Make Your Own Flour Tortillas

I’ve been loving the idea of making ingredients which I would normally resort to pre-made version. There is no doubt homemade ingredients  taste better and not to mention the peace of mind of no hidden nasties.

Lately my motivation in the kitchen has been steering towards homemade ingredients (my recent attempt can be seen here). The experience has been pleasant and satisfying. So here is another attempt of mine – flour tortillas.

If time permits, you should really try making these at home. Besides the time of kneading and rolling them out, the ingredients are very accessible (most of them you may already have right at this moment) and despite the extensiveness of my step-by-step photos below, the process is quite straight forward. I hope to be as precise (informative) as possible when it comes to working with dough. Enjoy!

Make Your Own Flour Tortillas

(adapted mostly from Mexican (Company’s Coming Greatest Hits by Jean Pare)

Makes 13 16cm/6 inches flour tortillas

What you need:-

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour) + extra to work the dough
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 30g / 1 ounce cold butter
• 1 cup water

The original recipe specifies 1/4 cup of butter (about 56.7 g/2 ounces/ 0.5 stick) and  2/3 cup of  water. I actually miscalculated the amount of butter in grams from 1/4 cup and therefore, the amount water I used has increased to 1 cup.

 Let’s get started:

(1) Place flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly [which I used a fork to do so, coupled with my fingers i.e. the rub in method].  (2) Add water. Stir until dough forms a ball. If too dry, add water, 1 tbsp at a time, until dough firms [in my words, all the ingredients are roughly adhered together]. (3) Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead the dough 6 to 8 times or until resembles play-doh. Cover with inverted bowl. Let it rest for 20 minutes. (4) Divide into 10 portions. Roll out, 1 portion at a time, as thin as possible. (5) Invert a plate or a bowl [which I used a 16 cm/6 inches dessert plate] onto dough. Cut around edge. Repeat with the remaining dough. (6) Place 1 tortilla on medium-hot ungreased frying pan. Some dark spots will appear in 15 to 20 seconds. Turn. Brown 15 to 20 seconds on second side until dark spots appear. Keep warm in tea towel. Cool. Wrap airtight to store.

Note – the time will vary depending on whether you are cooking on a gas or electric stove, and the conductivity of the pan. For me each tortilla takes no more than a minute. The longer you cook the tortllas, the harder and crispier they are going to be. So they have to be cooked on fairly high heat. When you flip to cook on the second side, the tortilla should still feel fluffy and soft.