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, spooned and leveled
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
- Measuring your flour: Fluff the flour in its container, then gently scoop it into your measuring cup until slightly mounded. Then, level off the top with a knife for accurate measuring. Or, use a scale and measure the flour by weight (in grams) for even more accuracy.
- 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.
Where have these been all of my life? Such good flavor and much easier to make than I was expecting. My family loves them and I love that I do not have to buy flour tortillas anymore!
Great recipe. I never realized it could be so easy to make my own tortillas at home. Thanks
Yes! They are super easy and I love them so much (especially compared to your typical store-bought tortillas). Glad you found us, Dan!
I made the recipe on point and tortillas were thick dry and dense!! ☹️ I tried two batches and made all according to the recipe and instructions 🤷🏻♀️ why didn’t they come out right??? I don’t understand the only thing I did different was use a tortilla press instead of rolling them….. please explain and advise 🙏
Hi V, I’ve tried a press for flour tortillas, and I never find that it makes them thin enough. Rolling them out with a rolling pin is the way to go, otherwise, they will be too thick.
Just made the dough and letting it rest. Cannot wait to try these tonight! Thank you for the recipe
You are so welcome. We know you are going to love your tortillas 🙂
Made the recipe exactly as written and it was delicious! My whole family (kids included!!) enjoyed these. They taste way fresher than store bought and no preservatives. Quick and easy to prepare. I used unbleached King Arthur all purpose flour for reference.
This is me running to give a review. This recipe is IT. Look no further. I’ve looked and cooked and have been disappointed too many times. But this recipe is KEY. The salted water– brilliant!! The 5 tablespoons in the flour it goes first–perfection! Then the strongly suggested (but absolutely necessary) to roll these out thin. Know why? It cooks the flour. I used 5 tbsp of beef tallow. You can’t taste it but between the salted water and your chosen fat– you are going to get better than grocery store quality. I’m so impressed. I don’t ever have to look for another tortilla recipe. (And they roll out easily) Just follow her directions perfectly and you’ll have it. The Best!!!!!
So happy you found our recipe, Donna! Thanks for sharing!
Does the flour need to be room temperature? I keep mine in the freezer.
Interesting question! In this recipe, I don’t think you should have any issues with really cold flour, but if your dough is hard to work with or too elastic, let it sit for a bit and then come back and see if you can roll it out.
Hi could I freeze these before cooking? So freeze after rolling and separating with parchment? Thanks
You should be able to, although, I think personally, I would cook them and then freeze.
These are super good, thank you so much! The inclusion of the fat is SO effective! I recently bought a tortilla press and the dough recipes I was trying always ended up dry or chewy. These are divine. I added a cup of chopped herbs to the latest batch – kids were unimpressed that I ruined them but hubs and I loved it 🙂
That was delicious almost like my mena cooked them 🥺
I can not thank you enough for this recipe! I am a single mom of 2, and this recipe has gotten me through the evenings when I just need something quick! Not only do I use these for dinner, I also have used them for snacks for my youngest son. I just put a little jelly on them and voíla! They are so good!
Hi there, This genuinely makes us SO happy! Thank you so much for letting us know 🙂
Try it it will be very nice