Easy tortilla recipe. Make your own delicious flour tortillas.
80photo credit: howstuffworks.com
Try making your own flour tortillas for your next Tex-Mex feast.
There are loads of fajita recipes on the net, but I think that most of them miss the point. The secret to great fajita is well grilled meat, sautéed onions and sweet peppers, a bit of hot sauce and a good fresh salsa; and most importantly...fresh homemade flour tortillas.
Fresh warm flour tortillas will transport a plain-Jane weeknight meal into something really fantastic; and they're very easy to make. Try them at least once, and I guarantee you'll be converted!
Flour tortilla recipe (makes 8)
- 2 cups flour (all-purpose or bread flour, cake flour should be avoided)
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 11/2 tsps salt
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, then turn the dough out onto the counter and knead the dough for about a minute. This isn't like making bread and a minute of kneading is plenty.
- Divide the dough into eight rounded balls.
- Heat up a heavy frying pan over medium heat. The heavier the pan the easier they are. If you have a cast iron fry pan it is ideal for making tortillas.
- Sprinkle some flour onto the counter and roll out each ball of dough into a flat circle about 6 inches in diameter. If the dough is sticking to the table, just add more flour. Rotating the circle around as you're rolling it out can help you get that nice circular shape, but it really just takes practice; and they'll taste great even if they're not perfectly circular
- Take a clean cloth and dust off any flour that's adhered to the tortilla, and place it onto the frying pan. You don't need to add any oil to the pan, they won't stick.
- When you see bubbles popping up all over the top of the tortilla, it's done.
- Take it off the heat and wrap in a clean dishtowel as you repeat the process.
You don't need to cook the tortillas on both sides as they're so thin they'll cook through from the bottom. Cooking on only one side will make a better tortilla.
Don't get discouraged if you're tortillas look funny, by the second or third batch you do you'll be a seasoned pro; and the whole process won't take more than about 20 minutes.
Be warned though, once your family or friends get used to your hot fresh tortillas, there's no going back to store bought ever again!
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Which do you prefer?
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Comments
I'm sure you're going to love homemade tortillas. Use the heaviest fryingpan you've got!
thanks for the advice, I'll be making them tomorrow night.
Let me know how they turn out.
I'm going to make it tonight too. I'm on a low iodine diet and this will work out perfectly.
your recipe is so clear and the pictures make it easy . This recipe is better than most I looked at on line...Thanks
Wow, I'm hooked. I love the simplicity of your recipes, John - even a kitchen klutz like myself can do them! You can be sure that I'm going to keep coming back for more. :-)
We made your flour tortillas for dinner the other night, but I mistakenly added 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt instead of 1 1/2 teaspoons! :( Needless to say, it tasted like the Red Sea. We'll try it again sometime, and hopefully I'll have learned to read a recipe correctly. :)
Oh no!!! Haha, ah well, Susan, live and learn anyway!
This recipe was easy and the tortillas were top notch. I grew up on the Mexican border and these are on par with any flour tortilllas I have ever had.
I left the last comment 3 months ago and have returned (with an account) to give some advice.
The quality of the tortilla varies greatly by the type of flour used. I have found that generic cheap flour leads to a pretty bland product while the "top shelf" flours (all purpose is what I use) give much better results. I suspect it has to do with the natural gluten, but that is just a guess. My personal favorite is Gold Medal brand.
Hi Art,
I think you are absolutey right about the quality of the flour making a real difference in the end results. Fresh unbleached flour will always make a better tortilla than stale, processed and bleached flour. I find that low gluten all purpose flours make a tastier tortilla.
John,
I made these as soon as I saw the photos and the simplicity of the recipe. It only took about 10 minutes and I had my first tortilla ready to fry. Rolling tortillas for me is like a great geographical quiz game, "Guess Which Country This Tortilla Best Resembles." I've made tortillas many times over the years, this is my favorite recipe so far, by the way, but I can never seem to get them nice and round. Any rolling suggestions would be helpful.
Hi Mariah,
I find that rotating them often as I roll helps to keep things looking circular. Keep lots of flour at the ready so that they don't stick and give em a half turn every few rolls of the pin. The tortillas always look funny at first, but the learning curve is pretty steep and you can get good at it pretty quickly.
Thanks for the comment
I toss them on my wood stove and presto their done.Slap butter on and you have a meal..
this it good recipe
Hi Tazbpou!
As someone who worked with me to roll a few thousand of these over the years - you certainly know what you're talking about!
hi i love tortillas they taste good thx for this website whoever made it im glad i found it on google!! and to hear about it!~
I've been looking for an easy tortilla recipe. I'm so glad to have found your hub. Thank you.
Hi Tigermadstanley - I am glad to be of service. Good luck with your tortillas!
I'm getting ready to make some right now, You make it sound so easy. I'll let you know how they turned out. And do you have more recipes?
Hi Mrobinson. Please do let us know how they turn out - and I've got hundreds more recipes, which you can find here http://hubpages.com/profile/John+D+Lee
Thanks
Hey there,
From California but have been living in Italy for years. While Italian cuisine is amazing... I do still greatly miss a good burrito every once in awhile. I tried your tortilla recipe and they turned out perfect! You can't find shortening here so I used tub margarine instead and it was fine. So, thanks for the recipe. The refried beans are ready, carne asada too, so ciao!
Hi Patrice - I'm very glad to hear that you've been able to move the tastes of Mexico cross the Atlantic to Italy!
I'm so happy to find such a simple, useful recipe! I'm living in Germany for the year, and finding tortillas in a tiny village in eastern Germany is pretty much impossible. And sice German cooking concepts are so...well...bland, it's nice to find a do it yourself recipe. I've literally been dreaming about Mexican food, so this should be quite an ocassion!
Athena, you're very welcome, I hope these tortillas satisfy your Mexican food cravings!
hmmm.......... i've tried about three diff. times to make tillas and nope! nope! they always come out to stale and hard but they taste good just a bit crunchy though!!! i gave up on ever trying again but after reading all these comments i am super excited to try it once again!! wish me luck!! :)
SUPER RECIPE!!! Easy, simple and most importantly - very tasty! I have to cook 3 meals a day for 4 people and I don’t have time to let the dough ‘rise’ like I found in many other tortilla recipes, so to find this recipe – slap – bang – done!!! What a godsend! Thank you John.
Hi Happy Chef,
So glad you've found what you needed!
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tshirtscene says:
3 years ago
I've never made tortilla before, and lately I've been wanting to cook something different for weekend dinners. Thanks for the idea.