Best Flour Tortilla Recipe
These 4 ingredient flour tortillas are so delicious, are easy to fold, can easily be reheated, and you get to determine how big or small they end up!
Ingredients
- 5 cups Flour All Purpose or Bread Flour
- 1 tbsp Sea salt
- 1 cup Crisco (Vegetable Shortening)
- 2 cups Water (Room Temperature)
Instructions
- Combine the flour and sea salt in a stand mixer or large bowl.
- Whisk in the vegetable shortening. Mix until there are no noticeable chunks in the mix. (If you’re using a stand mixer, use the whisk for this portion.)
- Add in the water (all at once), and mix until a smooth dough is formed. (If you’re using a stand mixer, use the bread dough hook for this portion.)
- Take sections of the dough and roll it into balls. Each of these balls will be your tortillas. I try to form them the size of my fist as I like to make larger tortillas, but I encourage you to try out different sizes when you’re first getting started to see the size you actually prefer when it comes time to forming your burrito. I normally have 12 balls by the time I’m done forming the balls. (If you’re going for a bigger size, you’ll have less, or more if you’re going for a smaller, taco size.)
- At this point, you can either put the tortillas balls in the refrigerator overnight or for a few hours to harden, which makes them easier to roll out when you go to form the tortillas. If not, leave the tortilla balls at room temperature and cover them with a damp towel for 20 minutes.
- Start heating the pan you are going to use to cook the tortillas on medium heat, so that the pan will be heated up evenly throughout by the time you start cooking the tortillas.
- Now, it’s go time! Flour your work surface (e.g., the counter) and sprinkle some flour on the balls, and get to rolling! I use a rolling pin on my floured counter, and it works great! (If the counter isn’t floured, it will be difficult to remove the tortilla from the counter, and can result in holes as you move the tortilla from the counter to the pan.) The goal isn’t perfection, it’s more of just forming a sort of even-shaped tortilla that will work with a burrito.
- Place the rolled out tortilla on your pre-heated pan and watch for the bubbles to start after about 40 seconds (the timing speeds up as you proceed with each tortilla). I recommend medium to medium-low temperature settings, and then just make sure you’re paying attention once the bubbles start forming. At that point, you’ll want to flip the tortillas. Make sure to pay attention because they cook even faster on the second side.
- Repeat the rolling and cooking for the rest of the tortilla balls.
- Once you’re done cooking them, I encourage you to try a bite without anything on them and enjoy that fresh, warm bite! The next step is to fill them up and enjoy burritos, tacos, or wraps with your new, favorite homemade tortillas!
Video
Notes
You can also make this recipe using butter instead of Crisco (Vegetable Shortening). If you decide to use butter, make sure it is salted butter and cut down the amount of sea salt used in the recipe to 1/2 tbsp.
Also, keep in mind that when you use butter, you are more likely to get holes in the tortillas when you are rolling them out and then transferring them to the pan, so make sure to pay attention and not let your tortillas get too thin during the roll-out step.