Here Comes the Pain #3: Fresh Flour Tortillas

It's finally time to taco 'bout it

Mar 03, 2025

Hello friends and readers! It’s Monday, and as usual, I’m craving carbs and conversation. And what better way to celebrate a fresh week than with a new episode of Here Comes the Pain! That’s right, my amateur dive into the world of making breads at home continues. Today, I tackle a bread of a different nature.

When it comes to tortillas for tacos, or for most applications in fact, I prefer corn. I LOVE a freshly made corn tortilla. Expertly done, they are one of life’s great pleasures. I cannot wait to get back to Mexico, and I will never take a single corn tortilla for granted again.

As much as I love them though, the corn tortilla does have its limitations. They’re not always ideal for every preparation. You wanna make a big, melty quesadilla? How about a terrifyingly full burrito? Or even some crispy-fried flautas? If that’s your goal, then you probably want a flour tortilla.

Now, perhaps part of the reason I’m so entrenched in team corn is that what we get up here are mostly store-bought, shelf-stable flour tortillas. These taste so damn bad it’s almost criminal. They have that weird waxy, plastic-y consistency and the flavours are all stale and wrong even if they’re “fresh”. Whether or not you know and love Mexican cuisine, and I’m by no means an expert, these things ARE NOT IT, SIS.

It’s not hard to make a better flour tortilla at home. The dough comes together quickly. You give it a good knead, ball it out, let it rest and boom. You’re minutes away from fresh tortilla heaven. Just because you don’t have a comal or a tortilla press, don’t let that stop you from seeing just how good a fresh tortilla can be. I’m adapting a recipe from Tu Casa, Mi Casa here because it works so well.

You might want to unplug your smoke detector, though.

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients:

454g (1lb.) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting as needed
4g (1 tsp) baking powder
6g (1 tsp) kosher salt
60g lard, room-temperature
120mL (1/2 cup) whole milk, room temperature
120mL (1/2 cup) water, room temperature

Method:

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt, using a whisk to fully combine.
Mix the lard into the dry ingredients, using a pastry cutter or your hands. Mix until the flour is pebble-y, crumbly and uniform.
Add the milk and water and mix until completely incorporated. The mixture should remind you of Play-Doh.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth, 4-5 minutes.
Portion the dough into balls. For handheld-size tortillas, you want about golf ball-sized balls. For bigger tortillas, bigger balls. You may have to experiment a bit to find the size that’s right for you. Place the balls on a parchment-lined tray and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the dough balls rest for minimum 1.5 hours, or up to overnight in the fridge. The dough should be room temperature and feel soft when poked before continuing.
Heat a dry, heavy-bottomed frying pan, comal or cast-iron skillet over high heat. As the pan heats, roll out several dough balls into disks, using a rolling pin or tortilla press. Roll the disks as thin as you can, as evenly as you can.
One by one, place a dough disk into the hot pan and cook for 1 minute. Flip and cook for 1 minute, until brown spots appear. Flip one last time and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute more. Transfer to a cloth-lined basket or bowl and use immediately.

Make the number of tortillas you need; extras will dry out pretty quickly. But that’s what this whole recipe is about: FRESH tortillas! The dough freezes well, so you can easily double the recipe and throw half the dough in the freezer, well wrapped, for another time. Fresh tortillas at your fingertips!

I’m sure I don’t need to go through all the ways you can use these babies. I probably will in coming posts, though. But I want to hear what YOU’RE going to use them for! Let me know in the comments below, or shoot me an email! I want to know about your tortilla projects! Until next time!