I use tortillas for a lot of meals, even snacks, but I never tried making my own until recently. It’s not super simple as it takes some work to get the dough going.
But it’s far from hard as well. When you taste your first homemade tortilla, you’ll understand why I say that I will never use store-bought tortillas again. They are worth every bit of effort!
Table of Contents
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- ¾ cup milk
Methods:
Before I get started, I will say that I kind of made this recipe up. When I first looked for a tortilla recipe, all I could find were ones that used lard.
That is something I wouldn’t use in my kitchen for anything else, so I wasn’t going to buy any. I read that vegetable oil can replace it, so I gave it a try. I think it came out wonderful.
First, you want to get a clean, smooth work surface. I work on my counter and do everything there. You could mix some of this in a bowl and then move it to your work surface, it’s up to you.
So now, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oil. Once it is mixed, you want to slowly add in your milk.
I literally add just a tiny bit at a time and make a little well in my dough, pour in some milk, and then work it in.
I repeat that until I have used all of the milk. You can kind of see in what I’m talking about in this picture.
This will form a very sticky ball. Make sure your work surface is well floured. You will have to knead the dough for a few minutes.
It should be a little firm and much less sticky. You can place your dough in a bowl at this point, or leave it on your work surface. Cover your dough with a damp cloth or paper towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Afterward, you want to break it off into 8 pieces. Roll each of these into a ball. They don’t have to be exact!
Place them, without them touching, on a surface and cover them with the same wet cloth or towel. You want to let these sit for 10 minutes.
Now it’s time to roll them out. Go back to your work surface and make sure it is well floured. Place one ball on your surface at a time.
With your hands, flatten it a bit. Then, with a rolling pin, you want to roll them out until they are about 8 inches in diameter.
I normally make mine smaller than that, but they are very thick, so I suggest rolling them out to 8 inches and if you want them smaller, next time rolls them out a little smaller.
My biggest tip here is:
Don’t work the dough too much. I have made tons of things with dough, from bread to pizzas to tortillas and the thing that really is the worst is overworked dough.
It turns very stiff and is unpleasant once cooked. Just try to be quick about it and don’t try to make them perfect.
They don’t need to be exactly round or all the exact same size. This is what makes them unique and homemade!
After each tortilla is rolled out, place it back under the damp cloth or towel. Heat up a skillet on high. Iron skillets work the best, but they aren’t required.
The skillet needs to be dry; I learned that the hard way! Don’t add anything to it. Place the tortillas in the skillet one at a time, cooking for about 30 seconds on each side.
They should start to puff up a bit when they are done. Keep your cooked tortillas wrapped. I usually cook the tortillas, wrap them in foil and place them in the oven to keep them warm.
You can store the leftovers in the fridge, just keep them tightly wrapped. Mine have never lasted for a day in the fridge (we eat them pretty quick!).
But I don’t think you should keep them much longer than that. You can reheat them on the skillet, over a gas burner or in the oven as I mentioned above.
These tortillas are very delicious and well worth the effort! If you have the time to make them, I highly suggest giving them a try.
Once you do, you won’t enjoy the store bought tortillas anymore, that’s for sure! These are just wonderful.
