How to Make Homemade Flour Tortillas: Griddle Temps and More

Handmade, fresh tortillas are exponentially better than store-bought tortillas. An off-the-shelf tortilla is barely edible until you warm it up, and even then it’s nothing to write home about. But a freshly made tortilla? That’s another matter altogether. A fresh tortilla needs nothing else to be a decent snack, and a pile of them, warm and steaming, is the harbinger of a fine dinner indeed. In this post, we’ll talk about the thermal principles behind homemade flour tortillas and how you can make them—better—at home.

Background on flour tortillas

The ancient, original tortilla of Mexico is made of maize–corn. The process of nixtamalization and grinding that creates the masa for tortillas goes back to time immemorial. The flour tortilla, made of wheat, however, is a much more recent addition to the Mexican kitchen. Wheat flour arrived with the Spanish Conquistadors and was adopted primarily in northern Mexico, never really catching on in the southern areas for tortilla making.

In fact, it is quite likely that flour tortillas themselves were brought over by the Spanish, where they continued in the same culinary niche as their corn-based predecessors. It is probable that the association of form and use between the native maize creation and the imported imperial tortilla is the reason why all tortillas are called “tortillas” and are not generally known by their older native names.

But to say that this makes flour tortillas inauthentically Mexican would be a farce. They have been part of the food culture of Mexico longer than the tomato has been part of Italian food culture, but no one would call a Margherita pizza “inauthentic.”

Perhaps the most interesting parallel for the flour tortilla, though, arises in India, where whole-wheat chapatis and rotis occupy the same culinary space. But that’s a whole other non-temperature-related blog post/book, so we’ll leave it at that for now.

Key temps for flour tortillas

Ask a dozen tortilla makers how they do it and you’ll get just as many answers. The recipe we went with, from Serious Eats, calls for hot milk (you can use water instead). Cold milk or water would stiffen the fat in the dough, making it more difficult to work with. Temp your milk (or water) with your Thermapen ONE to make sure it gets up to 125°F (52°C) before you add it to the dough.

Once the dough is made, portioned, rested, and rolled out (see below for more on that), you need to cook your tortillas. If you have a comal, great, but if not, a cast iron or black steel pan will work great. Heat the pan over medium-low to medium heat until the temperature reaches at least 450°F (232°C). An infrared thermometer like our Industrial IR with Circle Laser is perfect for this operation.

Why so hot? The object in cooking the tortillas at such high heat is steam creation. The lightest, best tortillas puff when cooked (much like pita does), with steam pushing the top and bottom of the tortilla apart. If you try to cook it at a lower temperature, you may get beautiful spots of browning, but your tortilla will feel heavy and dense, not light and flaky/airy. Following guidelines like “water sizzles on the pan” or “water beads and runs on the surface” just isn’t as precise and can’t, for instance, tell you if your pan is far too hot. A good thermometer is essential for someone who is learning this for the first time, and not from a family member who has done it their whole lives.

A note on rolling and shaping flour tortillas

Corn tortillas are almost always made on a tortilla press, but flour tortillas seldom are. You’re going to be rolling these out by hand. We like a straight, plain pin with no taper and no handles for this, but you can use whatever rolling pin you like. When you portion the dough, roll each portion into a ball with a cupped palm on the countertop. The rounder your dough starts, the rounder your tortillas will be. Portion them, then let them rest for 10 minutes under a cloth to relax the gluten. Then flatten one piece with your palm and roll it once with the pin. Turn it 45°, then roll again, then another 45° turn, etc. until your tortilla is very thin and (hopefully) very round. Set it aside with a square of parchment on top, then roll out the next one, adding it to the stack with another piece of paper. Make them all, then get cooking.

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Make these. Homemade tortillas are far easier than they seem like they should be and they are far, far better than what you get at the regular grocery store. These are a part of the enjoyment of the meal, not just a way to get the meat and beans to your mouth. And with these temperature tips, you can take much of the guesswork out of the learning process. After you eat these tortillas, you’ll never want to go back to mass-produced again—and maybe you never will! Happy cooking!

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