Recipe Suggestion – Gluten-Free Flour Tortillas

Easy, Gluten-Free Recipe for Homemade Flour Tortillas!

Nothing really takes the place of homemade wheat flour tortillas made with lard! But, these are pretty darn good, especially on day one. It is always challenging to store GF products as they tend toward dryness and getting hard. So—get a pot of pinto beans cooking (add lots of chopped garlic to those and make yourself some tortillas to eat with them ASAP.

This is a recipe I made based on my family’s authentic wheat flour recipe for tortillas.

This recipe makes about a 6 inch stack of tortillas, 6-8 inches in diameter. You may double (even triple) this recipe, but remember - they are not easy to save. However, they are sooooo good with fried eggs the next morning, so it's your choice!

Getting the hang of rolling out tortillas is a skill in and of itself. They may not all be nice round circles!! But like my tia always said to those of us learning to roll them out: “Your mouth doesn’t know if they’re round!” :-)

Troubleshooting: If you are having trouble rolling these out, use a tortilla press that is lined with parchment paper or saran wrap (not a big fan of this product but use it if you need to).

Recipe Notes:

• Level: Easy to Intermediate

• Yields: About a 6 inch stack of tortillas, 6-8 inches in diameter.

• This recipe is courtesy of Andrea Montoya.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Gluten-Free Flour

  • I love the nut-free brand called Namaste, as it just works the best for me.

• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Baking Powder

  • If you triple the recipe, just double the baking powder.

• Up to a teaspoon of salt

  • Note how much you use, and next time use more or less to your liking.

• 1/3 cup Warm Tap Water

  • May be filtered - but must be slightly warm at 101 degrees F; which is warm to the fingertip touch.

  • No need to actually measure the water temperature, unless now that you’ve read it, you are like me and will check it. Maybe I shouldn’t have included the actual temp but you’re stuck now, LOL!!

• 1/3 cup Vegetarian Oil

  • Canola oil works best. Olive oil is not okay, as it turns your tortillas green and burns at a lower temp - which is kind of the same for Avocado oil, but Avocado oil is better than Olive oil.

Directions:

1) Put your iron skillet on a low heat before you start. The tortillas MUST be prepared in an iron skillet or griddle. Stainless steel or other metals won’t work.

2) Pour the gluten-free flower into a nice, large, deep bowl, then add the baking powder directly into the flour. Next, add the salt directly to the flour and baking soda, and mix together with your hand.

(Note: This next step is kind of unusual for making tortillas, but since I don’t use lard, you have to find a way for the oil to get into the GF flour.)

3) Measure out the warm tap water, then add the vegetarian oil directly into the warm water. Like immediately. (Don’t let the warm water cool while you answer texts or unload the dishes. The water needs to be warm!)

4) Make a little shallow hollow in the center of your flour and pour the oil and water mixture directly into it. Use your hand to mix it into the flour. You want the oil to get absorbed into the flour and that’s hard with GF flour. It will get gooey and sticky and your goal is to form a large, doughy ball (like pizza dough). You may need to add a bit more water. It should be warm and only add a couple of tablespoons at a time, if you over add water, add more flour. Just keep working at it until you have a nice ball of dough.

5) Rolling out tortillas is best done on a wooden or other smooth service. Not on tiles. (Note: WATCH THIS one minute video on rolling tortillas) To roll your tortillas, do as instructed in the video, but GF tortillas tend to get sticky - so you will have to spread GF flour on your rolling board and keep the rolling pin a bit floured too. If this process is making you cry, use a tortilla press that has saran wrap over both press-plates. No shame in this, I promise!

6) Knock any extra flour off your tortilla then cook the tortillas on a medium high heat on your iron skillet.  DO NOT USE OIL! Once bubbles start to rise, it is time to turn the tortilla. You may need to use a towel to wipe the extra flour ‘dust’ that can accumulate in the skillet because it starts to burn. Be CAREFUL!! It’s really hot.

7) Stack them up under a cotton dish towel. Eat with ghee or butter because you won’t be able to wait for the beans and red chile.

ENJOY FRIENDS!!!

Photo credit: Gluten-Free on a Shoe String