This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see our privacy policy.
These really are the best ever homemade flour tortillas, no one can believe how easy and delicious they are! They're perfect for enchiladas, soft tacos, burritos, quesadillas, wraps... Check out the over 700 5-star reviews!
This recipe has been a long time in coming, years actually. I've been trying out recipes for homemade flour tortillas for what seems like forever - but I've never been thrilled with any of them. Definitely not thrilled enough to blog them - too dry, too sticky, too crisp, too bland, too soggy, too complicated. This time, with these flour tortillas, it's different. They totally live up to their name - Best Ever Homemade Flour Tortillas!
I LOVE the results, and I think you will too. These homemade flour tortillas are tender, soft and flavorful. Because they keep well, they can be made in advance and warmed in the microwave or on the stovetop, just before serving.
How to make flour tortillas from scratch - easier than you think!
They're also EASY, super easy! If you have a mixer with a dough hook, you can have the dough made in less than five minutes. You can also easily mix it together without a mixer (using a wooden spoon, sturdy spatula or Danish whisk), which is the way I usually make them. But whether you use a mixer or not, it's super important to give the dough a little rest after mixing and dividing the dough. This helps relax the glutens, in order to make rolling the tortillas much easier.
Just portion the dough, give it a rest, then roll each piece nice and thin and give them a stint (one-two minutes!) in a medium-hot, dry pan. Voila! Once you take the first taste, you'll NEVER want pre-packaged tortillas again
Ways to use these Homemade Flour Tortillas...
- These flour tortillas will make any South-of-the-Border meal extraordinary. Burritos, enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas ... it all tastes better!
- But this is the REALLY cool thing; they also make fabulous, super thin crust pizzas. Just brush them lightly with olive oil and top with your favorite pizza ingredients. I love pesto, a bit of fresh mozzarella, smokey bacon bits and a sprinkle of pine nuts and/or fresh herbs. Pop them in a piping hot (450˚F) oven for 4-5 minutes or until crispy golden brown.
Imagine coming home after a busy day and having a stash of these tortillas (aka pizza crusts) in the freezer. Throw together a fresh salad and an individual pizza for each family member and they'll be "WOWING" you all evening long!
- I've used these homemade flour tortillas for wonderful sandwich wraps.
- It's fun to spread them with a bit of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar for a quick sweet treat.
- They make fabulous, shatteringly crisp chips too. Just brush one with a teaspoon of olive oil on both sides, then sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Bake for 5 minutes at 450˚F. and you won't even believe how delicious they are on their own or broken into irregular pieces and used to dip hummus, salsa etc.
Can you tell I'm excited about these guys? You will be too and I have a feeling, once you try them, you won't want to be without a cache of these tortillas in your freezer. They're almost too good to be true! Almost.
You can either make these tortillas with a stand mixer or by hand. I find it's just as easy to put them together without a mixer. You'll find directions for both ways in the recipe below but we've created a video to show you how easy they are to make by hand:
Café Tips for making these Homemade Flour Tortillas
- Roll the tortillas fairly thin. You want them about 6-inches in diameter and to look somewhat translucent if you held them up to the light. Thick tortillas won't be tender.
- If you try rolling out these tortillas and the dough keeps shrinking back, let it rest for another 15-30 minutes. The gluten just hasn't had enough time to relax.
- I've also used olive oil and melted butter for this tortilla recipe with good results. I don't recommend coconut or peanut oil as the tortillas will take on the oil's flavor.
- If your tortillas feel stiff after cooking, you've cooked them too long or the heat was too high. Cook them only long enough to get some nice bubbles on the surface and a few light brown spots on the underside. Then flip them for another 15-20 seconds.
- It's also important to allow your tortillas to steam each other. Stack them up directly after cooking and keep them covered with a kitchen towel. This help them steam each other and get nice and soft.
- A tortilla warmer is a nice accessory to have when making tortillas, as you can stack tortillas after cooking to keep them soft. It's also perfect for serving the tortillas at the table. It's not necessary to have one though. Just use a pot with a cover that's slightly bigger than the tortillas. Place each tortilla in the pot after removing from the pan and cover with the lid. The steam from the just cooked tortillas will keep them all soft and pliable - same way a tortilla warmer works!
- Readers have asked if it's worth it to have a tortilla press. I honestly don't think it's necessary for these flour tortillas, as they're easy to roll out.
- Wipe out the pan in between tortillas with a damp paper towel if flour is starting to accumulate.
- These tortillas keep well in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. They will feel stiff though when they're cold. When you want to use one or two, just place them in a slightly damp paper towel and microwave for 10-20 seconds. They'll be nice and soft again.
Make them! I think you'll love them too!
Another wonderful South of the Border recipe
Do enjoy South-of-the-Border cuisine? If so, be sure to check out our Mexican Chopped Salad. It's another super popular recipe on The Café. It's fantastic with just about any Mexican or Tex-Mex entree. Pair it with these Best Ever Homemade Flour Tortillas for a meal that's sure to bring rave reviews!
If you enjoy this recipe, please come back and leave a rating and review! It's so helpful to other readers to hear other's results and ideas for variations.
These Best Ever Homemade Flour Tortillas are so simple and unbelievably delicious!
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt I use Morton's
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil, vegetable oil or other fairly neutral flavored oil
- 1 cup warm water
-
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a medium-size bowl. Using a sturdy silicone spatuala or a sturdy wooden spoon, mix dry ingredients until well combined.
-
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil and water. Stir well from the bottom up, until all dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough begins to come together and form a shaggy ball.
-
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 1-2 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth. Proceed with step number 3 below for the remainder of the recipe.
-
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook, mix dry ingredients until well combined.
-
Add oil and water with mixer running at a medium speed. After about 1 minute, or when mixture comes together and begins to form a ball, decrease mixing speed to low. Continue to mix for 1 minute or until dough is smooth.
-
Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 16 equal portions. Turn each piece to coat with flour. Form each piece into a ball and flatten with the palm of your hand. Cover flattened balls of dough with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes (or as much as 2 hours) before proceeding.
-
After the rest period, heat a large pan over medium heat. Roll each dough piece into a rough circle, about 6-7 inches in diameter, keep work surface and rolling pin lightly floured. Don’t stack uncooked tortillas on top of each other or they will stick together. (I like to separate my tortillas with parchement paper.)
-
When the pan is hot, place one dough circle into the pan and allow to cook 45 seconds to 1 minute or until the bottom surface has a few pale brown spots and the uncooked surface is bubbly. If browning too fast, reduce the heat a bit. If it’s taking longer than a minute to see a few pale golden brown spots on the underside of tortillas, increase the heat a bit. Flip to other side and cook for 15-20 seconds. The tortillas should be nice and soft but have a few small brown spots on the surface.
-
Remove from pan with tongs and stack in a covered container or zippered bag to keep the tortillas soft.
-
Serve warm or allow to cool for later use. When ready to use, place a slightly damp paper towel in the bottom of a microwave-safe container (with a cover) that will hold the stacked tortillas. Microwave uncovered for 15-30 seconds (start with 15) or until warm, then keep covered to hold heat while serving.
-
Store in an airtight container or zippered bag at room temperature for 24 hours or refrigerate for up to 1 week. To freeze, separate tortillas with parchment paper or waxed paper and place in a zippered bag before placing in the freezer.
See Café Tips above in post for additional instruction and tips.
Recipe adapted from Genius Kitchen
The Café Sucre Farine is a participant in the Amazon Affiliate Program. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on Amazon. The price you pay as a consumer does not change, but if you make a purchase through one of our links, we receive a small commission - and we continue delivering delicious recipes to you!
walter says
I'm so mad now. I couldn't find this one and I tried a different recipe. Now I have 16 cardboard disk. I made these last time and they were so good. They all say worlds best tortillas, all the others are liars
PEGGY says
JUST MADE THE TORTILLAS, THEY TASTED WONDERFUL BUT THEY WERE TOO THICK. HOW BIG AROUND ARE THEY IF YOU HAVE GOT THE PROPER THICKNESS?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Peggy, If they're thick just let them rest a bit then roll thinner.
Carly says
These were excellent! Best recipe I have tried. Thanks:)
Michelle Wallace says
I tried making these with a few modifications and they were delicious! Mine did not turn out nearly as pretty though! I blogged about the experience and just wanted to let you know!
Barb says
Finally a great and easy tortilla. All the others I have tried so far, have been miserable failures.
alana says
NEVER using store bought tortillas again!!!
Glynis Ross-Munro says
I made these with "NoSalt" - my son has Meniere's Disease and must have less than 750 mg of salt a day and we are always trying new things as he is also vegan.
He and his brother and sister-in-law pounced on them, gobbled them with all kinds of fillings and even slathered them in peanut butter and honey. I made a double batch and the extras froze well for his working week. This week I'm making a triple batch with Honduran street food fillings. Thanks so very much. I've tried many recipes for tortillas but this is by fat the best.
therese says
This recipe is a winner! I made these last year, and have made them many times since then. These are so great, that I have never purchased store packaged tortillas since. Thank you for posting this recipe!
Paul says
Thanks for this recipe. I grew up in Californian Mexican food, but now I live in Japan, where you can't get tortillas at your average grocery store. We're fortunate enough to have a Costco in our city that sells tortillas, but these taste a lot better. I'm happy I can give my toddler a taste of California now without too much hassle. 🙂
Nadia says
I made these 2 days ago and they are amazing! Easy to make and taste so good. I had one tortilla today and it was just as good as it was 2 days ago. This is my new go to recipe for tortillas! Thank you for a great tasting and versatile recipe.
Emily says
These tortillas are great!! Tip: don't roll the dough too thin or the tortilla will become stiff and crusty 🙂
Willow says
I rolled mine super thin and they weren't stiff or crusty. They were perfect!!
daniel bush says
hi looks good, which brand of bread maker is the best for this recipe ?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Daniel,
I don't use a bread maker for this recipe, I use a mixer. Mine is KitchenAid but I'm sure any mixer would work fine. You can also make them by hand, just mix the dough up with a sturdy spoon and knead it on the counter.
Bri says
I've never made tortillas before... Or anything that requires a rolling pin. How do you make them so even, thin and ROUND??? D: All of mine came out way too small/thick, or like completely uneven and looking like the batman logo. I can't figure out how to get the dough to become round. It took me an hour to roll and cook all of these.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Bri, it just takes practice to get the shape and as far as the thickness, if the dough is hard to roll, just cover it with a clean cloth and walk away for awhile (10-15 minutes). This will allow the gluten in the flour to relax and it should be easier to roll.
Daphne says
Thank you so much for this recipe. These are the best homemade tortillas I've ever had. I don't have a stand mixer, but the kneading was still super easy. Only took a few minutes. I'll have to play around with the thickness, though. Mine were too thin to hold all the burrito fillings, we had to double them up. I love the flavor, the pliability, and the texture of these tortillas. Even my husband loved them. Thank you.
Lami says
Do you know if they would turn out the same using gluten free flour?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Lami, I haven't tried the tortillas with gluten free flour but lots of our readers have used other flours and report great results.
Deborah Hughes says
I have tried several other attempts with other recipes to make tortillas and they did not turn out well. This recipe was the easiest to handle and turned out great! I mixed dough by hand, and rolling them out was super easy. I have a press but rolling by hand was easier since it was not difficult to get dough thin. I even had my 5 yr old helping me! This recipe is a keeper and I will never search again for a good tortilla recipe!
Annie says
Thanks so much for such an awesome and very easy recipe! They turned out just perfect and delicious. The kids loved them and so much better and fresher than store bought!!! My 6 year daughter had the greatest time helping me roll out the tortillas for the pan, they weren't perfect circles but they were still delicious! Only question I might have for next time is how thin did you roll out the dough? Do you think paper thin is better or a little thick is better? Thank you and big hugs from Bangkok, Thailand!
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Annie,
Thanks for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and helpful comment. So happy you enjoyed these tortillas and you made it a fun time with your daughter!
As far as your question about thickness, I like to roll them a little thicker than paper thin. They tend to work better that way for wraps too.
Geom says
Great recipe. Not exactly a "5 minute process" :D, but is still a quick recipe that's easy yet delicious!
I made mine in a food processor and it worked perfectly.
I used a (well-seasoned) cast iron skillet and it worked perfectly as well. No (minimal) oil needed.
I made some changes, of course (since I think I'm genetically incapable of not messing with a recipe 🙂 ) ,
- I did mine as half whole wheat, half white flour. While they turned out great, they would definitely be more foldable, soft, and more like "traditional" tortillas with mostly (or all) white flour.
- I used about half of the oil. (3 TBsp). It didn't seem to affect the recipe much.
- We buy the trader joe's tortillas with the crushed red pepper mixed in. So that gave me the idea to play with the dry ingredients to try to get it close. It turned out really well and I'll continue to play with "add-ins" in the future..
So I added:
2 Tbsp crushed red pepper
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
Overall a great recipe as is, and a wonderful base recipe to play with. Thanks for sharing!
sarah says
So gross! Tastes like playdough
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks for such a thoughtful comment Sarah. Sorry you had bad results with them. I hate wasting time and good ingredients - although you can see how many positive comments have come in on these tortillas.
cole says
these tortillas are so soft and yummy. making them for the 2nd time today. Thank you for sharing this recipe. i love the fact i can make them with wholewheat flour. the store bought tortillas have an ingredient list that made me cringe. so many words i didnt understand! but this recipe has 5 ingredients! thank you so much. love this!
christina says
Can this dough be made ahead, Then tortillas formed and cooked? Any comment is appreciated!
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Christina,
You could make the dough ahead and refrigerate it. Bring it to room temperature before rolling. Otherwise you can make the tortillas ahead and just barely cook them, then let them cool and freeze them with wax paper or parchment paper between them. When you want to serve them, thaw and cook them just a little more in a pan, just make sure they don’t get crisp as then they’ll be dry. Hope that helps!
Robin says
This is a great recipe! So simple and got me "best taco ever" raving from family. I used canola oil since I had it for another recipe and that worked. To note- the pan needs to be really really hot! I did a quick test run at home and it didn't bubble much. Cooked the rest at my parent's house on a gas stovetop and they puffed right up!
Eva says
Thank you so much,
they taste amazing!
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks Barbara!
Melenie says
Can these be frozen raw and then defrosted and cooked? I get these raw tortillas at the store and they taste so fresh. I generally freeze them and they hold up well but since we eat so many tortillas I'm trying to save money by making them myself.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Melenie,
Yes, I haven't tried this but I think they should be fine to make and freeze. I would put parchment paper between them before freezing. I have tried making them, cooking them and then freezing them. I just warm the tortillas up briefly in a pan before serving.