Tuesday Dinners

Tortillas

Homemade tastes way better.

⏲️ Prep Time
5 Minutes (+ 30 minutes inactive)

⏲️ Cook Time
15 Minutes

🍴 Makes
10-12

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup oil (melted butter, lard, cooking oil)
  • 3/4 cup water
  • Pinch of salt

Directions

  1. Combine your oil, flour and salt in a bowl
  2. Heat your water to just below boiling
  3. Add water to other ingredients, mix to combine
  4. When cool enough to handle turn out and knead for ~2 minutes
  5. Let rest for at least 30 minutes
  6. Divide into equal parts, roll out tortilla to desired size
  7. Heat each tortilla in a medium heat pan or on griddle for 20-30 seconds and then turn over and cooking for another 20-30 seconds on the other side

Step by Step Directions

Combine the oil, your salt and flour into a bowl. Personally I find it easier to use heaping cups of flour (or a little less oil) to prevent the dough from being too slick.

Next you want to heat up your water until it’s almost boiling. If you have a microwave safe dish then that’s probably the easiest/fastest way to do it. You’ll want to dump that in with the rest of the flour-oil mixture.

Mix everything together with whatever utensil you want until it’s cool enough that you feel comfortable mixing with your hands. Mix the dough until it form a single object (it can and still will be rough, but it should be one piece).

Turn it out onto your counter or some other flat surface.

Knead the dough out on your counter for a couple of minutes until it forms a smooth texture and everything is incorporated into a single ball.

Place your ball in a container, cover, and let rest for at least 30 minutes. This will give the dough time to settle makes it easier to divide.

I have a smaller pan so I typically divide my dough into 12 pieces, but how big of a tortilla you want is completely up to you.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly dusted, flat surface and then roll out your dough to the shape you want.

(I say shape you want because I am aware that my tortilla is not a perfect circle. There are tools that can help with making a perfect shape, I don’t own any of them, so my tortillas are “hand-crafted” and “bespoke”).

Now you’ll want to cook your tortillas. A flat griddle would likely be best for consistent heating, but a pan works just fine. I typically cook over medium heat, but ovens vary so you want it hot enough to cook fast but not too hot that something burns.

Place the tortilla in your pan and let it cook for about 20-30 seconds, you should see some bubbles forming and some parts of the dough getting darker/browned. Once that has happened then flip the tortilla over and do the same thing on the other side.

Typically it takes as long to roll a tortilla out as it does to cook one, so you should be able to do both tasks at the same time.

Cook the rest of your tortillas, keeping the cooked ones in some paper towels to keep warm.

Tortillas are best enjoyed fresh, as quickly as you can eat them. They aren’t quite as shelf stable or as uniform as the ones you would buy from the grocery store, but they will taste a lot better.

Enjoy.

Variations

  • Use different types of flour (whole wheat, etc.)
  • Use a tortilla press to get a consistent shape
  • Make the tortillas thicker or thinner based on preference

Unsolicited Feedback

  • HP: Your shapes aren’t very consistent.
  • AF: These would have been perfect if I wanted a rectangular taco.
  • LK: Why do they look like that?