Homemade Wheat Tortillas

Name: Homemade Wheat Tortillas
Ingredients: 4 cups (950 ml) unbleached all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons salt; 2 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening; 1½ cups (360 ml) warm water, or more if needed; 4 teaspoons baking powder (optional, for thicker and chewier tortillas)

Tortillas are a type of flatbread popular in Mexico and Central America commonly made from wheat flour or masa. This recipe is for the wheat flour variety; see Corn Tortilla for the masa version..

Ingredients

4 cups (950 ml) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
1½ cups (360 ml) warm water, or more if needed
4 teaspoons baking powder (optional, for thicker and chewier tortillas)

Steps

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking powder.
With a pastry blender, a fork, or your hands, gradually work in the lard or shortening until it is all incorporated.
Add enough warm water to make a soft but not sticky dough.
Turn out onto a lightly-floured board and knead for 5 minutes.
Divide the dough into ¼ cup (3 oz / 90 g) portions and form them into balls.
Roll each ball into a flat round about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter and ⅛ inches (0.3 cm) thick. You can use a tortilla press for this.
Heat a large heavy skillet over medium high heat.
Place the tortillas one at a time into the dry (or very lightly oiled) hot skillet; cook until browned in spots on one side, then turn and brown the other in spots side (about 1 minute/side)
Remove from the skillet and keep warm in cloth towel.

More recipes with flour or shortening

Adapted from “Homemade Wheat Tortillas” in the Wikibooks Cookbook by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for this site; this page's recipe text is shared under the same license.