Want to make your own homemade flour tortillas? It’s easier than you think! This Easy Soft Flour Tortillas recipe results in delicious, soft, pliable tortillas – perfect for making homemade soft tacos, fajitas, burritos and more!
This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
Perfect homemade flour tortillas
I have been working on this recipe for a very long time, but I am finally happy with it!
You would not believe the number of recipes I have tried in search of the perfect, soft, pliable flour tortillas. So many recipes on the internet have beautiful photos, but the recipes just don’t work well: either the recipe is unnecessarily difficult, or the dough is really hard to roll out, or there’s no ‘puff’ when frying the tortillas, or the results are just really disappointing.
Well, you know me, I love a challenge, so I set about trialling numerous different quantities and ingredients to achieve the perfect homemade flour tortilla, that is not just delicious, but also easy to make… and this recipe is the result!
How to make homemade soft flour tortillas
These flour tortillas are much easier to make than you’d think!
All you need to do is mix flour, salt and baking powder. Then add boiling water and lard, and stir to combine. Knead the tortilla dough, then divide into balls and leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, roll out your first tortilla and then fry for 30 seconds on each side in a hot pan, until the tortilla has a few brown spots on each side, then place in a tortillada to stay warm and pliable.
Continue doing this until all your tortillas are cooked and in the tortillada.
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
So much better than shop-bought!
The kind of tortillas you can buy from most supermarkets are literally nothing like authentic Mexican tortillas. (Worse still, shop-bought tortillas are nearly always heavily processed.)
Homemade flour tortillas taste so much better than shop-bought and they are surprisingly easy to make. Better still, these Easy Soft Flour Tortillas need only 5 basic ingredients and take just 45 minutes to make!
6 Tips for making perfect soft flour tortillas
After having tried what feels like a hundred different recipes, I have lots of tips!
1. Use lard or beef dripping
After a lot of experimentation with various different fats, I have concluded that lard or beef dripping are by far the best fats for making tortillas which are easy to roll out, puff when cooked and are beautifully soft and pliable. Not surprising, as lard is the traditional fat for tortillas. (Though not traditional, beef dripping is a very similar fat to lard and can be easier to find in UK supermarkets.) But if you prefer not to use lard, then you can use butter or olive oil instead.
2. Use boiling water
Again, after much experimentation with various temperatures of water, it does seem that you get a much better tortilla when you use boiling hot water. It’s also important to ensure that the fat is at room temperature so it doesn’t cool the water down too much and so the fat dissolves properly. Obviously do take care when handling the dough at first as it can be very hot!
3. Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes
The recipes on the internet are all over the place on whether or not to leave the dough to rest and for how long, but after much experimentation it seems that while leaving the dough to rest is important, 30 minutes is long enough.
4. Roll out by hand
Flour tortillas are traditionally rolled out by hand, using a rolling pin, whereas corn tortillas are traditionally pressed using a tortilla press. I did try using my tortilla press with these flour tortillas but it didn’t turn out well!
5. You are not a Mexican abuela!
I have tried a lot of recipes where there is a Mexican mamá or abuela behind the recipe… she makes perfect flour tortillas every time, but when I try the recipe it doesn’t work. I have no doubt these recipes are great recipes in the hand of a master who has been making these all her life, but I am not a Mexican abuela, and I’m pretty sure you are not one either… my recipe is a recipe for us mere mortals!
6. Invest in a tortillada
I puffy heart LOVE my tortillada. Not only is it pretty, but it makes my life so much easier. A tortillada, which is a little round insulated bag, designed to keep tortillas warm. They are not expensive and they are absolutely perfect for the job. If you don’t have one, you can simply put the tortillas on a plate and cover with a clean, dry tea-towel. But honestly, once you have a tortillada, you’ll wonder why you didn’t get one sooner!
My Tortillada
What to serve with flour tortillas
You can serve your homemade flour tortillas with all your favourite Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes.
Some of my favourite ways to serve these flour tortillas are:
- Chicken Tinga Tacos
- Beef Birria Tacos
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
- Breakfast Burritos (obviously you’ll need to make larger tortillas for burritos!)
Can you make flour tortillas ahead of time?
Absolutely! If you want to make them ahead (or you have leftovers), simply store in a freezer / ziplock bag in the fridge, where they will keep for 3-4 days.
How do you reheat flour tortillas?
To reheat your flour tortillas, heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, then cook each tortilla for 15-30 seconds per side until fully warmed through.
Pop each tortilla in your tortillada after reheating.
If you have a lot of tortillas to reheat, you could wrap them in tin foil and heat in a warm oven for about 10 minutes. This won’t work out quite as well as the frying pan method, but it’s probably better than standing at the stove for hours and hours!
Can you freeze flour tortillas?
Yes you can! First ensure they are fully cooled down, then simply store in a freezer bag in the fridge, where they will keep for 3+ months.
I recommend you place some greaseproof / baking paper between each layer to ensure the tortillas don’t stick to each other.
Defrost for a couple of hours at room temperature, then reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- Leftover Turkey Tacos
- Easy Beef Birria Tacos
- Chicken Tinga Tacos
- Easy 4 Ingredient Guacamole
- 5 Minute Blender Salsa
- Easy Homemade Refried Beans (From Tinned Beans!)
Easy Beef Birria Tacos
Easy Soft Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 625 g plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste (see Note 1)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 125 g lard at room temperature, cut into small cubes (or beef dripping, or butter, or olive oil - see Note 2)
- 250 ml boiling water
Instructions
- Place the flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and mix together thoroughly to ensure the salt and baking powder are evenly distributed.
- Pour the boiling water into a measuring jug and add the cubes of lard. Stir until the lard is completely dissolved.
- Pour the water/lard mixture into the flour and stir until it all comes together in a ball. (It should be roughly the same texture as playdough. If it is too dry, add a splash more water. If it is too wet add a sprinkle more flour.)
- Knead the tortilla dough for 5 minutes.
- Next, divide the tortilla dough into 20 x 50g balls OR 25 x 40g balls. (50g balls will give you larger tortillas – roughly 20cm diameter. 40g balls will give you smaller tortillas – roughly 15cm diameter.)
- Cover your dough balls loosely with a slightly-damp, clean tea-towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, place a large, non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and leave to heat up for 2 minutes.
- Meanwhile, take one of the dough balls (leave the others covered) and roll it as thinly as possible. Keep turning the dough as you roll it out to try to keep the tortilla as round as possible.
- Gently lift the tortilla and place it into the frying pan. Fry for approximately 30 seconds on each side, or until the tortilla has a few brown spots on each side. (If it goes dark too quickly, turn the heat down a little. If it doesn’t get brown spots after 30 seconds, turn the heat up a little.)
- While the first tortilla is frying, roll out the second tortilla.
- When the first tortilla is cooked on both sides, place in a tortillada to stay warm and pliable (See Note 3), then cook the second tortilla, while rolling out the third tortilla.
- Continue doing this until all your tortillas are cooked and in the tortillada.
- If using for tacos or fajitas, serve the tortillas on the table, still in the tortillada, along with your filling and all your favourite toppings.
Notes
- Salt is a very personal thing. Personally, I like a bit more than this – about ½ a teaspoon. But I do like things a little bit more on the salty side. If you prefer things less salty, stick with ¼ teaspoon.
- After a lot of experimentation I have concluded that lard or beef dripping are by far the best fats for making tortillas which are easy to roll out, puff when cooked and are beautifully soft and pliable. Not surprising, as lard is the traditional fat for tortillas. (Though not traditional, beef dripping is a very similar fat to lard and can be easier to find in UK supermarkets.) But if you prefer not to use lard, then you can use butter or olive oil instead.
- I highly recommend buying a tortillada, which is a little round insulated bag, designed to keep tortillas warm. They are not expensive and they are absolutely perfect for the job. If you don’t have one, you can simply put the tortillas on a plate and cover with a clean, dry tea-towel.
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Disclosure
This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
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