Flour Tortillas

These Homemade Flour Tortillas are made with just 4 ingredients and require no special tools. Light and airy, they're better than anything you'll buy at the store and perfect for all of your favorite Mexican dishes that call for tortillas.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Rest Time20

Total Time50

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: flour tortillas, homemade flour tortillas, homemade tortillas

Servings: tortillas

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup lard
1 cup very hot water or as needed

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add in the lard (or shortening) and using your hands, work it into the flour until you have fine crumbs.
While mixing with your hands, start pouring some hot water into the dough a little at a time (being careful since it’ll be hot). Drizzle in some more water, then mix. Drizzle again and add more water if needed to form a sticky dough ball—it'll pull away from the edges of the bowl.
Transfer the dough to a very lightly floured clean work surface. Knead for about 5 minutes until soft, elastic, and smooth and no longer sticky. Press with a finger and if it bounces back, it’s ready.
Pinch off 14 uniform pieces of dough (about golf ball-sized balls.) Roll each piece into a ball, pressing and tucking just a bit until it's smooth, then place onto a baking sheet. Once you're done with all 14 balls, cover with a lightly damp warm towel and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
On a very lightly floured surface, place one ball of dough, dust with flour and press it flat with your fingers. Then using a rolling pin, roll out a circle from the center outwards without reaching the edge - roll the dough once, rotate 45°, roll again, and repeat until it's halfway rolled out, trying to keep it as round as possible. As it gets larger, flip the dough over and continue rolling until you have a super thin 6-7” circle, or until your dough begins to look almost see-through.
Get a comal, nonstick skillet, or griddle very hot over medium-high, then lower to medium heat before you start cooking the first tortilla.
Set a tortilla on the hot skillet and cook 20 to 30 seconds or until little bubbles appear on the surface and you start to see blistering/light brown spots. Flip and cook another 20 to 30 seconds, or until the bottom is slightly golden. Flip one last time—this is when you should see the big bubbles—and cook for another 10 seconds.
Stack on a plate. To keep warm, cover with a dry kitchen towel, place in a tortilla warmer, or place on a baking sheet in a 175°F oven. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Once all the tortillas are cool, transfer them to a resealable Ziploc bag to keep them from drying out.

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