Homemade Flour Tortillas
These homemade flour tortillas (tortillas de harina) have a buttery soft texture with the perfect thickness to hold your favorite Tex-Mex dishes. They won’t crumble or tear when reheated, and you can easily store them in a fridge or freezer for later use.
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Why should you make flour tortillas from scratch?
Flour tortillas (tortillas de harina) are perhaps the most important Tex-Mex food staple. Although grocery stores offer a variety of options that can be cooked at home, nothing compares to flour tortillas made from scratch.
With every generation, some cultural traditions slip away. This is one recipe that justifies the effort and should be passed down to future generations.
(Special thanks to my mother, my grandmothers, and their mothers for continuing the tradition.)
The freshness of the dough, toasted gently on a comal (griddle), rivals homemade bread out of the oven. Add a pat of butter to melt on top as it comes off the stove, and you’ll never want store-bought tortillas again.
Homemade Flour Tortillas: What to Expect
- Buttery soft and pliable texture. These tortillas easily bend but aren’t flimsy. When reheated, the tortilla remains soft and not brittle.
- Perfect for every meal. Flour tortillas are essential for fajitas, breakfast chorizo, barbacoa tacos, quesadillas, and more.
- Easy to make ahead and store. These flour tortillas will last in a refrigerator for up to a week and in a freezer for up to six months.
You’ll find the full recipe at the end of this post. Keep reading for tips on achieving the perfect dough texture and round tortilla shape.
Ingredients for Flour Tortillas
This recipe includes only four pantry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and vegetable shortening. We recommend unbleached flour for the perfect consistency and flavor. Self-rising flour will not work well for this recipe.
Other recipes may suggest using a different fat, like lard, oil (coconut oil, vegetable oil, or olive oil), or butter. We love the light, soft consistency of shortening, which inhibits gluten development.
Shortening gives the dough the perfect texture and doesn’t introduce any unusual flavors. Plus, it makes this recipe vegetarian.
Traditionists may prefer lard (rendered pork fat) for its savory flavor, but shortening serves the same purpose.
Getting the Right Tortilla Dough Consistency
The trick to getting soft, moist dough centers on the technique of adding water to the dry ingredients.
First, ensure the water is as hot as you can safely handle. Hot water is essential to getting a soft dough that doesn’t dry out quickly.
Next, add the hot water in small batches, not all at once. Gently fold the flour mixture into the water, and transfer small balls of dough from the bowl to a cutting board once they absorb the water. Don’t knead the dough at this point.
Adding small amount of water 
Gently bringing dough together 
Removing small dough pieces
Once all the water is added, knead the dough well on a cutting board to combine the separate batches.
Recipe Note
It’s better to have dough that is too moist because you can always add more flour later. It’s difficult to add more water later and get good results.
Finally, place the dough in a bowl with a paper towel underneath, and cover it with a tea towel. Let the dough rest 15-30 minutes before forming the testales (tortilla dough balls).
How to Form Testales for Flour Tortillas
You can divide the roll evenly by halving it until you have equal portions that fit into the cup of your hand. However, our family’s favorite method is to pinch off small portions to form dough balls called “testales.”
Testales typically have a mushroom cap shape, formed by pressing the dough into the palm of one hand while rotating it and gently folding the edges underneath with the fingertips of the other hand.
For a simpler method, you can roll the dough into a ball and gently press it flat.
Cover the testales with a towel while you roll out tortillas to keep the dough moist.
How to Roll Flour Tortillas
Unfortunately, you can’t easily use a tortilla press for flour tortillas as you would with corn tortillas.
To create circles, move your rolling pin from the middle of the testal going up and from the middle pressing down.
Then rotate the tortilla 90º and roll up and down once again. Repeat the process until the tortilla is as thin as desired. Take care not to press the dough too much at the edges.
How to Cook Flour Tortillas
Whether you’re cooking homemade tortillas or store-bought “ready-to-cook” tortillas, the process is always the same. You only flip twice.
1. Heating the first side 
2. Heating the second side 
3. Finishing the first side
Heat the comal (griddle) on medium heat for at least 8-10 minutes. We like using a cast-iron comal, but you can also use a pancake griddle.
Then cook the tortilla as follows:
- Place the tortilla on a comal (griddle) and let it cook 1-2 minutes. Flip it as soon as small bubbles form.
- Cook the second side of the tortilla for 2-3 minutes. Use a spatula to press down any air pockets as they form.
- Check to see if the bottom of the tortilla is browned to your liking. Then, flip the tortilla to continue cooking the first side for 1-2 minutes.
I like my tortillas with deep brown spots, but you can even toast flour tortillas until they form crispy shells. My own mother will only eat flour tortillas this way.
Enjoy flour tortillas with your favorite Tex-Mex meal or with a pat of butter melting on top. Having a buttered tortilla straight off the comal is a heavenly experience you should try at some point.
Storing Flour Tortillas
Tortillas will stay fresh in the fridge for 5-7 days. You can also freeze them for up to six months. With this recipe, the tortillas don’t tend to stick together when stored, which is helpful when you want to separate them later.
Recipes to try with flour tortillas
Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour (preferably unbleached)
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅓ cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup hot water (plus 1-2 tablespoons, as needed)
Instructions
Forming the Tortilla Dough
- Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a mixing bowl until well blended.
- Add shortening to the dry mixture, and blend it well with your hands until no large clumps are left.
- Heat the water 1-2 minutes in a microwave or on the stove. It should reach a temperature that is as hot as you can safely handle for the next step.
- Pour about ¼ of the water into the center of the mixing bowl, gently folding in a portion of the dry mixture. Squeeze the moist clumps that form together with your hands, but do not knead the dough. Remove one small batch of dough at a time and transfer it to a cutting board.
- Continue adding water in small amounts and removing the balls of dough that form until no dry mixture remains.
- Knead the combined dough on a cutting board until it reaches a smooth, consistent texture throughout.
- Place a paper towel on the bottom of the mixing bowl and return the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let the dough rest 15-30 minutes.
Forming Dough Balls (Testales) and Tortillas
- Pinch off a small amount of dough to fit in the palm of your hand, and gently roll it into a small disc shaped like a mushroom cap (called a testal). Optionally, you can divide the dough by halving it until you have 12-14 equal portions.
- To roll the tortillas, begin with your rolling pin in the middle of the testales to roll up, and return to the middle to roll down. Then rotate the dough 90º and repeat the process, rolling once in each direction, until the disc reaches your desired thickness. If the dough sticks, sprinkle flour on the cutting board.
Cooking Flour Tortillas
- Heat a comal (griddle) over medium heat for 8-10 minutes.
- Cook the tortilla for 1-2 minutes. As soon as bubbles begin to form on the surface, flip the tortilla. The first side should look slightly undercooked.
- Cook the second side of the tortilla for 1-2 minutes. Press the tortilla down with a spatula as air pockets form. Once the second side is browned to your taste, flip the tortilla once more.
- Cook the tortilla on the first side again for 1-2 minutes or until it is browned to your taste. Repeat this process until all of the tortillas are cooked.
Notes
Tips for Success
- Unbleached flour yields the best texture for flour tortillas, but bleached flour works well and is often more readily available.
- The hotter the water, the better the results.
- If you still have dry mixture remaining, add 1-2 tablespoons of hot water to pick up the remainder before kneading the dough. You cannot add water to the dough after kneading it, though you can add more flour later if the dough is sticky.
- Fully preheat the comal/griddle to the proper temperature. Just like pancakes, tortillas won’t cook properly if the griddle is not hot enough.
- Don’t flip the tortillas more than twice, as it will make the tortillas crisp.
