Soft Homemade Flour Tortillas {Butter Recipe}

How To Make the BEST Soft & Buttery Homemade Tortillas

Homemade tortillas, soft and warm, are one of the best things in the whole wide world. Combine that with how easy they are to make and flour tortillas from scratch becomes one of the few life decisions for which there can be no regrets.

Unless you eat them all yourself. Even then. Probably worth it.

After 20 years of making what I thought were the absolute best homemade tortillas, this all-butter recipe made me realize that sometimes good things can get even better. Let me explain.

In March of 2017, I published the homemade tortilla recipe I’d been making for at least 20 years. It called for using corn oil and it was really super good. The first time I ever made them I couldn’t believe how much better they were than the ones I’d been buying at the grocery store. If you made them, you probably had a similar experience.

However, I recently purchased Nopalito, an incredible Mexican food cookbook from Gonzalo Guzman, head chef at the San Francisco restaurant of the same name. Gonzalo makes his homemade flour tortillas with butter. I have never seen a recipe for flour tortillas that calls for butter. Lard? Yes. Shortening? Absolutely.

I’d been using corn oil for decades because a sweet little Mexican grandmother told me to. She wasn’t wrong. Flour tortillas made with corn oil are delicious. But, using butter makes them even better. Not just a little bit better. A LOT better. Markedly so. Noticeably so. 

My family, who for better or worse, is used to homemade tortillas said, “Ohmygod, these are really good today. What did you do? These are SO. GOOD.”

So. This simple pleasure – soft, warm, homemade flour tortillas – that was already one of the best things in the whole wide world just got even better. Life is good.

If you’ve never made Homemade Tortillas, let’s talk about how easy they are.

I’m a big proponent of slow food. It’s a rare day that you’ll find anything in a box or a bag in my kitchen.

I make most things from scratch for two reasons: 1.) I really, genuinely love to cook, and 2.) I’m kind of a control freak about what’s in my food. Ok. Three reasons. 3.) In general, homemade tastes better and I want my food to taste good.

Of course, this idea, like pretty much everything else in life, is relative. Homemade takes time and the time spent has to be worth it. There are certain things for which the finished product simply isn’t worth the time and effort required to make it from scratch. We are all dealing with a limited amount of time and must prioritize.

This is a constant struggle for me.

You know those people who will say things like, “If _____ was a priority for you, you’d make time for it.” I hate those people. With the fire of a thousands suns. Because, most of the time, my list of “top priorities” is really, really long.

Exercise. Continued education. Spending time with my family. Spending time with friends. Preparing healthy meals. Meditating. Going the extra mile at work. Volunteering. Reading. Learning. Growing.

Not to mention the basics of daily life like paying the bills, doing the laundry, cleaning the house, running errands, and taking the kids to the 10,000 places they need to go that day. Oh yeah. And sleeping. UGGGGG.

How do you prioritize when everything on your list is a #1 priority???

Every day I let a large handful of “#1 priorities” drop to the floor only to pick them up the next day and try again. This is why the end result of anything I make from scratch had really better be worth the time effort. I know I’m not alone in this.

For example, homemade bread is a staple in our house. I make a couple of loaves every week because I feel that the quality and flavor of homemade bread is so superior to what’s available at my local grocery store that it’s easy to justify the bit of time and effort it takes to make it at home.

On the other hand, I made puff pastry from scratch one time and will never do that again. Homemade puff pastry is a lot of work, and the finished product tastes pretty much exactly like the frozen variety in the grocery store freezer. It’s just not worth it for me.

How we spend every minute of every hour of every day is a tradeoff. If you’ve never made homemade tortillas, I don’t know if it’s a worthwhile one for you. I can only tell you that…

The first time I made homemade tortillas, I knew I was probably never going to purchase them again.

Homemade tortillas are surprisingly simple to make and SO. MUCH. BETTER. than what’s available in most grocery stores. Like, shockingly better. In my house, if we’re going to eat tortillas, they are going to be homemade. If I don’t have time to make them, we are simply not going to eat tortillas that day.

And anyway, homemade tortillas don’t actually take much time or effort – especially if you have a standing mixer. Standing mixers are great because they do all the kneading for you. Simply dump all the ingredients into your bowl and let the mixer do the work of transforming flour, water, and butter into dough.

Having said that, I made homemade flour tortillas for years before I owned a standing mixer. You really only have to knead the soft dough for a couple of minutes. Still, totally worth it.

Homemade Flour Tortilla Recipe Notes:

Tortilla dough should be soft and slightly sticky, but not wet. If you’re using a standing mixer, you want the dough to clean the sides of the bowl, but stick slightly to the bottom. The amount of water you’ll need to achieve this consistency will vary based on climate, humidity, temperature, and who knows what other factors.

Start with the amount in the recipe and then add more as the dough kneads, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you have a soft, smooth dough that clings to the bottom of the bowl while sweeping cleanly along the sides. If at any point you find that you’ve added too much water, just add a bit more flour. No big deal.

Tortilla dough is very forgiving. Add flour and water as needed to create a soft dough that will be easy to roll out. If you’re kneading the tortilla dough by hand, adjust the consistency of the dough as you knead with additional flour or water until you have a soft, smooth dough that clings slightly to the countertop but does not stick to your hands.

Give the tortilla dough a rest and cook it over very high heat.

If you try to roll out tortilla dough immediately after kneading, you’ll discover that it’s nearly impossible to roll the dough flat. Kneading dough strengthens the gluten – those strands of protein that give bread structure and texture. Giving the dough time to rest allows the gluten to relax, making it so much easier to roll out into tortillas.

Cook tortillas on high heat in a dry frying pan. There’s enough fat in tortilla dough to prevent the dough from sticking to the pan as long as your pan is very hot. You also want to cook tortillas over high enough heat that each side takes only about 10-20 seconds to cook. This is what ensures that deliciously soft interior. Cooking them over low heat simply dries out the dough.

Finally, this recipe is easily doubled if you’re making tortilla for a crowd. Honestly, even though there are only 4 people in my house, I usually double this recipe. The tortillas keep for a couple of days and making plenty allows me to make breakfast burritos the next morning with enough left over to satisfy every teenage craving for the next few days.

Useful equipment for making homemade tortillas:

• KitchenAid 6-Quart Standing Mixer
• Cuisinart Non-Stick Skillet

More totally-worth-it bread recipes:

• My Favorite Homemade White Bread
• My Favorite Homemade Whole Wheat Bread
• Extra Soft and Buttery Homemade Dinner Rolls {AKA – those rolls}
• Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
• Cinnamon Swirl Bread
• Homemade Garlic Naan
• Buttermilk Cheddar Jalepeno Cornbread
• Homemade Potato Rolls

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Happy baking!

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