you and your husband loved the tortillas. It is really funny that he didn’t believe you when you said that you made them 🙂
I just found your recipe. I made them according to the directions, they are fabulous. I used butter because that’s what I had on hand. Thank you!
Hello and good evening. Earlier today I came across your recipe, for homemade flour tortillas and the title of your video drew me in. I followed the your recipe and I must give all praises to you for these flour tortillas. I will be making them and say goodbye to store bought flour tortillas. Thnx for your recipe. Peace.
The BEST FAR OUT tortilla I ever had! I made a double batch since I know my husband eat like a lion. Now I have some extra dough balls left so what should I do to keep it for next day?
Hi Jennifer, You can store them in an airtight bag/container dusted with a but of flour then cook them the next day.