Homemade tortillas have to be one of the things I know I love so much more than their store-bought counterpart. They have so much more flavor and are perfectly fabulous. They taste awesome fresh, but can be frozen as well. I normally make up a full batch (or even 2 batches) and freeze the excess for quick taco/fajita dinners later.
How to make homemade tortilla shells
Mix the flours and salt together and then hand mix in the oil and whey. Yes, you will need to use your hands! Mix and rub together until it kinda looks like oatmeal. (sorry no pic of this step) If you have a stand mixer you can also use the basic mixer attachment with the same results.
Make a well in the center and pour the boiling water in. Stir together until dough forms and is neither sticky or crumbly. Then roll into golf ball sized balls. For burritos, make them a bit bigger, for smaller tacos like we like around here, make just a tad smaller. Let sit, covered, for at least an hour or up to 8 hours for more ‘soaking’ benefits.
Then we start rolling! (by the way – get your pan started on a fairly high heat for about 5 minutes before you throw one on) You can go the easy way and buy a tortilla press for like 15 bucks, but as you can see – the el cheapo way works too!
I like to roll a bunch at once, cook them, then roll some more.
And personally, while I like to use a press for corn tortillas, I feel that hand rolling flour tortillas gets them thinner and we enjoy them more.
Plop it down on a hot naked pan (no grease!) for about 10 seconds until you see it just start to bubble around the edges.
Flip over and let set for about 30 seconds. (Sometimes they puff up and I’ll either just leave ’em or hold them down with a spatula, either way they turn out fine)
Flip over to the first side and cook for another 30 seconds. After doing a couple you’ll begin to see exactly how hot your stove top should be set. You want them to cook quick, but not burn. Leave them undercooked and they can get too dense.
And of course, the end result:
It does take some time, as this particular day it took me about 2 hours to make a double batch, (60 or so tortillas) but they are so cheap to make and so much better tasting you’ll never want to go back to store-bought.
Soaked Tortilla Shells
Ingredients
- 5 cups of flour I now use spelt but we loved whole wheat as well
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cup boiling water
- 2 Tbsp whey kefir, yogurt, etc.
Instructions
- Mix the flours and salt together and then hand mix in the oil and whey.
- Mix and rub together until it kinda looks like oatmeal.
- Make a well in the center and pour the boiling water in.
- Stir together until dough forms and is neither sticky or crumbly.
- Then roll into golf ball sized balls.
- For burritos, make them a bit bigger, for smaller tacos like we like around here, make just a tad smaller.
- Let sit, covered, for at least an hour or up to 8 hours.
- Heat a non stick pan to fairly high heat for about 5 minutes.
- Roll each tortilla out to appropriate thickness (or use tortilla press)
- Place it in a hot ungreased pan for about 10 seconds, until you see it just start to bubble around the edges.
- Flip over and let set for about 30 seconds. (Sometimes they puff up and I’ll either just leave ‘em or hold them down with a spatula, either way they turn out fine).
- Flip over to the first side and cook for another 30 seconds. After doing a couple you’ll begin to see exactly how high your stovetop should be set. You want them to cook quick, but not burn. Leave them undercooked and they can get dense.
Donielle Baker
Homemade Cultured Butter
I think your tortilla recipe sounds great. I think me and the hubby will try it.
Donielle,
First, let me say, these are so so so good and I cannot stop making them. I am made famous by my husband every time he eats one! Thank you!
Second, I just got a press in the mail and I don’t know if the batch of dough I made was thicker than normal but I was NOT impressed with the tortilla press. They came out too small.
After making the tortillas several times what I found to be THE BIGGEST TIME SAVER OF ALL was putting them on my griddle that hold 4-5 tortillas at a time! I was done in no time flat! Also, I found that using my daughters small roller was much easier than using my big one.
And, by rolling them out myself I was able to make them the size and consistency I wanted since we know what texture we want them to be in the end.
ANYWAY, I thought I would share my experience with you because if you were going to spend $15-20 (I read about you wanting to do so on Happy To Be At Home) then I would invest in a griddle where you can also make pancakes, eggs, etc on it too. But, I bet after making them for so long you probably have this tortilla making down to a T 😉
If I try the press again and find different results (maybe with corn tortillas ?) then I will let you know.
Thanks again for the great blog!
Lauren
These look fabulous! Any tips for freezing them so they don’t stick together? Do you flash freeze and bag all together? Separate by wax paper? Thanks for adding the photos =-)
What if you dont use a non-stick pan? From what I understand those are very bad for your health and release toxic chemicals into the air and your food, so I’ve eliminated anything non-stick from my kitchen.
What would I use to make sure they didnt stick?? butter… oil…?
@Christy, I should take new pictures huh? When I first posted this a couple years ago I still had a couple non stick pans in the kitchen 🙂
I use my cast iron pan all the time with no problems. They actually don’t stick at all since they’re ‘dry’ and the heat is high enough. If you actually use butter they would fry and become crispy, like a hard shell.
I wonder about making tortillas (or chapatis as we call em around here as real tortillas are CORN IMO –LOL) with bean flours in them also, like the *$3* a pack Ezekiel ones in the store. I love Ezekiel products, the sprouted grain really make a difference with me; I am sooooo sensitive to carbs that whole grain even makes me binge. I can’t eat spaghetti, rice, bread or chapatis but once every few days and then its like 1 slice toast, no other carbs for the day except low-carb veggies and maybe 1/2 pc fruit. :0 otherwise I will pay for it by having out of control carb cravings (some day I hope to be healed enough to eat carbs like normal ppl, well how normal should anyway lol)
I was just wondering if since you now don’t make these really (as per another blog), would you perhaps if they had legumes in them–less grain in them then…
@Hélène, Since legumes have an issue with phytic acid as well, I think I’ll probably come up with a sourdough version before using a bean based flour.
Donielle, You don’t mention anything about soaking the flour in this recipe? Should I soak and for how long?
@Lisa, I let them soak for 8 hours with all the ingredients combined. It’s not perfect, but it’s what worked for us. You could also soak in just the whey, water, and flour and try and add int he oil and salt right before you cook them as well, though the time I did it like that, well – it took me awhile to get everything incorporated.
The thoughts on soaking are also highly controversial – some say salt in the ‘soaking’ prohibits the phytic acid from being broken down, some say salt is fine. Some even say that a minimal amount of soaking like either method does nothing at all!!
Once my kiddos are able to tolerate wheat again I think I’ll do these with sourdough instead! I should be able to just put sourdough, oil, and salt together and add in enough flour to get it to form balls – then let sit for 8-12 hours to ‘soak’.
Hi, do you have a gluten/corn free way to make these tortillas? Thanks!
@Michelle, We actually make corn tortillas now since my family eats gluten free (http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/homemade-corn-tortillas-recipe/) But, no – I don’t have a corn free way of doing it. Sorry!
We make these: http://www.food.com/recipe/flour-tortillas-diaz-101601 but I use olive instead of vegetable oil and I leave out the salt.
I have to do mine on medium to medium high heat, otherwise the extra flour (from rolling them out) burns, smokes, and sets off our smoke alarm.