Quick Homemade Tortillas

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Dinner doesn't have to be a scramble, but when you are hankering for tacos, quesadillas, fried chicken wraps, or something resembling a gyro, these tortillas will come together in 20 minutes or less, and are all the chewy and fluffy you'd desire in a good tortilla.

These wraps can be made quickly while the taco meat is cooking.

There's this illusion we live by in our culture of convenience that tells us that "we can't do it for ourselves and someone must do it for us." That's far from the truth, and tortillas are a lighthearted example of this that might just be the breakthrough many of us need!

Prepare the Dry Ingredients

We use an organic all-purpose flour from King Arthur for most of our baking and cooking. Since these are NOT sourdough tortillas, Einkorn flour, such as Jovial's, may be the better choice if you're sensitive to gluten. We also love that we were able to find a corn-free baking powder with Otto's Naturals, which uses cassava starch in place of the corn starch. Last of the dry ingredients is the salt, and a good salt goes a long way! Redmond's Real Salt is our salt of choice for EV-ER-Y-THING. We love it!

Add all these dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk away! You shouldn't need to break out the stand mixer for this recipe, but feel free to use it if desired.

Combining Wet Ingredients and Kneading

Once the dry ingredients are whisked, add the warm water and butter (can do room-temp or melted). It's easier to work these ingredients into the flour with a fork at first, then finish combining with clean hands.

Once combined, knead the dough for 2 to 4 minutes until there are no clumps and the dough ball is smooth. Return dough to bowl and cover with a hot, wet towel for 10 minutes.

This smooth boy is ready for a rise in the bowl!

Cooking the Tortillas

While the dough is sitting, preheat a cast-iron pan on the stovetop. You'll want it nice and hot to get an even cooking. When doing a double-batch, we use a pizza stone from Lodge across three burners, which allows us to cook 3 to 4 small to medium-sized tortillas or 2 to 3 large tortillas. For a single batch, we use the Lodge square cast-iron griddle.

Divide those puppies up

After the 10 minutes of rise-time are up, it's time to divide and roll out the tortillas for cooking. How many balls you divide it into is up to the size of the tortilla you want. If you want smaller tortillas for street tacos, 10 to 14 balls will work. For burritos, 4 to 8 balls will be best.

Roll them out to your desired thickness

Cook the tortillas about 1 to 2 minutes per side. They will end up hard if you overcook them!

When the tortilla starts to bubble up, it's time to flip!

Some pointers on the cooking of the tortillas:

• No oil is needed; we always cook our tortillas dry. If you use oil, it will likely fry the tortilla and make it crispy and hard to fold. This would work for a tostada, though!

• Try to roll out the tortillas one by one as you're ready to add them to the pan for cooking. Roll them too early, and you may end up with a sticky tortilla that you'll end up rerolling.

• When removing each tortilla from the pan, stack them on a plate to cool. It seems counter-productive, but if they're stacked together, then they remain moist once they've cooled. If you cool them on a cooling rack, the tortillas end up a little drier.

Cool in a stack to lock the moisture in

Recipe

Ingredient List

Dry Ingredients

• Organic All-Purpose Flour - 3 Cups

• Otto's Baking Powder - 2 tsp

• Redmond's Real Salt - 1.5 tsp

Wet Ingredients

• Warm Water - 1 Cup

• Butter (melted or room-temp) - 6 Tbs

Instructions

• Start by evenly combining the dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, add all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt (more or less to your taste). Whisk thoroughly.

• With a fork, combine dry ingredients with butter and warm water. Once roughly mixed, continue to work the ingredients together by hand.

• Knead the dough for 2 to 4 minutes.

• Place in a bowl with a warm, wet tea towel for 10 minutes. Preheat a cast-iron griddle or skillet.

• Remove the ball of dough and divide it into balls of your desired size. 10 to 14 balls for small to medium-sized tortillas. 4 to 8 balls for larger tortillas.

• Roll the balls flat and as round as you can manage.

• Cook the tortillas about 1 to 2 minutes per side. They will end up hard if you overcook them!

• Once removed from the heat, stack the tortillas on a plate to cool.

• Enjoy!

Notes:

• Some pointers on the cooking of the tortillas:

  • No oil is needed; we always cook our tortillas dry. If you use oil, it will likely fry the tortilla and make it crispy and hard to fold. This would work for a tostada, though!

  • Try to roll out the tortillas one by one as you're ready to add them to the pan for cooking. Roll them too early, and you may end up with a sticky tortilla that you'll need to roll again.

  • When removing the tortilla from the pan, stack them on a plate to cool. It seems counter-productive, but if they're stacked together, then they remain moist once they've cooled. If you cool them on a cooling rack, the tortillas end up a little drier.

• These freeze and thaw excellently! It's helpful to put a layer of parchment paper between each tortilla to prevent them from sticking, but it's not necessary.

• When thawing, you can either allow them to come to room temperature, or you can reheat them in a pan, be careful not to cook them too long, or they can become hard!