Homemade Flour Tortillas: Yes. You. Can. Homemade tortillas are delicious and not tricky at all to make. This recipe calls for 5 ingredients — no yeast, no kneading, no long rest periods, and no special equipment required. Simply mix, roll, and heat, and you’re done!

Have you ever looked at the ingredient label on a package of tortillas? For something that should only require 4 or 5 ingredients to make, it’s shocking to see.

And while I would be lying if I said I didn’t always have a few packages of flour tortillas on hand — I like the Vista Hermosa brand — making tortillas from scratch is incredibly easy. Moreover, homemade tortillas are so much tastier than store-bought tortillas.

The recipe below is inspired by traditional Sonoran-style tortillas, which are made with only four ingredients: flour, water, fat, and salt. The fat can vary from lard to shortening to oil to butter. Making the dough requires no special equipment, minimal kneading, and just a short 30-minute rest before being rolled. Find step-by-step instructions below.

PS: Simple Soft Corn Tortillas (3 Ingredients!)

PPS: Homemade Sourdough Flour Tortillas

How to Make Flour Tortillas, Step by Step

First, gather your ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, butter, and water:

Whisk together the dry ingredients:

A large bowl of flour, salt and baking powder whisked together.

Add the butter:

A knob of butter added to a bowl of flour, salt and baking powder.

Use a fork to incorporate the butter into the dough, then add the water:

Water added to a bowl of flour, salt, baking powder, and butter.

Stir until you have a sticky dough ball:

A bowl of sticky tortilla dough.

Then knead briefly until the dough comes together:

A bowl of tortilla dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and divide into 5 portions:

5 pieces of tortilla dough on a countertop.

Ball up each portion, cover the balls, and let rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

5 tortilla dough balls.

Roll out as thinly as possible:

Rolled out tortilla dough.

Then carefully lay into a hot dry skillet: Cook for 30 seconds on one side.

A flour tortilla cooking in a skillet.

Flip, and cook for 30 seconds on the other side:

A homemade flour tortilla cooking in a skillet stovetop.

Stack the tortillas as they emerge from the skillet and keep covered in a towel to ensure they don’t dry out.

A stack of homemade flour tortillas.
An overhead shot of a stack of homemade flour tortillas.
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A homemade flour tortilla in a skillet.

Easy Homemade Flour Tortillas

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5 from 35 reviews

  • Author: Alexandra Stafford
  • Total Time: 60 minutes
  • Yield: 10 taco-sized tortillas (5 inches) or 5 burrito-sized tortillas (10 inches) 1x
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Description

Homemade Flour Tortillas: Yes. You. Can. Homemade tortillas are delicious and not tricky at all to make. This recipe calls for 5 ingredients — no yeast, no kneading, no long rest periods, and no special equipment required. Simply mix, roll, and heat, and you’re done!

Notes:

  • If you want to use sourdough discard in this recipe, follow the instructions on this post. 
  • If you want to make a bean and cheese burrito, simply heat up some refried beans, spoon them into a tortilla, top with grated cheese, wrap up, and either eat immediately or wrap in foil and warm in a 350ºF oven for 15 minutes. 

Ingredients

  •  2 scant cups (256 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons (7 g) kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup (56 g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup (152 g) lukewarm water

Instructions

  1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the softened butter and use the back of a fork to blend it into the flour mixture.
  2. Stir in the 2/3 cup lukewarm water with a fork until a shaggy dough forms.
  3. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead briefly, 1-2 minutes or until the dough comes together — it’s OK if it’s a little sticky still.
  4. Cut the dough into 2-oz. pieces for taco-sized tortillas or 3-oz pieces for burrito-sized tortillas. You will have 10 small pieces or 5 larger pieces. Shape pieces into a ball using flour as needed.
  5. Cover with a very light kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Be careful that your room isn’t too hot. Let the dough rest 30 minutes and up to two hours (at room temperature or 24 hours in the fridge. If you need to store the dough in the fridge, transfer balls to an airtight container.)
  6. Roll out each ball to about 6 – 8 inches (taco) or 10 to 12 inches (burrito) in diameter, or till you can see the counter start to come through — in other words, roll them as thinly as you are able.
  7. Heat a 12 inch non-stick or cast-iron pan (do not add any oil) on medium-high. Lay the tortilla in the pan and cook until it puffs and little brown spots on the underside appear. Turn with tongs or your fingers and cook again till lightly brown. Each tortilla takes about 60 seconds. You don’t really want the tortilla to brown at all.
  8. Use immediately or let cool completely; then transfer to an airtight bag. 
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Category: Flat Bread
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Mexican