Homemade Flour Tortillas + Video
Homemade Flour Tortillas are soft and tender and only require five ingredients.
These flour tortillas go perfect with any Mexican dish or served warm slathered with a bit of butter.
When my grandma passed away in 2004, my mom asked me if I wanted something that reminded me of my grandma. I remember thinking; all I want is one of the two rolling pins she used to make her legendary flour tortillas.
I called my mom a few weeks after her passing and asked if anyone had asked for them. It turned out my sister had asked for one of her rolling pins too and my uncle Carlos had the other one. However, he was more than happy to give it to me. I took that as a sign that her rolling pin was meant to be mine.
It’s that beautiful, old wooden rolling pin (similar to this rolling pin) that is displayed in my kitchen—that same rolling pin that sparked the idea to gather our family’s recipes and stories for my children.
Her rolling pin continues to inspire me to cook and write down recipes handed down from my mother and grandma, and encourages me to create some of my own recipes.
Making this video with my mom of her making homemade flour tortillas using the same rolling pin transported me to my childhood.
My cousin Brenda and I snuggled with our grandma Jesusita. I’m the one on the right eating a homemade flour tortilla.
I felt like a little girl again and couldn’t resist sneaking a fresh warm tortilla when my mom wasn’t looking just like I used to do when my grandma would make them.
My favorite way to eat a fresh warm tortilla is with a roasted chile, lightly salted, and rolled into one perfect spicy burrito.
Flour Tortilla Ingredients
To make this flour tortilla recipe, you will need five simple ingredients (amounts included in the recipe below):
- Flour: I made this recipe with standard all-purpose white flour. I have not tested it with whole wheat flour or gluten-free flour, but if you do, I’d love to hear from you.
- Lard: Lard works best in this homemade flour tortilla recipe, but you can substitute with vegetable shortening.
- Baking Powder: To give these tortillas a bit of lift.
- Table salt: No need for fancy salt. Table salt is essential to enhance the delicious flavors.
- Warm water: No special temperature required it should just be warm (not lukewarm or very hot).
Tools to Make Flour tortillas
- Rolling Pin: I like using a small rolling pin like my grandmas to make flour tortillas.
- Comal (Cast Iron Griddle): Perfect for cooking flour tortillas.
- Tortilla Warmer: Colorful handmade basket keeper for a pretty display.
How to Make Flour tortillas
Here is a brief overview of how to make flour tortillas (detailed instructions included in the recipe below):
- Place a comal (griddle or cast-iron skillet) over medium heat and allow it to heat up.
- In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients. Add the lard or shortening and combine until you have the consistency of small crumbs.
- Add the warm water and mix well with your hand. The mixture may be a little sticky. Knead on a cutting board or smooth counter until dough is pliable and springy. Sprinkle with flour if the dough is too sticky.
- Form 2 to 2½-inch dough balls. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough balls to form 7 to 8-inch disks. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle board and rolling pin with flour to make it easier to roll out the dough.
- As you roll out each disk, place on the hot comal to cook, it will take 1 minute or less on each side. After cooking the first side, turn tortilla over and let it cook on the opposite side; when tortilla starts to form air pockets press down gently on it with a wooden tortilla press or rolled up a kitchen towel (like Grandma did) to release the air. Don’t press too much, or it will make tough tortillas.
- Keep the tortillas warm in a tortilla warmer or under a clean dish towel while you make the rest.
Homemade Tortilla FAQs
Here are a few answers to some of the most-asked questions about making flour tortillas:
- Just 1 tablespoon of lard? Yes! My mom tested this recipe many times and that is all she used. If you feel you’d like to add more lard, feel free to add more.
- You don’t let them sit and rise before rolling the masa out? No. Being that there is no yeast in this dough, there is no need to let the dough rest.
- Can I use vegetable oil or olive oil instead of lard? My grandma and mother always used lard or shortening. This recipe has not been tested with oil.
How to Store Homemade Tortillas
- Serve immediately or refrigerate and reheat.
- Keep tortillas warm and covered. Wrap tortillas in a dish towel to keep them warm.
- I recommend storing leftovers in a ziplock bag (with the excess air pressed out) in the refrigerator for up to 2 to 3 days.
Favorite dishes served with flour tortillas
- Mini Tortillas with Ricotta Cheese and Grilled Peaches
- Chiles Rellenos
- Homemade Refried Beans
- Machaca con Huevo (Machaca with Eggs)
- Burritos de Huevos con Chorizo (Egg and Chorizo Breakfast Burritos)
- Breakfast Migas Tacos
- Steak Fajitas
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below and leave me a comment to let me know how it turned out!
Homemade Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lard or shortening
- 1 1/4 cups warm water
Instructions
- Place a comal (griddle or cast-iron skillet) over medium heat and allow it to heat up.
- In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients. Add the lard or shortening and combine until you have the consistency of small crumbs.
- Add the warm water and mix well with your hand. The mixture may be a little sticky. Knead on a cutting board or smooth counter until dough is pliable and springy. Sprinkle with flour if the dough is too sticky.
- Form 2 to 2½-inch dough balls. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough balls to form 7 to 8-inch disks. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle board and rolling pin with flour to make it easier to roll out the dough.
- As you roll out each disk, place on the hot comal to cook, it will take 1 minute or less on each side. After cooking the first side, turn tortilla over and let it cook on the opposite side; when tortilla starts to form air pockets press down gently on it with a wooden tortilla press or rolled up a kitchen towel (like Grandma did) to release the air. Don’t press too much, or it will make tough tortillas.
- Keep the tortillas warm in a tortilla warmer or under a clean dish towel while you make the rest.
Video
Notes
Photos by Jeanine Thurston / Video by Pure Cinematography
Originally published: November 2013. This recipe is also published in the Muy Bueno cookbook.
100 Comments on “Homemade Flour Tortillas + Video”
What a beautiful story & great recipe! I can’t wait to try… tnx
I tried this recipe for tortillas and it’s amazing this is the only thing couldn’t make but watched my grandmother and mother make them many times they never measured.now IV got it.rhey came out almost exactly like moms but everyone has their own way and taste.you and grand ma would be around.me be a man and the only one that could make tortillas.when two sisters can’t cook Mexican food like myself and yes now with fresh tortillas I’m the best..thank you! PS. my wife even enjoyed them !
My late mother was not a good cook but her tortillas were the best, hands down. I never picked up her technique although i have tried for 50 years. Mine always get crispy and crunchy. I’ve tried different recipes – some with no fat, some with no baking powder, etc. Your Grandma’s seems to be the closest to my mom’s but the video measurements don’t seem to be the same as the written recipe. Please clarify or verify. Thank you. P.s. over the years my mom used a metal pipe, a wine bottle and even a broken broom stick. Never a real rolling pin. I have several rolling pins but settled on a sanded wooden dowel that is reminiscent of momma. It rolls out beautifully. 🙂
Can you tell why you don’t let the dough rest.
Thank you.
I made these but they came out doughy and heavy after they were cooked. Did I handle the dough to much? Maybe to much flour? Maybe I didn’t kneed them ling enough or to long? Any ideas why this happened?
It says 1 Tablespoon of lard. That can’t be right. Maybe 1 cup??? 1 Tbsp is not enough for 4 cups of flour.
It is absolutely correct. This recipe is tested and even published in our printed cookbook. Buen Provecho.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe! They are just like my mom makes. Unfortunately, my mom doesn’t measure anything either and I totally forgot how she showed me when I was younger. So when I moved from to Texas to Puert Rico I wasn’t able to make the tortillas like hers. After spending countless hours on YouTube trying to find a recipe that didn’t include 6 tablespoons of lard/shortening to 4 cups of flour (which I know is waaaay to much lard for that amount of flour) I found your recipe. I honestly can’t thank you enough!
Wow. I just stumbled across this recipe and my heart just bust! My abuelita used to make tortillas when I was little. I gobbled them up with butter! Same rolling pin as yours. The curtains in your photo are also eerily familiar. I’m so lucky to have these memories of her and cherish the time we had making gorillas just the way you describe. Thank you.
Oh and, One last coincidence- I am named after my great grandfather, Jesus!
My brothers were teasing me when I first started learning. They were making fun of the shape, oh that one looks like Texas, that one looks like a flag and so on, but my dad put a stop to that really fast when he told them, the tortilla is not going to roll down into your stomach so it does not matter what the shape is, what matters is that she is trying.
Would like the recipe to make some
A friend of mine in Lubbock TX taught me how to make flour tortillas. My daughter loved to eat them warm out of the pan with just butter. That was 35 years ago! And I’ve tried to remember how we did it, and used other recipes, and … Here you are!!! I’m so happy to have found your recipe. It’s perfect!
Thank you! So happy to hear that!!! Please be sure to subscribe so you continue to receive new recipes in your inbox.
Excellent instructions! Great job and video .
5 C. of flour, I use 3-4 Tbsp. of
Crisco or Lard. 1 Tbsp. Baking powder, 1 Tbsp. of salt, and about 1 1/3 C. of HOT water.
It depends on how much water with humidity.
Your instructions on how to make dough was perfect. I just use more of the ingredients. They come out soft and delicious!!
Awww, this made me miss my mom. Thank you!
Hi! How can you recipe have only one tablespoon of the lard to four cups of flour when most recipes have three cups of flour in between 3 and 6 tablespoons of lard? Did you have a typo?
We are struggling to find a great recipe. All the ones we’ve used the tortillas come out like lead.
Thank you for bringing back beautiful memories of my mom making tortillas and how she would roll one up with butter or refried beans and cheese and hand it to me. The kitchen smelled so good. Friends and family would get excited and want one too and I have tears rolling down my eyes right now. Thank you. Only we Latinos know those precious moments.
“Muy bueno” indeed! I have been searching for a biscocho recipe similar to yours for a very long time; can’t wait to try it this fall. I also viewed the tortilla making video. The ease with which your mom prepare’s the tortillas is reminiscent of all practiced and privately lauded cooks in our home kitchens, where love is a fundamental ingredient in all recipes.
Should the baking powder be 3 teaspoons instead of 3/4 teaspoons. Looks like the video shows 3 teaspoons. 3/4 to me is too little for tortillas. I make tortillas often so just my opinion.
I was thinking the same thing! Also, I’m wondering why she doesn’t let the dough rest like in all other recipes that I have read.
Hello, I love your site, I am Hispanic and I’ve been searching to an authentic tortilla recipe. I have one question…on the video it looks like more then 1 tablespoon of lard is used, can you please clarify?
I thought the same thing. ????
Great recipe thau cameout awesome. Thanks.
Tonight we will make these for dinner. Looks so delicious ☀️ I’m so looking forward to seeing my family in Mexico this summer and showing them some recipes we’ve learned from your beautiful website. It will impress my papa 🙂 Thank you
My husband really enjoys the quality of your videos and we both agree your mom makes it look so easy to make these tortillas
Amazing site !!!I love it!!!making flour tortillas this morning..
I was just telling my sisters that I literally started crying watching the video of your mom making tortillas. I was looking up people making tortillas on YouTube, and after seeing all these people trying their best but tearing up tortillas and making them all crazy looking, and I am sure they tasted fine, BUT, I found this video, and she rolls up the dough just like mom used to, she flips the dough around while rolling it like mom used to she flips them hand to hand like mom used to, and she even has that flat steel griddle like mom used to make pancakes on. I’d give anything to be 4 feet tall again, eye level to the stove watching mom make those tortillas. Thank you SOOOOO much for that video!
Same! You took the words right out of my mouth. Exactly the same! My poor momma made tortillas twice a day everyday! Mine will never taste or look as good. The first one was always mine, with butter… and when i was little, she made small, “baby” ones, just for me. I still have my momma, but she’s been ill for 15 years, bedridden for 6. I would do anything to go back to those days, even if only for a moment.
Hola Yvette! Could I use olive oil instead of shortening?
Hi ISA, I have made flour tortillas using olive oil. I use about 1/4 cup of olive oil to 3-4 cups of flour. In my opinion, the flavor of the olive oil is a little overpowering and gets in the way of the simple flour tortilla taste. I have also made flour tortillas with the following (not all at once, though–LOL): corn oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil, shortening, butter, lard. I thought that the best tasting tortillas, ultimately, were the ones I made with lard, shortening, or butter. I also made tortillas with 100% whole wheat flour and they are more nutritious (lots of fiber), but have a stronger, “nuttier” flavor and are slightly stiffer than those made with all-purpose flour. I’ve also experimented with add-ins like garlic powder, chile powder, crushed chili flakes, dried dill weed, crushed thyme leaves, etc., etc. I would recommend that you use Muy Bueno’s ratio of ingredients and just experiment with the oils to find your favorite version!
Hi Isa, I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. We have tested and re-tested this recipe over and over and the recipe you see here tastes perfect as-is! Happy tortilla making.
So, that’s your mom in the video? She is awesome and you are so lucky to have had a loving mom. I noticed the rolling pin before reading your blog comments. It reminds me of the small, but tapered, Chinese rolling pins which are so useful and simple. I never could handle those large clunky ones sold in American stores.
I just learned to make corn tortillas today so decided to search the tube for flour tortilla information. Thank you for posting this beautiful video!
Yup that’s my lovely mommy! I am very blessed. Thank you for your lovely comment.
When I seen this video first thing I noticed is how cute your momma is!! Second thing I noticed was cabbler girl baking soda. That’s what we use!
You mom makes them exactly how we make them and just like you I’m always sneaking a tortilla but I like mine with butter.
After my grandma passed my mom got her famous rolling pin. My grandma would’ve been 90 this year. She’s been gone since 2002
Do you and your mom have any videos together of making tamales?
Thank for sharing from Bakersfield, Ca
Thank you Angelina! I’ll be sure to tell my momma. I love a warm tortilla with butter too. YUM! I have a tamalada video, unfortunately my mom was not in town for that video, but you can find it here: https://youtu.be/l96uvEKamwo