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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!
The BEST Pico de Gallo!
If you make these Homemade Flour Tortillas, you DEFINITELY want this fabulous Pico de Gallo to serve with them. This fabulous pico pairs perfectly with chips, grilled proteins and any Mexican entreé. It's so fresh and delicious you'll want to eat it with a spoon!
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.
Best Ever Homemade Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
To make by hand:
- 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.
To make with a mixer:
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition
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Jody says
THANK YOU!!! I made these today after trying several other recipes and these are hands down the VERY BEST flour tortillas!!! I am so excited to have found this recipe - thank you for doing the ground work.
Antonio says
I have been Mexican my entire life and this was the best tortilla recipe I have ever tried. Absolutely perfect!
Chris Scheuer says
Wow, that says a lot coming from you, thanks!
vICKY says
tHANK YOU WOW GREAT TORTILLAS I WILL BE KEEPING THIS FOREVER
Shelleyrae says
Thanks, your recipe worked great for me. But I' plan on reducing the oil a little bit next time I think. I might invest in a tortilla press for next time too, or just make rectangular ones.
Alexis M says
These turned out great the first time! Next time I may try adding some whole wheat for a little more nutrition. This recipe is a keeper. Thank you for sharing.
Ains says
Hi there, just tried these out tonight, i usually scoff a bit when anyone says 'you wont want the store bought version anymore' but in this case i take my hat off to u! its true! so scrumptious, thanks for finally providing me with scrummy tortillas 😀
Chris Scheuer says
🙂 Thanks, you made me smile!
Danielle says
I had planned on making burritos for my family of four and didn't realize till last minute that I had no tortillas. I panic searched google for a tortilla recipe that was easy and happened to come across yours and THANK YOU SO MUCH. This is so easy and so delicious. My two year old INHALED his, and my four year old had two. I don't think I'm ever going to bother buying these from the store again. Way. To. Go!!
Chris Scheuer says
I'm so happy you enjoyed them. Your kids sound like great eaters!
Sue DiMeglio Russell Kaufman says
I did try your recipe and I love it. I've always made an oil pie pastry and so this change made sense to me. I used the baking powder though in the past I often haven't. I also used 1/3 C whole wheat flour and it just added to the good flavor. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I have been making them for decades and somehow your oil recipe wins lol 🙂
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks for sharing your results. I'll try the ww flour next time! 🙂
Sandy L. says
Can you pre-make and freeze up to the cooking part? Just take out and cook as needed? Thanks
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Sandy, I haven't tried this but I'm guessing it should work. I would separate them with parchment paper or waxed paper.
Sandy L. says
Thank you for the response. I made them before but cooked them right away. They were fabulous. Can't wait to make them again.
I always made bread from scratch too since my mom was on 3 very restrictive diets. I always substituted onion powder for the salt. Do you think that would work for this recipe?
Nina says
Have you tried halving the recipe? These were delicious but were a lot for 2. Also what about freezing the dough before rolling it into portions? Maybe I could freeze the other half? Thank you so much for this recipe. Ran out of taco shells tonight and put these together on a whim. The hubby LOVED them. =)
Chris Scheuer says
I'm sure it would be fine to halve the recipe. I haven't tried freezing them. So happy you enjoyed them.
Ron says
I just made these from Fresh Milled Hard White Spring Wheat, and they are so excellent they make store tortillas taste like some kind of stale paper product.
Thanks much for the recipe.
Chris Scheuer says
So happy you like them, you made me laugh with your comment 🙂
Sue says
I've tried this recipe twice and the tortillas turned out great but I have to re-heat them using steam every time because they turn out too crispy and it's hard to fold them into burritos without having a huge mess of broken tortillas. What could I be doing wrong?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Sue, you might be cooking them too long. Be sure to stack them while warm also.
marilu says
Thanks for posting this. I am overseas where tortillas aren't readily available. My husband went to several stores looking for them to no avail, but he really wanted fajitas tonight, so I came across your site. I was dreading having to make tortillas from scratch, but this was surprisingly easy and made little mess.
I made flour tortillas once before using a different recipe, and it was hard to work with. I couldn't get it thin enough. I This dough is so easy to work with, so pliable and easy to roll out. I hardly used any flour when I rolled it out and it didn't stick. I didn't end up w/ excess flour in the pan, didn't clean b/w each tortilla, and the pan looked completely clean when I finished them all up. I didn't change a thing with the ingredient proportions, but I made larger=sized ones w/ the dough split into 8 portions rather than 16.
This recipe is a keeper.
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks Marilu, I'm so happy these worked out so well for you and that now your husband can have tortillas anytime he wants!
Anna W. says
Can You replace the regular flour with whole wheat flour to make it more of a healthy option for look into making their own wraps.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Anna, a number of people have emailed me saying they tried different types of flour with great results though I haven't done it myself.
Orlando Garza says
Thank you so much for this flour tortilla recipe. Truly, they are the best ever, next to my mother's. I miss my mother so much, and her tortillas too, but making tortillas using your recipe have brought back so many memories! Now I want to make tortillas every day, and that is dangerous! Thanks again.
Chris Scheuer says
Oh, I'm so happy that you've enjoyed these and that they've brought back such special memories. It's okay to make them every day if it helps you have sweet memories of your mom 🙂
Andrea says
Chris, i love your recipe!
Since i started making it, about a week ago, i just need to make again almost every day. And i was buying a bag with 20 tortillas and would be in my fridge for a month or two...=)
Our tacos and taquitos taste SO much better now!
Thank you!
Autumn says
These are absolutely the BEST tortillas. Letting the dough sit made all the difference for me!
Holly says
Hi!!! I was making tacos and my family has always used flour tortillas, so I checked the internet because I am so tired of paying a fortune to buy the things, I looked at and read probably a dozen recipes, yours was the only one that said they would remain soft and could use the next day, so you don' t have to use them immediately, So I thought I would try, Well my family are taco freaks, I am now NEVER EVER allowed to buy store bought tortillas again, not even to save time. LOL!! the flavour is so nice.
I do however have 1 question, can you use Olive oil instead ???, I infuse different herbs with Olive oil and some of these would really add to the flavour of the tortillas, so you can change it up once in a while or just use regular olive oil.
Thanks so much for posting this recipe, it is AWESOME and my husband and boys thank you to. 🙂
Thanks so much
Holly
T.T.F.N.
Chris Scheuer says
thanks Holly!
Em says
These are fantastic! I have never made tortillas before and can't believe how quick and easy they were. Thanks for the recipe!
Jenna says
This has been on my to do list for a while! I made tortillas once years ago, when I first moved to Alabama from California and you couldn't buy flour tortillas here!! Yikes! I can't wait to try your recipe, I know it will be fabulous~ I use flour tortillas in so many casseroles instead of crepes or pasta and I can't wait to try yours for pizza as you suggested! Thanks so much!
Diane says
perfection! I used a food processor fitted with the "s" blade; they came out great. thank you!
jane says
These were DISGUSTING you can tell these were made by white people who have never had real tortillas!
Chris Scheuer says
thanks for being so kind
Mel says
Wow such a lovely person. You should have your own cooking site jane. So tell us, as you were reading the recipe did it not seem different to you? I mean you seem to know of a better recipe out there that is of course, made by non-whites. Since the two kinds are obviously SO different then why did you not post your non white version so we could all compare. Personally, I love Chris' version. They taste very similar to the ones I had in Juarez as a teenager. Maybe it was the cook and not the recipe in this case. As the only difference in Chris' s tortillas and my dear aunts is they used lard and cooked theirs outside over a fire in big iron skillets. His have the same great taste. I, like MANY others here am thankful to Chris for taking his time to share this recipe with us. Some people are just miserable Jane and cant find happiness in even the simple things in life. You seem to be the only one here, so try putting those typing skills to better use in your search bar. I think you may find the recipe you need somewhere else.
Lucy says
You are DISGUSTING.
tonkatrukster says
I've made these several times with much success. My neighbors and kids give them two thumbs up. Thanks for posting!
Danielle says
Just made these for our lunch and they are so easy to make and absolutely delicious!
The kids loved them (and they are pretty picky eaters) and my husband said they are the tastiest tortillas he's ever had 🙂
Will definitely be saving this recipe and making a lot more in the future!
Mama B @ My Edible Journey says
Just made some of these for the first time.. It's a very easy dough to work with. Thanks.