Maybe this sounds a little… ambitious? Unnecessary? Overachieving?

But if you can make pancakes, you can make tortillas. 

And really, this was always the way of it, women making their tortillas with their hands, until at some point, it wasn’t. 

So why bother?

We modern women are consumers of packaged, stacked, uniformly round, shelf-stable and suspiciously soft tortillas. At least I was, until it occurred to me to read the ingredients… “palm and or soybean oil, calcium propionate, fumaric acid, mono- and diglycerides, sodium metabisulphite”… just to name a few. 

So I took a shot at the homemade thing. 

But there were so many steps, rest times, types of grains, the added effort and dirty dishes, is it really worth it? (…what is metabisulphite?)

I’m here to say, it’s not so hard. In fact, it’s not hard at all. And they’re actually really, really good! 

These whole wheat tortillas are soft and bendy and smell like warm olive oil and a baker’s oven. Even the irregularities are a welcomed aesthetic against the monotony of uniformity.

In fact, since making the switch to these whole wheat tortillas, I once reverted to the store-bought kind when I needed to throw together a dish for a party. I was surprised by the apathetic blandness those store-bought tortillas contributed; a wet blanket at my fiesta.

I won’t lie, at first it’s a little tricky as you get the technique down, but if you persevere through a few tortilla-making sessions, you’ll be as savvy as a flap jack flipper. 

A note about the wheat

I use hard white wheat for my tortillas. You’ll want a hard wheat, AKA a high protein wheat, because wheat protein is gluten, and gluten means the dough is a stretchy and elastic and able to hold a bubble. And in tortillas, bubbles and stretchy are good things. 

While this recipe does focus on gluten development (achieved through kneading the dough causing a “web” of structure to form), it does not depend on leveling. There are no specific fermenting, proofing or rising times to constrain your schedule. The only time requiring element is the *rest*, which I’ll talk about momentarily.

The How To

This recipe is my adaptation from Sue Becker’s as detailed in The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book. 

Simply grind your wheat and add in the bit of salt and baking powder. In the standing mixer, add a cup of warm water and the olive oil. Now combine everything into the mixer and allow the dough to knead on low for for a minute or so, until a dough ball forms. Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for a while, at least 10 minutes. 

resting & soaking

“Resting” allows the flour to soak up all of the moisture, which makes all the difference when it comes to working with whole wheat dough. It becomes much more compliant. It’s the difference in toddler who’s had a nap and a drink and a toddler who hasn’t. 

When your dough has rested for at least 10 minutes (or longer is just fine) and is feeling particularly amicable, turn the mixer on low again and let it spin for a few minutes or until the dough looks entirely smooth and consistent. It should seem elastic and soft and prefer to stick to itself in one large form rather than to the sides of the bowl.

If it’s too wet, feel free to throw little spoonfuls of flour in until it looks right. On the other hand, if the dough is too dry, that’s a bigger problem. A dry dough will make cantankerous little tortillas that are brittle and apt to crack. Make sure your dough is well hydrated. 

Here mine is pillowy and stretchy while not sticking to the sides. I was able to pull it out of the bowl with little fuss.

Now for the fun part

On your biggest cutting board, or directly on your clean countertop, drizzle some olive. Rub a little oil on your hands and on to your rolling pin as well. (By the way this oil dispenser has been a real joy!)

Form a dough ball and then divide it in half. Press the halves down and divided them into 5-7 little pillows, as equally sized as possible. 

If you’re using a griddle or a pan, you’ll want that nice and toasty before you slap down a tortilla, so go ahead and turn on the heat (about medium). I personally use my flat top range like a griddle, and it works great. No one has stopped me, so, I’m going to keep doing it. 

Go ahead and set out a cooling rack to receive the hot tortillas as they come off the pan, stove, whatever. 

Now you should have something of an assembly line set up: a staging area, the heat, and the cooling rack.

Now for those little pillows, we need them to be balls. You may notice that one side is stickier than the other, use that to your advantage. Fold the corners inward, on the sticky side so they stay, and continue to fold the outer part under itself again, until you have a pleasant little taunt dough ball. This should happen quickly, maybe 30 seconds each. 

If they are unmanageably sticky, don’t be afraid to oil them down. It will just add to the flavor and there’s no need to punish yourself.

To form the tortillas, you’ll flatten with your fingers, and then roll out the tortilla, first one way, then another, and then pick it up and gently pull it until you’re satisfied with the thinness. Most importantly, make sure the thinness is consistent. It’s easy to end up with a sheer middle and fat edges, which leads to cracking centers in your tacos. 

Lay it on the heat in whatever fashion you find works for you. Wait until it begins to bubble up and becomes more opaque than glossy and then flip! Wait until it begins to puff again, and it’s done. Move it to the rack and repeat.

I can typically get into a rhythm of rolling out the next tortilla while the previous one is on the stove, and then doing a swap out, and repeating. 

And just like that, you’re done!

Now go make something really good with them, like shrimp tacos or cheesy enchiladas or black beans & rice chicken wraps.

And if there’s extra, make some Buñuelos!