Sourdough Flour Tortillas (made with discard or not)
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This sourdough flour tortilla dough couldn’t be simpler to mix up — truly it takes 5 minutes to stir together — and after a brief rest, it’s ready to be rolled and cooked. Homemade tortillas are so, so delicious, and so nice to have on hand for enchiladas and tacos of all kinds 🌮🌮🌮🌮
A few weeks ago, I pulled out a bag of my favorite Caramelo flour tortillas to inspect the ingredient list. I had known the company used only high-quality ingredients and very few of them, but I had forgotten if they used some sort of leavening agent, such as baking powder or soda. If you are unfamiliar, Caramelo tortillas char and blister so beautifully due to the presence of myriad air pockets throughout the dough.
It turns out Caramelo uses neither baking powder or soda. Their ingredient list includes: flour, sea salt, fat, and water.
How. Interesting. The simple, flour tortilla recipe I have been making for years calls for baking powder. The recipe works so well I never questioned the necessity of any of its five ingredients, but shortly after this ingredient investigation, I decided to make the flour tortillas without baking powder, and guess what? The tortillas cooked up just as beautifully as ever.
So if it’s not baking powder or some other leavening agent — a sourdough starter, yeast — then what makes a tortilla balloon so dramatically in a skillet?
The more I make tortillas, the more I realize it’s simply a matter of two things:
- Rolling the dough as thinly as possible. Truly: you want to roll until you can nearly see your work surface through the dough.
- Using a hot skillet. I alway find my first 3 or 4 tortillas never turn out as well as the remainder, and this, no doubt, is because my skillet isn’t hot enough initially.
That’s it! There’s no fancy mixing or rolling technique, no leavening agent required. Which might have you wondering:
Why use a sourdough starter to make tortillas?
For a few reasons:
- If you do a lot of sourdough baking, chances are you may find you have a bit of discard on your hands, which as long as it is not many days old, you can use in this recipe.
- Or you may find yourself having mistimed the feeding of your starter. In other words, maybe you fed your starter, but never got around to using it at its peak, and in the meantime, it has collapsed — this happens to me all the time. Rather than feed it again, you could use that collapsed starter in this recipe.
- Or maybe you have extra bubbling, very active starter that you’d like to put to use before you stash your starter back in your fridge.
Regardless if I am using super bubbly active starter or discard, the sour flavor is subtle. This is likely because there really isn’t a fermentation period. After you mix the dough, it rests for 30 minutes, a short period of time that allows the gluten to relax and makes rolling out the dough a teensy bit easier, (though you can get away with skipping this step if you are pressed for time.)
This recipe is a snap to throw together (as is the non-sourdough version), and I hope you give it a go soon, and then treat yourself to a pan of homemade enchiladas. So, so good.
What is the best pan for tortillas? A crepe pan!
I love my Le Creuset Toughened Nonstick Crepe Pan, which costs about $120, because it’s the perfect size for cooking tortillas, large or small. The slightly smaller Cuisinart 10-inch Crepe Pan is a less expensive alternative, at about $25. Note: It doesn’t come with the wooden spreader, which you don’t need for tortillas, and which I never use when making crepes anyway.
PS: If you are unfamiliar with the sourdough process, I have a free email course that covers the basics. Sign up here: Sourdough Demystified.
PPS: A Few Favorite Sourdough Bread Recipes
- Sourdough Pizza
- Sourdough Focaccia
- Sourdough Boule
- Sourdough Boule (Whole Wheat-ish)
- Sourdough Toasting Bread
PPPS: Easy, No-Knead Flour Tortillas
How to Make Sourdough Flour Tortillas
Here’s the play-by-play: Gather your ingredients: flour, salt, softened butter, water, and a sourdough starter.
Combine the ingredients and mix to form a sticky dough ball.
Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and knead gently to combine
Divide into 12 portions and roll each into a ball.
Transfer to a small floured board, if you wish — I do this to give myself more space on my work surface to roll out the tortillas. Cover with a tea towel and let rest 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Roll each ball out as thinly as possible. Each ball will roughly be about 8 inches in diameter.
You can layer the tortillas between sheets of parchment paper to give yourself more space.
I recently purchased a box of 8-inch square sheets of parchment. I really like the convenience of having smaller sheets on hand. Just a warning: I have only been able to re-use them once before they start losing their non-stick property.
Once your tortillas are rolled out, cook them in a hot, dry skillet for roughly 30 seconds a side, or until browned to your liking. I love using my Le Creuset nonstick crepe pan for this.
Store the tortillas in an airtight bag or container at room temperature for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Sourdough Flour Tortillas (made with discard or not)
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 to 12
Description
This recipe is adapted from this flour tortilla recipe, which is made with baking powder (as opposed to a sourdough starter). Regardless of which recipe you are using, there are two keys to success here:
- Roll the dough as thinly as possible.
- Get your skillet piping hot.
I love using my Le Creuset crepe pan for cooking tortillas.
Ingredients
- 210 g (1.5 heaping cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 7 g (1 1/4 teaspoons) kosher salt
- 56 g (1/4 cup) softened butter
- 100 g water (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon)
- 100 g (1/2 cup) sourdough starter
Instructions
- Whisk flour and salt together in a medium bowl. Using the back of a fork, cut the butter into the flour, mixing and smushing it until it is well incorporated into the flour. You can use your hands if necessary to further incorporate the butter into the flour.
- Stir in the water and sourdough starter and mix with a spatula until a shaggy dough forms. Use your hands to gently knead the dough in the bowl, if necessary, to get the mixture to form a rough ball.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for another 1 to 2 minutes or until it is smooth and not sticking to the work surface.
- Cut the dough into 12 pieces for taco- or enchilada-sized tortillas or 6 pieces for burrito-sized tortillas. Shape each piece into a ball. (Video guidance here.)
- Cover with a very light kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Be careful that your room isn’t too hot. Let the dough rest 30 minutes and up to two hours (at room temperature or 24 hours in the fridge. If you need to store the in the fridge, transfer balls to an airtight container.)
- Roll out each ball to about 6 to 8 inches (taco size) or 10 to 12 inches (burrito size) in diameter, or till you can see the counter start to come through — in other words, roll them as thinly as possible.
- Heat a 12 inch non-stick or cast-iron pan (do not add any oil) on medium-high. Lay the tortilla in the pan and cook until it puffs and little brown spots on the underside appear. Turn with tongs or your fingers and cook again till lightly brown. Each tortilla takes about 60 seconds total to cook. If you like a bit of char, keep the tortilla in the skillet until it is charred on both sides. Note: Your first 3 to 4 tortillas may be on the pale side. This is just likely because your skillet isn’t up to temperature. Once you make a few, you’ll find your rhythm and adjust the heat as necessary depending on if you want more or less char.
- Once the tortillas cool, store them in an airtight bag or container at room temperature for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Tortilla, Bread
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican, American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
450 Comments on “Sourdough Flour Tortillas (made with discard or not)”
Do you think you could substitute oil for the butter, maybe 3 tablespoons of oil? I have to stay away from butter because of my husband’s health. Thanks. Susan
Hi Susan! I would imagine, but I can’t advise on quantities because I haven’t tried yet. My favorite brand, Caramelo, sells an avocado oil tortilla, and they are delicious, so it will work, but you may just need to tweak the quantities. I might start with 3 tablespoons oil. Good luck!
Wow, very impressive! l bet they taste just delicious. l was thinking to substitute lard for the butter. l make a jar or two to use in flatbreads, lard always seems to make them flaky.
A quick question. l love your frying pan. what brand is it. It has a very short rim perfect for frying flatbreads.
Alexandra l love your recipes and the videos that sometimes go along.
Hi Branka! Lard will be delicious! Let me know if you give it a go. The pan is a Le Creuset crepe pan. I’ll add a note to the recipe, too. Thanks for writing!
Hi, how many grams is a quarter cup of butter?
Recipe looks easy and delicious, would like to try this today.
Pix
Great question 🙂 I just updated the recipe. It’s 56 g.
Thanks, going to make it now!
Hi, can you make the dough ahead and put in the fridge?
Yes!
Hi Ali, I just made the tortillas with 3 T of olive oil and they turned out great. Thanks so much for your help. Susan
This recipe makes the Best Tortillas I have ever had! It is simple and very flavorful. I’m in Southern California, not far from the border where we have many excellent Mexican chefs but these startled me when I pulled the first one out of the pan. I’ve set aside breads for now and make your tortillas my go to!
So nice to hear this, Wildbill! I am jealous of your good Mexican food … we lived in San Clemente for about 3 years, and I miss the freshness of California Mexican food. So food. Thanks for writing.
Delicious and tender! I used 3 tablespoons of olive oil instead of butter and everyone loved them. My only issue was toward the end of cooking the tortillas some of the residual flour in the pan started to burn and leave a little dusting on the tortillas. I’m going to try rolling them out with rice flour next time!
So nice to hear this, Lisa! And yes, that does happen. Sometimes I’ll take a pause from cooking, wipe out the pan, and then resume … that seems to help. Let me know how rice flour works! Great idea.
I usually make mine in our cast iron pans. When the dusting gets left in the pan, I take a lightly oiled paper towel and run it around the pan and it removes the leftover flour.
Love it, easy and tasty
I used my electric grill and it works
Wonderful to hear this, Teresa!
simple and easy – 5 stars.
Great to hear this, Amy!
These were amazing!!! We had them with Mexican shredded beef and they held up spectacularly! It was super easy, but I felt so accomplished 🙂
So great to hear this, Melissa! Thanks so much for writing. Mexican shredded beef sounds delicious!
Great recipe! Easy and delicious!
Wonderful to hear this, Emily! Thanks for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
This is such a helpful recipe, thank you! They are so much better than store bought, even better than the good quality organic ones. We had no idea it was so easy and so much better. Rolling them is similar to rolling rotis (Indian flatbread). So while one cooked we rolled the next. It made cooking a double batch a quicker job. We will make several batches next time to freeze.
So great to hear this, Nisha! I still can’t believe I have not made rotis. I need to try ASAP. Thank you for the reminder and thanks for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
Can I make this recipe with whole wheat flour?
Hi! Worth a shot … keep in mind they might be a little drier, but again it’s worth a shot. I haven’t made them with whole wheat flour, so I can’t speak to how they’ll turn out specifically.
I followed your recipe using a whole wheat starter and white bread flour. They were speckled with whole wheat and beautiful. It was incredibly delicious and so easy! This was my first time kneading dough. I started this journey with your focaccia, then your whole wheat-ish sourdough loaf, and now these tortillas. I am eternally grateful to you for helping me start baking and doing it with sourdough.
So nice to hear all of this! And yay for using a whole wheat starter … it sounds so pretty! Thanks for writing and thank you for your kind words.
I really enjoyed these. I am newer to sourdough cooking and baking and wasn’t sure what to expect flavor wise.
Our digestive system responds better when we let them rest in the fridge a few days, so that is what I did. I also used avocado oil (Instead of butter) because that what I had in hand.
Thank you for your recipe
So nice to hear this, Melanie! I love that you used avocado oil. My favorite mail-order brand, Caramelo, uses avocado oil in one of their tortillas.
Perfect size and flavor. Delicious!
It took me a while to figure out the heat factor, but once I had it, it was smooth sailing.
I wonder if you have a naan recipe with discard. Thanks Alexandra.
Pia
Wonderful to hear this, Pia! Thanks for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi Alexandra,
I would give this recipe 10 stars if I could. I have been on a quest for years to make flour tortillas like I remember from growing up in Southern CA. It has involved compiling ingredients in a spreadsheet to compare ratio of flour to salt, fat etc. I think my wife actually groans when I tell her I am going to try again.
Today, I not only rolled my first large round tortilla but also one that had great flavor. My only change was to use 3TB avocado oil that I worked in well with my fingers.
Truly a gem of a recipe.
So great to hear this, Bruce! Thanks so much for writing. Great to hear the avocado oil worked out well, too. I’ve said this before in this comment thread somewhere, but my favorite mail-order flour tortillas (Caramelo) use avocado oil in one of their tortillas. So good!
Hi Ali,
I had to come back and leave another note of thanks for this recipe.
Today I made a batch of six burrito size tortillas and they cooked up beautifully. I did change to butter as the fat (from avocado oil) awhile back and it seems to work the best. I have also found that letting the dough balls rest in the fridge overnight results in an easy to roll and handle tortilla.
I did want to ask you how you would compare the sourdough vs. your regular flour tortilla. Just in case I am away from home and want to make flour tortillas.
Hope you and your family are doing well
Hi Again! Apologies for the delay with this one.
I think the sourdough ones maybe have a slight edge on the non-sourdough ones, but the difference is subtle. Plus, once wrapped and filled, there is no way someone would be able to tell the difference in taste. Both are delicious, and the texture of each is very very similar, if not identical, too.
So great to hear the rest in the fridge makes them easier to roll.
Used olive oil instead of butter and the tortillas turned out great.
Wonderful to hear this, Nicole!
The BEST Tortilla recipe iv found! SO easy and SO good!!!
Wonderful to hear, Jamie! Thanks for writing 🙂
This is one of the best recipes I’ve made so far for using my excessive amounts of sourdough discard. So tender. I used freshly milled hard red wheat and they were perfect! I look forward to making again!
Thank you 😊
Wonderful to hear this, Melody! Great to hear it worked with freshly milled flour, too 🙂
This is the best recipe ever! We keep a constant stash of tortillas in our freezer and it’s super easy to heat up. Definitely a must if you have excess discard that needs to be used!
Wonderful to hear, Alyson! Thanks for writing 🙂
I just stumbled across your site in December and love it! I’ve cooked a number of your recipes and all have been crowd pleasers. I have a general question for all of your recipes: what kosher salt are you using, and does it matter? Is a teaspoon a teaspoon regardless of the kind of salt? I would think that a teaspoon of one kind of salt is not necessarily the same as another kind of salt, because of different grain sizes. I’m an experienced cook, but not an experienced baker. I want to make sure I’m not under or over doing the salt with your recipes, especially with baking and other recipes where I can’t gradually add the salt.
Hi Jennifer! Welcome. So nice to hear all of this.
I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, and yes, it does matter what kind you use. Morton’s, for instance, is finer, and therefore a teaspoon of Morton’s is saltier than a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal. I don’t think it’s as important when baking, because I think most baked-good recipes actually go too easy on the salt, so I wouldn’t worry about your baked goods. With savory goods, I always advise cutting back on the measurements I offer if you are sensitive to salt, because I definitely have a high salt tolerance. Or simply add to taste as opposed to by 1/2 teaspoons, etc.
Loved this recipe. I used discard that wasn’t active. I’m wondering, could this be the reason mine did not puff like yours in the pan?
Hi Debby! It’s possible, but I find that the puffiness comes from either rolling the dough super thinly and from using a very hot pan. Did you roll your tortillas very thin? And what type of pan were you using?
Hi, I love this recipe. I have made them several times. I’m trying to compare the nutritional value for this recipe vs. other tortilla recipes made without starter. Do you have the calorie count, etc.?
thanks so much
Hi Maria, I’m afraid I don’t … try Very Well Fit dot com … excellent site!
These turned out really good. I used my food processor to mix the dough, which was super easy and then I bulk fermented it instead of cutting them up right away. They rolled out well and everyone loved them.
Wonderful to hear this, Sadie! Thanks so much for writing and for sharing your method. Sounds perfect 🙂
Ali, I can’t get over these.. I think I have made them every couple
of weeks now. We just scale the recipe down to make 4. The burrito size is what my husband likes, and because he likes them so much, I have gotten into the habit of using 1/2 oil and 1/2 butter and they come out almost as good 😊. They are so superior to anything we can buy in the stores around here and they keep really well too. Thank tou so much. LOVE these.
So wonderful to hear this, Chantalemarie! Thanks so much for writing. I’ll have to try half oil and half butter next time around. I love making burrito size as well 🙂 🙂 🙂
I made this recipe today substituting avocado oil as suggested. It is delicious and so easy. I don’t think I’ll ever buy another flour tortilla! Thanks for sharing! Any idea of nutritional/calorie intake? I don’t need any more tortillas right now, but am excited to make more and to share the recipe!
Hi Judy! Wonderful to hear this 🙂 🙂
I don’t have the nutritional info, but I love this website for calculating that info when I need to: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Just made them and they are so good!!! Also it was so easy!!! Thank you!
Wonderful to hear this, Kristine! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve been making these for 6 months now. They are absolutely the best sourdough tortillas EVER! Friends have asked to buy them from me they are so good!
Oh yay! So nice to hear this, Haley! Thanks for writing 🙂
Can you let the dough ferment for a normal 12-24 hours so it has less gluten in it?
Hi Jessica! Yes, I would do it in the fridge in an airtight container so prevent the dough from drying out.
These were so good! I used coconut oil instead and used 5-10 grams less and it turned out amazing. Won’t be buying store made tortillas anymore!
Amazing! Wonderful to hear this, Catherine! Thanks for writing. Love the idea of using coconut oil.