Easy Homemade Tortillas Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes a good tortillas? ›

When you're paring back a recipe for a tortilla to its essence – which is corn, water, and lime – each of those ingredients needs to be spot-on for it to taste good. The second piece to it is going back to the recipe itself, this process of nixtamalization, and stone milling.

Adding too much flour to knead or to roll out the tortillas will also create hard and dry tortillas.

You need ample moisture that can react with the heat in order for it to ultimately convert to steam and puff. If your masa has too little moisture, the tortilla in development will dry out before it can ever puff. A proper mixing/kneading process is critical to ensuring well-distributed and even moisture.

You can prevent cracked tortillas by pressing a test tortilla before you roll the rest of the dough into balls. If your test tortilla is indeed cracked (read: dry), simply add more water a tablespoon at a time, testing between each addition until the dough produces tortillas with smooth, even edges.

Although traditionally made with lard, these tortillas are equally delicious using butter, shortening, or vegetable oil as the fat. If you choose to use oil, add it with the water in step 3. The resting period improves the texture of the dough by giving the flour time to absorb the water.

Baking powder: Baking powder acts as a leavener, giving the tortillas a slightly pillowy texture. Salt: Salt enhances the overall flavor of the flour tortillas. Lard: Lard, a common baking ingredient in Mexican cuisine, adds flavor and helps create the perfect flour tortilla texture.

No Lard Flour Tortillas are a vegetarian/vegan alternative to the traditional recipe that uses lard or shortening. Use them for all your favorite dishes like quesadillas, tacos and fajitas. Coconut oil is a great substitution for lard because it has the same consistency to make the tortillas vegetarian and vegan.

Pro Tip: Resting for at least 15 minutes relaxes the gluten so you can roll them out into smooth discs of deliciousness. Once the dough has rested (don't skip this step!!), you are ready to roll the tortillas out and to cook them.

Notes. Back lard is preferable for its very mild pork flavor, although more neutral tasting leaf lard or vegetable shortening can be substituted for great results. The tortillas are best eaten fresh and while still warm.

Dryness, stiffness, and heat — oh my!

The temperature part is pretty simple. If you've made your tortilla dough earlier in the day and are storing it in the fridge, the cold dough will be drier and stiffer — two surefire issues that will lead to cracking. Even non-glutinous doughs get stretchier as they warm.

How do you know when tortillas are done? ›

Follow the 10-40-30 rule, which is how many seconds the tortilla should be cooked per side. Cook until it slides around easily, 10 to 15 seconds. Flip with your hands or a heatproof spatula and cook until the edges are drier, 35 to 40 seconds.

I tested a few different variations and found that just a little bit of baking powder yielded the best texture albeit a very minor difference compared to the version without baking powder. So, if you don't have baking powder then you can omit it altogether. The tortillas will be just as good!

You may prefer flour tortillas for their mild flavor and pillowy-soft texture. But they're the least healthy choice in the tortilla aisle: They are made from refined white flour, often contain additives, and can pack a lot of sodium—especially compared with corn tortillas.

Our favorite flour tortilla recipe based on the method from Mexico: The Cookbook. A wet dough and long kneading time make them soft and chewy.

For the average person, corn tortillas provide the most nutritional value and authentic flavor. Corn tortillas are a good source of fiber, resistant starch, zinc, and vitamin B3. Plus, depending on how they're made, corn tortillas may have a good amount of calcium!

Corn tortillas are seen as more authentic to Mexican dishes, corn has been a staple ingredient in Mexican cooking for thousands of years. Wheat, on the other hand, has only been around since the Spanish brought the crop with them when they arrived in the Americas.

When it comes to nutrition, corn tortillas have the advantage of being made from whole grains, with fewer calories, sodium, and carbs but more fiber than flour tortillas. They're also gluten-free. As for cooking and eating, some people complain that corn tortillas break easily.

Soft tortillas are the traditional base for Mexican fajitas or burritos—but, depending on the type of flour or cornmeal used, these thin round flatbreads can vary widely in calories, sodium, and more.