Finally, finally, finally I got around to developing a recipe for flour tortillas. Thank you for your patience!
This recipe turned out to be more challenging to get right than I anticipated. But, I have gotten so many requests for flour tortillas–from my readers and from my family–that I was determined to figure it out.
I have to admit–I don’t really like the commercially available gluten-free flour tortillas. They tend to be too stiff for me and they don’t really roll around fillings all that well. And they taste kind of funny to me. When I started to work on a recipe for these, I had a few some specific goals. I wanted tortillas that:
1) were soft and fairly easy to roll around a filling
2) tasted like I remember wheat flour tortillas to taste
3) used easy-to-obtain ingredients
Traditionally, flour tortillas are made with lard. Good, quality lard is somewhat challenging for me to get in Seattle, and I didn’t want to render my own, so I knew that if my recipe contained lard, I would never make it. It turns out that butter is excellent for this recipe. It provides a nice taste and the texture is perfect. If you can’t use dairy butter, I would experiment with using lard, shortening, or coconut oil. Don’t use a liquid oil, though–that will create a different texture for the tortillas. Also, I played with the amount of salt in the tortillas until I got it to the level we like. You can add more or less salt depending on your tastes.
If you are a kitchen gadget hound like me, this recipe is a great reason to pull out your (or get a) tortilla press. I got mine at a local Mexican store years and years ago for making my own corn tortillas. It’s one of those single-use pieces of equipment that’s really fun to use. I use my tortilla press for the first shaping–to create a nicely rounded disk. I then transfer the dough to a floured rolling board and roll it out a bit thinner. If you don’t have a tortilla press and you don’t want to get one, you can roll out the dough with a rolling pin. For the rolling process, I use a small Asian rolling pin. This is a handy tool for rolling out small bits of dough. If you don’t have one, you can just use your regular rolling pin. I will say that I use my small rolling pin much more than I would have thought I would. It’s also handy to have a ruler to check the diameter of your tortillas as you roll them. And a small knife is handy for cutting off the ragged edges
Flour Tortillas, Gluten-Free
Yield: about 9- 7 inch/18 cm tortillas
Ingredients
2 cups (290 g) Jeanne’s All Purpose Gluten-Free flour mix
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1 tablespoon pieces
3/4 cup (156 ml) warmish water (about 90 degrees F/ 32 degrees C)
tapioca flour for rolling
In the bowl of a food processor, place the flour, salt, and baking powder. Pulse a few times to mix.
Add the butter pieces. Pulse until the mixture looks like wet sand. If you don’t have a food processor, add the butter pieces via a pastry cutter or by rubbing them into the flour mix with your hands. Add the warm water and turn on processor until a dough ball forms (or mix with a spoon until you can’t mix it anymore and then use your hands to do the final mixing). The dough should be soft and pillowy.
Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. This rest period will help to distribute the water throughout the dough. If you don’t plan on using the dough that day, you can refrigerate the wrapped dough. But will need to bring it to cool room temperature before you roll and make the tortillas. Please note that if the dough is too warm, it will be hard to roll and it will be too floppy to move to the pan. It’s best when it’s on the cooler side of room temperature.
When you are ready to make the tortillas, roll your dough into 9 equal balls of about 1/4 cup/65 grams each. Cover the balls with plastic wrap while you preheat your pan.
The tortillas need to be cooked in a pan that can be heated to a high temperature. I use a well-seasoned cast iron pan for this. Place pan on medium high heat and let preheat well–for about 5 minutes. If you have a tortilla press, now is the time to use it. Dust the press with tapioca flour (top and bottom). In addition, dust rolling surface with tapioca flour.
Place the first dough ball in the middle of the press and firmly press. Open the press. Most likely the disk (which should be about 5 inches/13 cm in diameter) will stick to the upper part of the press (as it does for me).
Carefully remove the dough disk and place it on the floured rolling surface. Sprinkle the surface of the dough disk with tapioca flour. If you don’t have a tortilla press, proceed to the next step.
With a rolling pin give the dough disk (or dough ball if you didn’t use a tortilla press) a roll. Give the disk a quarter turn and roll it again. Repeat this process until you have a disk that is roughly 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter. Don’t roll these any thinner.
If the dough gets too thin it will be almost impossible to transfer from the rolling surface to the pan. If the ragged edges bother you, you can cut them off at this stage with a sharp knife.
With a large turner, carefully transfer the dough disk to the heated pan. It might take you a few tries before you are able to transfer the dough disk without it breaking. If your kitchen is hot, the dough might get too warm and might get floppy and be harder to roll and to transfer. If this happens, put dough into the fridge to cool down and firm up.
Cook for about 60 seconds–until the surface of the tortilla is covered with puffed up bubbles.
Flip and cook on the other side for another 60-ish seconds. Both sides should look like they do in the photo at top–with brown rings where the bubbles have formed.
Flip the tortilla onto a dinner plate hot side up. You will now repeat the process with each dough ball. Flip each successive tortilla hot side up onto the tortilla stack. By the end of the process, you will have 9 tortillas. Cover warm tortillas with a towel to keep warm and serve.
Tortillas are best fresh–they will be pliable and should roll around a filling fairly easily.
Tortillas will be best (and the most pliable) the day they are made. To store, cool completely and then store in an airtight container at room temperature (not in the fridge) for up to 2 days. For longer storage, freeze. To refresh, microwave for a few seconds before use.
Note: If you use a different gluten-free flour mix, alter the amount of or eliminate the xanthan gum or use a different gluten-replacer, use dairy-free or egg-free substitutes, or change any other ingredients in this recipe, your results may not match my results.
This post contains affiliate links–which means that I get a tiny percentage of each purchase you make through the link (at no extra cost to you!). Thank you!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Jeanne Sauvage
Thane
Good Morning,
My wife is gluten-intolerant and I’ve become quite adept at making all sorts of things with Bob’s. I always add a bit of allspice, pumpkin pie spice, or similar to take the funky taste away. We live in Cheyenne (6,000+ feet) & despite a high incidence of gluten intolerance, Bob’s is the only GF flour offered in town.
At any rate, butter is also off the table (for Kathy), so I’m curious what the oil to butter substitution is? One-to-one or other. One caveat, Kathy literally despises coconut, is there a different option?
Thanks for your time and the recipe. I can’t wait to explore more recipes here.
Thane
Jeanne
Thane: I would recommend using shortening or lard for the fat instead of butter. I can’t speak to how Bob’s mix will work with this since I haven’t made it with that flour mix. You can order the flours for my mix online and make it yourself–it is easy to do and cheaper in the long run than buying a pre-made mix. Also, look on my at my Troubleshooting Baking Problems post for a few tips on high-altitude baking.
Francine Brown
Cool Recipe.. I am going to have to give this a shot… Thanks for the recipe.. You Rock!
Jeanne
Francine: Yay! And you’re welcome!
Karen
Tried these tonight. I didn’t care for them but the kiddo loved them! They are for him anyway :D. Ours didn’t bubble when cooking and they tasted dry. We do live at 5000ft. I was thinking maybe more water or milk? To moisten them up a bit. We just started trying out recipes for him, so this kind of food and how it’s supposed to taste/be is all new to us. I can’t wait to try morenod your recipes!
Jeanne
Karen: Hm, I’m not sure. I am at sea level. 5000 ft is really high–are you in Denver? I had high-altitude bakers test my recipes in my second cookbook, Gluten-Free Wish List. You might want to buy a copy or get a copy at the library and see my tips for gf baking at high altitude. Many of the tips are the same ones you would find in high altitude baking books. Let me know how it goes!
Angie
Both my grandmothers and my mother are experts at making flour tortillas, but I’m not. Even using wheat flour, that is more forgiving, I still never made perfect tortillas, but like most things, practice makes perfect (or at least better). This is a great recipe and I figured out how to make it work for me. My daughter has celiac, so we just decided to make the switch to GF for all of us. Just easier and safer that way.
Jeanne is an expert at GF baking and cooking, so her result will always be better than mine. Mine weren’t coming out with the nice bubbles either and they were usually hard shortly after cooking them. What I realized is that, for me, the “fat” used, whether butter, shortening, or refined coconut oil (I’ve made them with each) has to be melted. I think the fat is supposed to melt with the warm water used, but mine didn’t so it wasn’t integrated as well as it should be, so some of my tortillas when I cooked them were awesome, but some became very hard. So here’s my method and it seems to work for me.
First I tweak the flour a little. I use 1 3/4 cup Jeanne’s flour blend and 1/4 cup tapioca flour. Seems to make them a little more flexible (at least for me).
Then, I add the salt and baking powder and mix by hand.
Instead of 5T of “fat,” I use 4T. I add the fat to the hot water (same amount from the recipe) to melt it. By the time it melts, the water is usually just warm. I usually make these with refined coconut oil and it melts really well.
Then, I add the water/fat mix to the flour and combine by hand. I think the amount of mixing also makes a difference in the final result, but difficult to say how long since we all mix with different techniques I’m sure. Then, let the dough ball sit to rest. Then I roll into balls and then roll out the balls with a rolling pin. Sometimes I get a nice round one but mostly they are just odd shaped. Family loves them all the same. Rolling out tortillas is an art form and my grandmothers and mother were the best at it. They made perfect beautiful tortillas every time. Hopefully mine will get there one day.
Thanks for all your recipes Jeanne! You are a blessing to the GF world!
Jeanne
Angie: You’re welcome! And I enjoy seeing the tweaks you made!
Lisabeth
Hi! LOVE all the recipes on your website! I do have a question about cooking these tortillas…can I use a non-stick pan instead of cast iron? I have a cast iron pan, but (to my shame) I have not cooked in it, so it has not been seasoned. I was hoping to make these tortillas today. If I don’t use cast iron, would I need to add oil or butter to the pan to keep them from sticking while cooking? Thanks!!
Jeanne
Lisabeth: I’m so sorry! I took the weekend off for a holiday and am just now getting back to the comments. A non-stick pan should be OK. Try it and see how it goes! Whether or not you use oil will depend on the pan. If you already did it, how did it go?
Heather
What would you do if you had a hot tortilla press? Would you just flour it?
Jeanne
Heather: What’s a hot tortilla press? Does it cook it as well as smoosh it? If it is hot, I would recommend oiling it–see how that works.
Heather
It’s electric and it smashes it and cooks it slightly, so you don’t have to roll it out at all. My tortilla recipe didn’t work. They stuck even with oil and broke into pieces. It was a mess. Just wondering if anyone ever tried gluten free tortillas on an electric press.
Jeanne
Heather: Hm. I’m going to be honest–I suspect that you will have challenges getting any tortilla recipe to work in this press because most tortilla recipes are designed for the dough to be pressed and then cooked, not pressed while cooking. I’m not clear what hack will make this recipe work in an electric press if it already hasn’t. You could try placing parchment paper on either side and see how that works.
o arellano horvath
Jeanne –
Thank you! Finding your website has brought me much sunshine, happiness and a full belly!
First, your ‘Jeanne’s All Purpose Gluten-Free flour mix’ post – I appreciate and love all the attention you gave to why this flour mix works. And that’s why your gluten-free tortilla recipe ROCKS! No kidding, I teared up because the dough even smells just like the gluten-tortilla dough – small detail but I grew up in a tortilla making and eating family. Nothing like a rolled up fresh hot tortilla!
Happy O.
Jeanne
O: I am so glad!! Thanks for letting me know!!
Suzanne Holt
You have opened up a whole new world for me. Gluten free tortillas can also be expensive – especially flour ones. This will be a great recipe to try!
Jeanne
Suzanne: I’m so glad! Happy baking!
Jennifer
these were absolutely delicious. I loved them. Trying to find flat bread ideas for my little girl who is gluten intolerant, like her mama. So delicious!!!! I was skeptical cuz the recipe was so simple and I’ve been disappointed before. What a pleasant surprise. Thank u for sharing.
Jeanne
Jennifer: Oh, I’m so glad! Yay!
Jeanne
Jennifer: Oh, I’m so glad! Also, check out my Pizza post–it is great as a flatbread. And in my new book (out in October) I have Pita and Naan recipes!
Connie
I’ve made these several times now. First time I was in a hurry and didn’t let the dough rest. Mistake on my part as this batch was hard to work with. Now i make the dough ahead of time, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until I am ready to fry them. Last time it was a few days later and the dough was just perfect and everything went smoothly.
I make these small. Divide into 16 balls before pressing. After frying and cooling I freeze them and just pull out a couple as needed. For freezing I cut up small pieces of parchment paper to put between them and then put into a ziploc bag. They stay good for at least a couple of months (That’s the longest I’ve ever had them in there before they were all used.)
I use them for Everything! Hamburger “buns”, sandwiches, small toaster oven pizzas… If they need to be warmed up I pop in the toaster oven for a few minutes. But they’re also fine at room temp if I take out ahead of time.
Because I am the only one in the house who is GF almost every bread product I make GF gets frozen because I don’t use it fast enough. These tortillas hold up really well (as do pancakes) when frozen and reheated in the toaster oven.
Thank you for sharing this receipe!
Jeanne
Connie: Yay!!
Nancy
I am very pleased that I found your web site and cannot wait to try your gluten-free tortillas! I just made the most appalling batch of 5 ingredient spelt tortillas & was feeling a bit discouraged (my husband gifted me with a tortilla press for my birthday). I was SO exited, and now, not so much…but there is hope.
The only reason I went for spelt tortillas is because our favourite store bought products are Rudi’s Spelt tortillas. I refuse to continue to pay $5-6 for 6 tortillas considering we are basically talking about flour & water. In fact, I am fed up with the price gouging that goes along with all things gluten-free. We already make wonderful sweets, (I am blessed to be married to a darling man who loves to cook and does it very well) it’s time to all breads to the mix.
I am impressed with your site. I especially like the explanations, the specificity of your instructions and the obvious care with which you have crafted your web site. I can’t wait to try the butter…genius. Thank You!
Jeanne
Nancy: Yay! Also, you probably know this, but I want to make sure: spelt is a form of wheat and it has gluten. Also–so nice to have a baking husband! And I’m glad you find my site helpful–yay!
Molly
I just made these. They were a hit. Mine weren’t quite as pliable as gluten full tortillas, but I rolled them a little thin. We just used them “sandwich style” like with a quesadilla. Hands down the best recipe and the best GF tortilla I’ve ever had. I get so frustrated when the store bought stuff that costs a fortune tasted like rocks- or worse. These were a big hit. I just need to fine to my process a smidge.
As a side note, when I lived in Costa Rica, my host family always used 2 plates rather than a tortilla press. You get 2 pieces of parchment paper. Cover the bottom plate with 1 piece of parchment and place the dough ball in the center of the bottom plate. Cover it with the second piece of parchment, and smash it down with a second plate using body weight to press it into a disk. Corelle type dishes work great for this purpose and don’t break- so you can let the kids help!
Jeanne
Molly: Yay! I’m so glad! Also, thanks for the alternative pressing idea–that’s great!
augie
Hi,thanks for the recipe. I will be trying it within the next couple of days. I do have a question. Why use tapioca flour for rolling instead of just using the same flour that was used to make the dough. Thank You very much!! Augie
Jeanne
Augie: I recommend tapioca flour because the mix contains xanthan gum–which is sticky. The xanthan gum causes the mix to not act as a good thing to stop sticking.
Jerome
Do you have any bread recipes? I’m not much of a tortilla person, it’s too much work to try and make some. Baking is not my forte… Lol
I do love to cook but having made tortillas in the past it’s been very hard to do. I am currently wheat and gluten free and I do miss my Mom’s homemade flour tortillas but am nervous about making these. So do you have a bread recipe I could try or better yet a book of recipes that are wheat and gluten free?
Thank you and God speed
Jerome
Jeanne
Jerome: Yes! I have many gluten-free bread recipes. Click on the “Gluten-Free Recipes” tab at the top of the page–you will find all of my recipes in alphabetical order. Also, my first book is available for purchase. Click on the “Buy My Book” icon to the left. My second book will be coming out in the Fall (2015). Also, don’t be afraid to try the recipes–most of them aren’t very hard! Happy baking!
Kathryn
Just made these tortillas and I almost cried. They were absolutely perfect. So I bought your book to try every recipe. Thank you so much for recipes that actually taste good. 😉
Jeanne
Kathryn: Yay! You’re welcome
Lourdes
could you please tell me how long they should last if left in the open air
and what to do to keep them soft and flexible for 4 days. Much appreciated
Jeanne
Lourdes: See the end of the post for storage information.
Diana R.
Last year I made your tortilla recipe using the volume measurements and they did not come out very well. Recently I purchased a scale and saw this tortilla on the Top 10 tortilla recipes on GlutenFree Easily and decided to try them again this time measuring everything by weights and the tortillas were delicious and they looked lovely. I used the plastic bag method to roll the tortillas and it worked great. Thanks you so much for posting this. I am so excited to try all your other recipes I am purchasing your book.
Jeanne
Diana: Yay! And thank you!
Michelle B
Is there a way to make this without having to use a food processor? I don’t have one or a blender(believe it or not 🙁 I do have a kitchen aid mixer though!
Jeanne
Michelle: Of course! Instead of using a food processor, you can cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or by rubbing it in with your fingers. I changed the directions to add that. Thank you for asking!
KellyS
I’m confident I made your dough exactly as described–even made your flour blend–except I had to add a tad more water to get the dough to form a soft ball. Let it rest, I used my new tortilla press, carefully rolled them on the counter… Unfortunately, they turned into stodgy, thick ‘floury’ tasting tortillas and they broke when I bent them. After reading all these great posts, I had such great hopes! Sad, sad, sad!
Jeanne
Kelly: I’m sorry it didn’t turn out for you. I’m not sure what to tell you–it works well for me and for other readers.
Someone
Are you in a different altitude?
Rave
I too have the same problem. I did not add extra water, tho. I used an electric tortilla press. Not sure ehat happened.
Jeanne
Rave: I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.
Rainy
Have been putting off making these since I never have had success with a GF tortilla, or at least one that I liked. Made them last night for enchiladas! GREAT! Need to invest in a press someday, but these were easy and very, very good. Making Chex mix (would you believe on GF cereal box they call for wheat Chex) lol substituted extra cereal and sliced up tortilla pretzels out of a leftover tortilla. YUMMY! Thank you!
Jeanne
Rainy: Yay!!
Mindy
This recipe is so amazing. Thank you! I made it just the way it is posted. The only thing I didn’t do was put the flour on my tortilla smasher. If you cut 2 circles (bigger than the smasher) out of a produce bag. Place one on the bottom and place one on top of your ball of dough. Put down your top. Pull down your handle. The dough will not stick to the bag. Less mess.
Jeanne
Mindy: Great idea! Thanks!
Sarah
I made the dough a couple days ago. I used the recommended flour mix but I left out the xanthan gum. I do not like to use gums. Instead I added 1 1/2 tsp of whole psyllium husks. I let the dough rest on the counter for an hour then in the fridge overnight. The dough was easy to handle and cooked up beautifully. Next time I would add less salt.
overall really yummy.
Jeanne
Sarah: Yay! Sounds great!
Corey
Thank you for these delicious tortillas! I have been using a different recipe (not gluten free) for about a year now using cup4cup flour. We thought those were great…up until now! My middle son is celiac and I am gluten intolerant so I have gotten used to making everything from scratch for the most part. I had made this dough and stuck it in the fridge and didn’t have a chance to make them for a couple of days. As I was making them, my kitchen was a bit too warm and they were not so easy to work with. Threw them in the fridge for a while and took each ball out right before rolling it. I let my son try one while still warm and he informed me that these were the best ever! He then asked me if we could have fajitas for dinner, just so we could have the tortillas. …so we did and it was fabulous! He usually complains during dinner and tonight, he said countless times how good dinner was. We have a new tortilla recipe to use from now on, thank you! Love your site and your recipes. We’ve really enjoyed everything we’ve tried so far.
Jeanne
Corey: Aw, I’m so glad! Thanks for letting me know!
Sherbert
Tried this using the bag of gluten free flour I had in the kitchen (I’m in Europe and we’re light years behind on GF stuff: flour was made from maize starch, maize flour, thickener: locust bean gum).
Used this as I was in such a hurry to stuff down some tortillas that I glossed over your special flour mix, thinking it was some kind of brand of flour only to be found in the US. Dough looked fine until I tried to roll it (I’d most likely be taken to the nearest hospital if I walked into a kitchen supplies shop and asked for a tortilla press)… was basically impossible to roll. Managed to get some sort of flat piece of dough into my pan. When cooked, it looked like an omelet and tasted absolutely horrible :(. Will set out on the hunt for the different ingredients in your special flour mix and try again.
On the other hand, I made the flourless peanut butter cookies too (adding in choc chips and a little bit of salt because I love the salty/sweet combo) and they were FANTASTIC. They won’t last long…probably next few hours.
New to GF cooking as husband has quite severe Crohn’s and has been advised to cut out gluten to see if it lessens symptoms. I don’t have a problem with gluten (er I think) but since we started our GF diet two weeks ago I’ve noticed such a huge difference in a) my energy levels and b) my weight that I’m basically never buying regular bread or pasta ever again :). Will certainly be trying the tortilla recipe again as I practically live on wraps.
Jeanne
Sherbert: Yes, let me know how it goes. Also, I think many, many people do better without gluten (or at least without tons of gluten). Even my husband, who is technically fine with gluten, says he feels better without it.
Tammy K.
Thank you! I have been looking long and hard for a good tortilla recipe for my husband. Since having to go gluten free he has missed his breakfast burritos. This recipe is great.
Jeanne
Tammy: Yay!
Courtney
I love breakfast burritos, and have recently experimented with gluten-free cooking to see if it helps my liver enzymes and lowers my blood sugar. I already do notice that my back pain (inflammation) is all but gone after 2 months of eating mostly gluten-free.
I MISS TORTILLAS, and these look GREAT!
I happen to have a bag of Bob’s Redmill all purpose gluten-free flour on hand. Would this work?
Jeanne
Courtney: It will work (you need to add 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum per cup of flour) but they won’t taste that good. The Bob’s GF mix contains bean flour which makes things taste not so great (in my opinion).
Courtney
Thanks so much! I uses the Bob’s in a recipe for slow-cooker chicken and dumplings, and a dessert recipe. I thought (for my palate) that it tasted pretty good! If it is really noticable, I will definitely invest in making your mix. I have no xanthan gum, so I will have to look for that next time I’m out. 🙂
Jeanne
Courtney: Sounds good!
Yvette
Hi! I’m gluten AND corn free (allergic to both). Can you give me an alternative(s) for xanthan gum when using it to make gluten free flour tortillas and the measurments? I was thinking either arrowroot, cream of tartar or guar gum. Thank you!!
Jeanne
Yvette: please read my “Let’s Talk Gluten-Replacers in Gluten-Free Baking” post under the Baking Tips tab. It has information about growing mediums for xanthan gum–not all of them are corn. You will be surprised.
Yvette
Jeanne, thank you for the information and I really appreciate you taking the time to respond! I ordered xanthan gum by Authentic Foods. I haven’t had a flour tortilla in years and can’t wait to try your recipe. The information you provided on xanthan gum was very interesting and helpful. Once I receive my order and make the tortillas, I’ll let you know how they came out.
Yvette
Jeanne
Yvette: yay!
Naomi
Made these tonight (for my celiac daughter in-law) along with regular flour tortillas (for the rest of us) for Fish Tacos. They turned out fabulous. My daughter in-law loved them and they looked so close to the regular tortillas that my son accidentally ate one of her tortillas!
Jeanne
Naomi: Yay! I’m so glad!
Cindy
I tried just a single batch just a few minutes ago. My dough was VERY wet. I poured flour from the bag into my measuring cup – I wonder if I didn’t end up “packing it enough” although I know you are not supposed to “push” flour into the cup. I did add more flour, and another 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (total 1/2 tsp). Still pretty wet. It reminds me very much of one of my last recipes for a non-GF flour tortilla. My butter was straight from the fridge – maybe I should have frozen it a few minutes first? Sure hoping they turn out, as I have plans for them tonight! 🙂
Jeanne
Cindy: Did you follow the directions exactly and use the exact ingredients I ask for? How wet is wet? Was it dripping wet? I would recommend doing it again and making sure that you followed all of the directions exactly. Also, Where do you live? If it is very humid there, I guess the dough could have absorbed a bunch of water from the air, but that in not all that likely unless you are in the tropics. Also, measuring the flour by volume (cups) is fine. Make sure you do the “scoop and sweep” method. Scoop your cup through the flour, tap it on the counter lightly to settle any of the flour that is sticking to the side, and then level it off (sweep) with straight edge. Let me know how it goes.
Cindy
I used Bob’s Red Mill GF all purpose baking flour, because that’s what I had. I did add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum, but the rest of the ingredients were the same as yours. I’ve just started cooking GF in the last week, so I don’t have many ingredients yet, and my local stores don’t carry much. I hope to order some things tomorrow to help out. I followed your directions. You mention the scoop/sweep – no I didn’t do that – I thought I had read that you are supposed to not scoop because it compacts the flour too much (maybe that is just with nonGF flours?) and you end up with a more dense product because you really have too much flour. I live in south central Indiana, so I imagine I just didn’t have enough flour – it was more like pancake batter. However, after putting in the fridge for about 55 min, then on the counter for 5, before using my electric tortilla press – mostly good results. My first tortilla split in half (top and bottom separated), but I think that was because I opened it too soon.
I really like the idea behind your recipes – that you want them to taste like regular wheat recipes, not “healthy GF” recipes. I wish there was a commercial GF AP flour blend in your proportions, as I won’t be doing a LOT of baking – only my husband is GF. I hope to make him sandwich bread for an occasional grilled cheese, and he definitely loves tortillas – if I can get them RIGHT. And pancakes, waffles – mostly just breakfast foods & dinner foods (he takes leftovers for lunch mostly). Anyway, this is starting to ramble…
I’m still thinking it was just that I didn’t have enough flour, by how I measured it out.
I tried another recipe too, and I’ll let him do a taste test after work today. I think he’ll like your recipe better – looks-wise at the very least! Then I’ll try again in another week or two, and hopefully have the right flours to mix, and measure them correctly.
Jeanne
Cindy: I’m not sure what’s going on. The difference in the flour shouldn’t be that radical. Did you let the dough rest before you started rolling the tortillas? I would recommend trying again, and make sure you follow the recipe exactly just to make sure you didn’t accidentally add too little or too much of something.
Cindy
Yes I put it in the fridge for about 55 min, then 5 min on the counter. I do plan to try again when I get more flour. I REALLY appreciate you getting back to me timely.
Jeanne
Cindy: happy baking!
Cindy
Can I double this recipe to make twice as many tortillas, or would I need to make 2 single recipes, one after the other? I know some things don’t double well…
Jeanne
Cindy: I would make 2 batches to make sure everything works well. 🙂
Jodi
Ok…so I am new to homemade gluten free baking…mixes I have been pretty successful with but it is so expensive and I am used to making things from scratch prior to having to go gluten free but I must say…this was an epic fail for me 🙁 I am not sure what happened…but the dough was so sticky and wouldn’t form into a ball…so I just basically cooked it as I could! Lol I am going to try again but I was wondering what I did wrong?? Was my water too warm?? LOVE your website!! We are stationed at JBLM and would love to take one of your classes in Seattle while I can!
Jeanne
Jodi: Hm, I’m not sure what happened. Did you follow the recipe exactly and use the exact ingredients called for? Let me know!
Jodi
So I made such a monumental error, that I did not realize it until I went to make more of your all purpose flour that instead of adding white rice flour, I added potato starch!! Which is why the flour tortillas didn’t work. So the second time around, I made sure I had the right ingredients and I didn’t have the water so warm. Also, I refrigerated my dough overnight like one person said to do on here…they were a huge success!! Thanks so much!! Your website is making me feel more and more confident about getting back into my baking routine!!
Jeanne
Jodi: Ah, got it. Yes, that would not make a good tortilla dough. I’m so glad you figured it out!! Yay!
cheryl
I forgot to say that the dough wouldn’t ball up in the food processor so I added a tiny bit more water and it still wouldn’t turn into a ball. I figured it was because of the substitution I used so I put the mix into a bowl and it easily worked into a ball when I “Kneaded” it with my hands. It was silky smooth and soft. I might actually leave out the food processor and work the dough with my hands next time.
Jeanne
Cheryl: sounds good! I always tell people to do what works for them!
cheryl
I tried this recipe yesterday and it was excellent! My husband was amazed at the pliability of the tortilla. He said, “This is a flour tortilla!” The bummer is I couldn’t find the sweet rice flour so I used one of your substitutions that I found on another one of your posts. I know it had an impact on the flavor and it would have been PERFECT had I had all the correct ingredients. I can’t wait to get the sweet rice flour and do it up right! I have the feeling I’ll be making “flour” tortillas once or twice a week! I just need to get the rolling technique down so they look pretty too. Thank you for taking the time to create these recipes and for sharing them!
Jeanne
Cheryl: yay! I’m so glad you guys like them! And you’re welcome!
Tanya
I love your website. I tried these the other day and they were to brittle to wrap around any filling. Any idea what went wrong?
I had them quiet thin, rolled with a ziplock bag.
I ended up spraying them with oil, sprinkled with garlic salt and slow baked to make tortilla chips they were awesome.
Thanks
Jeanne
Tanya: Hm. When you say “brittle” do you mean that they broke a little bit when you rolled them around a filling or that they were actually brittle and shattered into pieces? Did you follow the recipe exactly? Also, did you use them right away or did you use them the next day or days later? They are the most flexible the day they are made.
Tanya
I think I may have rolled them to thin to start with. They snapped in half when I tried to roll them, withing 15 mins of making them.
Jeanne
Tanya: Ah. Good to know.
Maroonmango
Thank you so much for this recipe. I modified it quite a bit (or rather modified your flour mix with using only brown rice and using 1c or quinoa flour instead of sweet rice) as our family has been whole grain for years and we are accustomed to the extra flavour, they turned out amazing even my hubby who is very cautious about gluten free said they were the best tortillas ever and would like to use them to replace bread completely.
I am on gluten free/ dairy free for now while breastfeeding (and probably after with how well my body has improved as well) and this was the first recipe I have tried. It gives me great hope that I can still enjoy myself in the kitchen and make home made meals for my family!
Jeanne
Maroonmango: Yay! I’m so glad! And yes–you can have fun and cook/bake well even if you are gluten-free/dairy-free! Happy baking!
Nina
I made your flour mix and used it to make half this recipe since it was for only two of us. In my haste to taste the tortillas, I forgot to add salt and baking powder. It was still wonderful. Looking forward to make these again with all ingredients. Thanks for developing easy and fool (me) proof recipes.
Jeanne
Nina: lol! I’m so glad they turned out anyway!
Wendy
I have been searching for just such a recipe. Thank you Jeanne.
Jeanne
Wendy: You’re welcome!
Alison
These tortillas are great! I have found I get the best texture when I let the dough sit in the fridge overnight. They end up more pliable then with just an hour of rest time. The hard part is the wait until the next day. Thanks Jeanne for the great recipe.
Jeanne
Alison: Awesome! I love it! And you’re welcome!
Michelle
These are GREAT! I was so mad at myself last night for not getting around to trying this recipe when I had to watch my husband and daughter enjoying their gluten-filled ones! I made sure to make and freeze extra today, so that will not happen again. I usually use the cut ziploc method for lining my press, but I had the parchment on the counter, so used that instead. I used a biggish piece, put the dough inside and pressed it, then put the parchment on the counter and rolled it that way. I got one of them a little thick, and it reminded me of the naan my favorite Indian restaurant makes. All it needed was a little sauteed garlic. Thanks so much!
Jeanne
Michelle: Oo, I’m so glad! Yay!
Chi @ 106
Oh my! I think I just might explode with happiness!!!
Cannot WAIT to try this. If I can pull it off, it’ll make such a huge difference to my daughter’s lunch box options. Fingers crossed! 😀
Jeanne
Chi: Yay! Let me now how it goes!
Joy
Jeanne, you might try pressing your tortillas inside a cut-off edges ziploc bag. Take a gallon size ziploc and trim off sides and top, leaving the fold at the bottom. Cut it so it’s a little larger than your press area. Then after you press the tortillas the first time, turn the ziploc 1/4 turn, and press again. I do this 4 times with my corn tortillas, and they get nice and thin and peel off beautifully for cooking. I have not tried it with your recipe yet, however. 🙂
Jeanne
Joy: Thank you for the suggestion. Oddly, when I did this, the tortillas didn’t cook the way I wanted them too. Which makes me thing that a bit too much moisture was the problem. But, I will try again to see how it goes! Thanks!
Jeanne Sauvage (@fourchickens)
Hey! Did you all see my #glutenfree Flour Tortillas recipe? http://t.co/rt6Ke3weaO
@LibertyImages
Flour Tortillas, Gluten-Free http://t.co/zjM1L0LjQJ from @fourchickens! Yay!
Linda J.
I saw this recipe today and couldn’t wait to make them!! So I made them today and absolutely love them. I am thinking of making these a little thicker sometimes and baking them for a flat bread. I made some of the tortillas a little thicker and that gave me the idea. I have missed tortillas and flat bread!! Thank you for all the recipes that you post for us all! It is so greatly appreciated!
Jeanne
Linda: Yay! I’m so glad!
Natalie in WI
I am so exciting about this recipe. You are my GO TO web site for all the things my son misses. Our whole family thinks your recipes are the best. Thank you for your hard work and sharing your successes!
Jeanne
Natalie: Aw, yay! I’m so glad to be of help!
Jen
Oh, hurrah! YAY! Thank you, can’t wait to try these! They look so light and soft, too…
@WorthEveryBite
These gluten-free flour tortillas look amazing! Adding to my list to try. http://t.co/XIcyKjbsCz
@JoLynneS
YUM! “@fourchickens: {New} Flour Tortillas, #glutenfree! http://t.co/DIOXpzF1E5. #GFCommunity
Jan
THANK YOU Jeanne!!!!
Jeanne
Jan: You’re welcome! Finally!!
@mindfulpeaceom
Very cool! RT @fourchickens: {New Post} Flour Tortillas, #glutenfree! http://t.co/FgS77nal5l