Have you ever had a craving for some good ole chicken burritos or a nice quesadilla, but when you go to the refrigerator, grab all the ingredients you–GASP!–discover you have don’t have any flour tortillas? Oh No! (cue the soap opera music) What will you do? I’m here to help you. If you have flour, salt, baking powder and some butter–you are saved.
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1½ cups water
- Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl.
- Cut in the butter using a fork until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
- Add the water and mix until the dough comes together.
- Place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic.
- Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
- Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla.
- Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden.
- Flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side.
- Keep warm while cooking remaining tortillas.
The ingredients.
Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. You’re just going to have to imagine what this looks like–as usual, I forgot to take photos. It should look like a bowl full of white stuff.
Cut in the butter. I’ve heard that using lard makes homemade tortillas very tasty. I always use butter because it’s what I have on hand. I just can’t seem to bring myself to buy lard–something about that word makes me fear it will end up on my thighs. Again–no picture. Cutting is using a fork (or pastry cutter–if you want to be all fancy) to mash the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like sand.
Add the water and mix until dough comes together. Once it can stick together in a messy ball–you’re ready to knead it.
Knead until smooth and elastic. Just put some flour on your counter and mash the ball of dough around (adding a little more flour as needed) until it doesn’t stick to your hands anymore.
Divide dough into 24 equal pieces. I roll them into balls and then flatten them out a bit with my hands.
Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Roll dough balls into flat, round tortillas. Round being more of a suggestion than what I usually achieve. Mine are usually more “Picasso” round–not round, round.
Place in hot skillet and cook until bubbly.
Flip and continue cooking on the other side. This really doesn’t take very long. Keep an eye on them so that they remain soft flour tortillas rather than crunchy ones.
Keep warm while cooking remaining tortillas. I wrap mine in a paper towel and keep them in the microwave. Also, it’s a good idea to wipe out the skillet with a damp cloth after each tortilla so you don’t get flour build up that’s all burned and smelly.
Enjoy!
You will wonder why in the world you ever purchased store bought ones. Other than it’s a lot less time consuming and super easy to buy a bag of tortillas rather than go through the process to make your own. But, trust me–these taste WAY better!