Recipe: Homemade Flour Tortillas

This is a simple recipe for homemade tortillas. Kids love to help shape the balls and roll them out. Older kids can stand at the stove. Preparation time: 45 minutes to an hour, including 35 minutes of “resting” time. Allow extra time if you’ve never made them before.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour, whole-wheat, white or a combination
  • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons oil
  • 3/4 cup water or milk

Instructions

  1. Add everything but the water or milk to the food processor bowl. Process until mixed.
  2. Pour almost all of the water or milk in a stream through the feed tube. The dough should form a ball. If it doesn’t add just enough liquid until it does.
  3. Knead by hand on a floured surface for two minutes.This helps the dough become less sticky.
  4. Cover dough and let rest for 15 minutes. This is important! Prepare the filling for the tortilla in the meantime.
  5. Form 8 balls. Don’t worry if they are not all the same size or shape. Even small kids can do this.
  6. Make sure the balls aren’t touching each other. Cover and let rest for another 20 minutes.
  7. On a floured surface, flatten out each ball with your hand, then roll it out to 17-20 cm. (7-8 inches) diameter. Again, don’t worry about the size or shape.
  8. Fry in a no-stick pan or iron griddle on both sides, with no added oil, for about thirty seconds each. If you work quickly you can roll out a new tortilla while the previous one is cooking, but assembly-line style works better. The tortilla is ready to turn when you see bubbles under the surface.
  9. Place your choice of filling in the center, roll up and enjoy!

Filling Ideas for Tortillas:

I put out the fillings and let people choose what they like. Our favorites cooked dried beans, cheese, grated or sliced raw vegetables including carrots, cabbage, lettuce, and tomatoes, cooked onions or mushrooms, rice, sauces, chumus (chick-pea spread), ketchup, tomato paste, salsa, leftover meat, chili, Lentils with Onions and Garlic, or even peanut butter! Tortillas are neutral so anything goes. My kids like to take them for lunch the next day.

If you enjoyed this recipe you might also like:

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Comments

  1. We love homemade tortillas. They’re so much better than the store-bought ones and so easy to do. The only trick is to keep the kids from eating them all straight from the pan before the rest of dinner is on the table!

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