Quick and Easy Homemade Tortillas Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes a good tortillas? ›

The best supermarket flour tortillas are soft but not limp, and chewy but not gummy. We want a tortilla that's confidently wheaty, with no distracting chemical flavors. It should be thin enough to see light through, just slightly stretchy when tugged, and flaky when pulled apart.

If you're making flour tortillas, the key is to mix the dry ingredients (flour and salt) together with the fat until the consistency resembles coarse sand. Then, once you add the warm water, the texture should be very tacky and stick to your hands easily.

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

Hydrate your masa properly: This is the best tip to get your tortillas to puff. If after combining and kneading the ingredients the masa still cracks around the edges, it needs more water.

Covering cooked tortillas in a wet paper towel and wrapping tightly in aluminum foil will preserve them for a day or two (although honestly, these guys are meant to be enjoyed immediately). Using a ceramic tortilla warmer or steaming them before serving will keep them pliable.

Tortilla presses are commonly made of cast iron, wood, stainless steel, or aluminum. Cast iron presses are very durable and heavy and may require seasoning. They can come with different types of coating, including powder coating.

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!

A cast iron skillet or griddle is the ideal cooking medium for tortillas, but if you don't have cast iron you can use a heavy stainless steel pan or a ceramic-coated nonstick pan.

How hot should a pan be for tortillas? ›

Stick with cast-iron, if you have it. Heat your pan over medium-high heat. There's no need to add any oil. Cook the tortilla until brown spots appear on the bottom, 1 to 2 minutes, then flip and cook on the other side.

Rest the dough.

Set them on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and let rest at least 30 minutes (to make the dough less springy, easier to roll).

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.

If your tortillas are not soft there can be several reasons: You did not use all purpose flour. You did not use a cast iron pan. Your pan was not hot enough.

Offering a firm, chewy texture, corn tortillas come out ahead in a side-by-side nutrition competition with other types. Corn is a good-for - you whole grain, Keating explains, and corn tortillas typically contain less fat and simpler ingredients, and are very low in sodium.

Corn tortillas go well with Mexican dishes like tacos, enchiladas, and tamales. They are also perfect for use in tostadas, sopes, and quesadillas.

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.

Mexican tortillas are made with wheat or corn flour. Although they both belong to the Mexican and Tex-Mex culinary tradition, the corn tortilla is undoubtedly the most typical one. As a matter of fact, corn is the basic food in Southern America cuisine, handed down since ancient times, long before Spanish colonization.