Homemade Tortillas

One night on our way home from house hunting in Kentucky, we stayed at a Knights Inn, and across the parking lot, there was a Mexican restaurant. Being the most convenient place to get dinner, thats where we went. They made their own tortillas, I was happy to note, and we ordered fajitas and beverages and settled in to wait. At long last, our meals arrived and the tortillas were just like mine! I was so happy! I felt justified in my home tortilla making. Homemade tortillas come out quite a bit thicker than their store bought counterparts. They are more bread-like, but I think they enhance a dish greatly. A homemade tortilla is a full participant in the meal, and very satisfying, rather than a mere carrier for whatever is stuffed inside.

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Homemade Tortillas Save
Homemade Tortillas

One night on our way home from house hunting in Kentucky, we stayed at a Knights Inn, and across the parking lot, there was a Mexican restaurant. Being the most convenient place to get dinner, thats where we went. They made their own tortillas, I was happy to note, and we ordered fajitas and beverages and settled in to wait. At long last, our meals arrived and the tortillas were just like mine! I was so happy! I felt justified in my home tortilla making. Homemade tortillas come out quite a bit thicker than their store bought counterparts. They are more bread-like, but I think they enhance a dish greatly. A homemade tortilla is a full participant in the meal, and very satisfying, rather than a mere carrier for whatever is stuffed inside.

  • Preparing Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
  • Served Person: 22
  • Carbohydrate 35.4015339672731 g
  • Cholesterol 0.593939392734385 mg
  • Fat 1.81268242435389 g
  • Fiber 1.22887881059068 g
  • Protein 5.18760303327519 g
  • Saturated Fat 0.311967999894473 g
  • Serving Size 1 1 Serving (78g)
  • Sodium 17.1490302727137 mg
  • Sugar 34.1726551566824 g
  • Trans Fat 0.213750666777992 g
  • Calories 182 calories

Step-by-step

  • I use my mixer to make the dough, but you can make it by hand easily enough. Just mix the dry ingredients together, stir in the wet, and knead for five minutes till the dough is nice and smooth. It should still be fairly soft, but not sticky.
  • Pinch off balls of dough about the size of golf balls for taco sized tortillas and roll them into smooth balls. Let them sit, covered, for at least half an hour, otherwise they will be too hard to roll out, and no longer than an hour, else they dry out too much.
  • Now for the cooking. Heat a nice cast iron skillet till it's quite hot, but not smoking. The tortillas are supposed to cook for just a minute on each side, so you'll have to adjust the temperature accordingly. Roll the dough balls into roundish tortillas on the counter. It goes pretty quickly, so you can roll and cook at the same time, which is preferable to rolling them all out first as the uncooked tortillas tend to stick together. When it's flattish and roundish, peel it up carefully and flop it onto the hot pan. Cook it for about a minute. When the bottom side is done, the top side will look dry and you will be able to see large air bubbles from underneath. When you flip it, there should be little flecks of brown, but no burned spots. Cook it for another minute on the other side and then remove it to a warm, towel-lined plate or bowl for safe keeping till serving time.
  • Consider stocking up on rolling pins so the whole family can help. Also, these freeze great, so it saves a lot of time later to make double, triple, and even quadruple batches.
Stiff, brittle discs plagued by improper resting times result from rushing the dough preparation. Allowing the kneaded dough to rest covered for at least 30 minutes relaxes the gluten network, making the balls pliable enough to roll flat without springing back. Skipping this mandatory pause yields stubbornly shrinking rounds that tear under the pin. Softness depends entirely on hydration and heat management, requiring a hot cast iron skillet that cooks each side in roughly one minute. Visual cues guide the flip: the top side must appear completely dry with large bubbles forming underneath before turning the flatbread to reveal light brown flecks. Thicker than mass-produced commercial varieties, these bread-like wrappers actively contribute substance and structure to meals rather than acting merely as pliable holders. Pairing homemade tortillas with robust, braised proteins like carnitas or slow-cooked black beans balances their substantial weight. Rolling and cooking simultaneously prevents raw rounds from adhering to countertops while saving precious kitchen time. Freezing cooked batches stacked between parchment paper preserves texture for future meals, yielding fresh results after a quick reheat on a hot skillet.