Best Homemade Flour Tortillas Recipe

Homemade no lard flour tortillas, a basic recipe to make soft flour tortillas. The recipe uses only 4 ingredients, tastes much better, and fresh than the store brought tortillas. Tortillas are perfect for making soft tacos, burritos, quesadilla, wraps and any recipe that call for flour tortilla. Recipe includes detailed instructions, tips, stepwise picture.

This recipe does not use lard, yet the tortillas are absolutely soft. Butter and hot water does the magic here to produce that softness. Not much dough resting time is needed. I typically make them fresh for all Mexican style dishes like fajitas , tacos, burritos, quesadillas and many more. The fresh taste and smell of the homemade tortillas will never make you go back to the store brought once.

Other ingredients which can alternatively be used 

Instead of all purpose flour in the recipe, substitute Instant corn masa flour to make corn tortillas and rest of the ingredients remains the same.

I prefer to use butter for this recipe, but you can also use any cooking oil instead of unsalted butter. Make sure to mix the oil well to the dry flour first, and then add hot water.

Soft taco can be made into hard taco shells, after cooking the soft tortillas, then deep fry in oil until it becomes crispy golden color .

Thickness and size of the tortillas

Thickness and size completely depends upon the recipe you are planning on using it. Make even sized balls from the prepared dough, roll the balls evenly without giving much pressure to the dough to your preferred thickness. Most of the recipes uses thinly rolled tortillas.

Recommend to roll it little thicker and smaller in size for making tacos so it bite sized and can hold the filling – salsa without getting soggy.

For other recipe likes wraps, burritos , quesadillas roll it thin and larger in size, so the tortillas can wrap fully with enough filling and quesadillas can be easily sliced.

Storage suggestions

The prepared dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days. Prepare the dough , use a clear wrap and wrap the dough fully , then place the wrapped dough in a zip lock or air tight container and then put it in the refrigerator. Thawing is not necessary. You could roll the tortillas when the dough is still cold.

Storing cooked flour tortillas – after cooking the tortillas, let it completely cool down to room temperature, then place it in a zip lock, and refrigerate it. Flour tortillas stays good for up to a week in refrigerator. In freezer for up to 6 months. Corn tortillas stays good up to ten days in the refrigerator.

Recipes using flour tortillas

This tortillas is perfect for any recipes which calls for flour tortillas. Some recipe suggestions,  you can make tacos (either soft taco or crispy taco), fajitas , burritos, quesadillas , wraps or simply serve it with some spicy curry.

Check the link below for Spicy chicken tacos recipe, with detailed instructions, tips and stepwise pictures.

• Spicy Chicken Tacos With Mango Radish Salsa.

Step By Step Pictures Of How To Make The Flour Tortilla

Ingredients Required – All purpose flour , room temperature butter , salt , baking powder, hot water

Take a wide bowl fitted with the sieve . Dump all dry ingredients – flour , salt , baking powder and sift two to three times.

Then add butter to the flour mixture and roughly mix it using hands. Now add hot water to the flour , mix well and kneed few minutes to form a smooth dough. Cover with any lid or cloth and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes.

Now make small equal sized balls from the dough. Lightly flour the surface and the rolling pin . Using the rolling pin flatten each ball and gently roll them into rounds ( Do not press hard while rolling) . To make even sized rounds, use a lid of a medium sized jar and cut into round shape.

Repeat the step until the dough is done.

Heat the tawa / griddle . Once its hot, place the rolled tortilla on the hot tawa and wait until it is bubbly. Turn and cook the other side until slightly golden . Make sure both side are cooked and light brown spots appear. Place the cooked tortilla in tortilla warmer/ hot case