Name: Sourdough Tortillas
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 85 min
Ingredients: ½ cup sourdough (or discard); 3 ¼ cups all purpose flour (about 500 g); 1 cup water (96-105°F/36-40°C ); ⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp shortening (or vegetable oil); 1 ½ tsp salt

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These sourdough tortillas are very simple to make and the perfect way to use your sourdough starter or discard.

Use them to serve your favorite Mexican dishes, like stews, fajitas, or make burritos, quesadillas, and tacos for a themed party. And don’t worry if you don’t have sourdough starter or discard because you can still make them, keep reading to know how.

Making sourdough tortillas from scratch is really simple and fun! All you need is some all-purpose flour, shortening (or vegetable oil), water, salt and the “secret” ingredient: Sourdough starter which make these delicious tortillas to jump to the next level.

Using sourdough starter or even sourdough discard adds a very nice and rich flavor to these tortillas. You don’t want to miss this if you have sourdough at home. This recipe is so perfect to add to your sourdough discard recipes aswell.

Flour tortillas from above and a sourdough jar near by.

I am mexican but can you believe I have never, ever, made flour tortillas before? That’s why I am from a small state of Western Mexico on the central Pacific coast and we don’t eat flour tortillas there, but oh boy, we really don’t know what we’re missing.

Flour sourdough tortillas are so different, soft, and rich in flavor. Besides, they’re a lot more easy to make when you’re living overseas because you can find wheat flour almost in every corner of the world, unlike the very specific corn flour that is used to make corn tortillas.

A banner with a sourdough jar and text overlay that says

Flour tortillas are also easier to make because you don’t need any fancy or specific tools like a press or tortillas machine. So, lets see how to do them!

How To Make Sourdough Tortillas

Place flour, salt, sourdough and lard on a medium bowl.

Flour, lard, sourdough and salt into a bowl.

Add half of the water and start mixing with your hands. Then add more water while mixing until all ingredients are combined into a lightly sticky dough.

Transfer dough to a working surface and knead until you’ll have a elastic, non-sticky, and soft dough (about 5 minutes).

Place dough into a bowl, cover with cling film and allow to rest for 30 minutes to give time the gluten to develop.

After resting, divide the dough into 12 equal portions (about 2,5 oz/ 70g each).

Roll each piece into a ball using the palms of your hands. Cover and let it rest for 20 min.

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Using a well-floured rolling pin, roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Use your fingers to adjust the tortilla on the borders and achieve a well round shape (watch the video).

Put the tortilla on the hot skillet and cook until bubbly and golden (around 30s); flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side (around 40s).

Place the cooked tortilla between a napkin cloth to keep them warm; continue rolling and cooking the remaining dough.

Tips & Tricks

The sourdough in this recipe is used mainly for flavor, so those tortillas are a wonderful idea to use your discard.
If you don’t have sourdough no worries, you can also make tortillas without it. Omit the sourdough and adjust the water accordingly.
You can replace the shortening with butter or vegetable oil, the flavor may vary a bit but still they’re delicious.
If it’s your first time making sourdough tortillas, I recommend making them smaller that suggested, so it will be easy for you to manage the dough.
Resting the dough is a very importan step, don’t skip it. You’ll notice the dough is a lot more manageable after resting.

Can you freeze tortillas?

You can of course, but the best tortillas are the ones just made. If you choose to freeze them just make sure they’re complete cool and put them in a ziploc bag. You won’t need to defrost them later, just heat the tortillas directly in a cast iron skillet.

Be aware that thawed sourdough tortillas gets hard/tough very quickly after re-heat them, that’s why I strongly suggest to eat them as soon as they’re out of the skillet.

How To Use

Burritos: Try this recipe for chicken & rice burrito with this tortillas.
Fajitas: Serve with this chicken fajita casserole or this steak fajitas.
Tacos: Replace corn tortillas and make these delicious Tacos Gobernador (shrimp tacos).
Stews: From albóndigas, scrumptious Beef chile rojo or rajas con crema. These soft tortillas are for sure a good pairing!

Watch How To Make This Recipe

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