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Tortillas

Posted on Mar 27, 2025

Homemade flour tortillas

OK so. Tortillas. I mentioned them last time, here’s the deal. Homemade tortillas are a gift from the universe unto your palate. You need them. Here’s the recipe I used about 2 hours ago, with notes. It’s based on one from the King Arthur Flour website.

  • 350g plain flour plus a lot more for dusting
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp table salt (don’t use kosher or coarse here)
  • 200ml water at 42-49 degrees C
  • 50ml vegetable oil (or a solid fat like butter, shortening, or lard)

Mix the dry ingredients together. You could whisk or sift them but it’s not really worth the effort. Just make sure it’s mixed well.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry stuff. Stir a lot. You’re looking for a shaggy dough. If it’s sticking to the bowl like crazy, dump in 25 grams more flour. Maybe more.

Once it’s not sticking to the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes until it’s lightly tacky, like a post-it note that’s stuck to your finger. You may need to add more flour than you think at this step.

Weigh out the dough. Divide by 12. Make 12 balls that weigh that much each. My batch weighed 624 grams this morning, so that was twelve 52-gram dough balls.

Let the dough balls rest under cling film for about half an hour.

After 20 minutes or so, start heating up a nonstick or cast-iron skillet on your electric stove that’s not nearly powerful enough. You’re shooting for 200c/400f.

Take one dough ball. Flatten it into a rough disk with your palms, then roll it out to crazy thin. 8 inches across is your target, which will probably be somewhere between 1 and 3 mm.

Put your raw tortilla in the DRY pan. Cook on one side until bubbles start to form on the top and the bottom is speckled with golden brown dots. Flip and repeat. This should take at most 45 seconds total. Cooking hot and fast is better than slow, because your tortillas will end up a lot softer.

Remove to a plate and cover with a tea towel. Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

Serve with whatever you like. I ate at least two without anything, and made a couple of breakfast tacos too (fried bacon, grated cheese, well-done scrambled egg).