Whole Wheat Tortillas
Whole Wheat Tortillas
Makes 24 large or 32 small tortillas
I have tried several whole wheat tortillas recipes. I never found a recipe that resulted in soft, fluffy tortillas until I made up my own. In my opinion, homemade tortillas need a good bit of oil to be fluffy and soft. So here is my recipe for whole wheat tortillas, which does not skimp on the oil.
- 6 cups whole wheat flour (preferably freshly ground)
- 2 cups cold filtered water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- extra virgin olive oil or olive oil spray for frying
In bowl of mixer, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Turn mixer on dough setting and add oil. Add water gradually until mixture cleans sides of bowl and forms ball in center of bowl. Let the machine knead the dough for 2 minutes. Remove dough. Divide into 32 parts for small tortillas or 24 parts for large tortillas. Roll each part into a ball and spread on a cookie sheet. Spray with oil and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rest 1 hour.
Heat a flat cast iron frying pan over medium heat and add a small amount of oil. Oil a clean, flat work surface, such as a countertop. With an oiled rolling pin, roll out one ball of dough into a circle that is approximately 1/8" thick, or your desired thickness. Place rolled out tortilla in the pan. Let it cook for about 25 seconds or until there are several bubbles in the dough. Flip the tortilla with a spatula and cook the other side for another 15 to 25 seconds, or until the bubbles are browned*. Remove tortilla from pan and place between towels to stay warm and moist. Meanwhile, roll out the next tortilla. Repeat until all of the balls have been rolled out and cooked. Add oil to pan and/or rolling pin as needed. Store in a zipper seal freezer bag in refrigerator or freezer.
*Adjust heat or cooking times to account for your stove, pan, or thickness of tortilla.
© 2006 by Wardeh Harmon
I’m happy to have this recipe! I’ve made homemade tortillas many times, but not with whole wheat. Something new to try! Are you enjoying the heat wave? :o)
Flora
Hi, Flora! Yes, this warmth we’re enjoying is wonderful!
I hope you like this recipe. I just went back and edited it because I realized I hadn’t put the right amount of oil. It should be 1/2 cup of olive oil.
Love, Wardeh
Looks delicious and not too hard… I’d like to give it a try.
Dear Wardeh,
Good evening!
I have never made my own tortillas, but you have inspired me to do so. You have been a blessing to me, putting up a recipe here and there. It works out so well because I know they are going to be healthy! Thank you.
Have a good evening. Love, Robin
Robin and Sylvia, I hope you will give it a try and let me know how it goes. I would appreciate the feed back
Robin, I try as hard as I can to make everything healthy. I am happy you’re willing to try my recipes. You’re a blessing to me!
Love, Wardeh
Thanks, Wardeh! for experimenting. I was googling for whole wheat tortillas. This is exactly what I was looking for. I was not sure if I could use olive oil and wanted to find out if some else had tried. If not, I was going for the challenge myself. I am off to try it.
I hope they turn out for you Cindy!
hi wadeh,
i don’t have a big family so it just the two of us. can you make this recipe smaller, idon’t want to make all this tortilla if it doesn’t work out
thanks
Hi, Fennie.
You could easily quarter or halve this recipe.
For quarter, use:
* 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour (preferably freshly ground)
* 1/2 cup cold filtered water
* heaping 1/4 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder
* heaping 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
* 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
* extra virgin olive oil or olive oil spray for frying
For half, use:
* 3 cups whole wheat flour (preferably freshly ground)
* 1 cup cold filtered water
* 3/4 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
* 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
* extra virgin olive oil or olive oil spray for frying
You might have to mix it in a bowl, though, since the dough hook may not be able to knead such a small quantity.
Hope this helps!
Once I make these tortillas, what if in the next two days I want to give some to my friends, short of just hot of the grill, how does one keep the tortillas from getting dry and hard? Will the olive oil prevent them from getting dry in a day or two? Thank you Lillian
Hi, Lillian.
What I do is transfer the hot tortillas right to a plate lined with a towel and then I layer a towel on top. As they cool, they condense on themselves which keeps them moist. Then to reheat, warm them in a 250 or 300 degree oven, completely wrapped in foil, until just warm. They will still be soft. I serve three or four day old tortillas this way and they are still soft.
If you know you aren’t going to use them for a few days, though, why not freeze them after they’ve cooled a bit and take them out the morning of or the night before using and then warm them in the oven (completely wrapped in foil)? They’ll be just like fresh. Hope this helps!
I believe the olive oil does keep them moist, too. That’s one reason why I use more than most people in my tortillas.
I’m out of the country right now and don’t want to buy baking powder (or soda). Do substitutes exist? I have eggs… And what will happen if I leave it out?
Hi, Cheryl. I was out all day yesterday so I hope I’m not too late to answer your question. I don’t know of any other substitutions than those using baking soda, cream of tartar and /or cornstarch. What I would do in your situation, is just leave the baking powder out. I think it gives the tortillas a little lift, but they’re not dependent on rising up like a cake would be. I think they probably would be fine without baking powder. But I’ve never gone without, so I don’t know for sure. If it works, would you let me know?
Here’s a link to a sub made with baking soda, cream of tartar and corn starch. http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1630,148185-255196,00.html
Just in case.
Love, Wardeh
I made your tortillas for a friend, and he thought they were the best whole wheat tortillas he had ever had! My sister thought they were too. Both of them could almost not stop from eatting all 24 that I had made. Thank you for the wonderful recipe. I wrapped them in plastic and they stayed moist for days! Lillian
Thanks for the recipe.
One more modification was made: Instead of 6 cups of whole wheat flour, we substituted half of it with all purpose flour, and therefore also used a little less water, around 1 3/4 cups. We kneaded it by hand which took about 15 minutes until the dough was nice and smooth. The dough was a pleasure to work with.
We were looking for a tortilla recipe without baking powder and tried yours, and it worked out fine. The tortillas puffed up in the pan just like you described and they taste great
Regards, Donald and Anne
Donald & Anne, thanks for sharing your modifications! I’m glad to know that your changes worked and I hope they will be a help to others who read here! Love, Wardeh
I have not tried this recipe but I too was looking for one with Olive oil instead of shortening.
As for homemade tortillas, I find that 20 or so seconds in a microwave will soften them up, they even will have air pockets and billowy after a week old.
Will try this recipe next time, Thanks.
Hope it works for you, Steve! Thanks for sharing your trip about softening up tortillas.
Got around to making the tortillas today.
I made mine with one cup of wheat flour and two cups of white flour and followed the recipe exactly for half as written below.
They came out great! Best so far that my wife has made. We use to live in Mexico and at Soriana they would make fresh tortillas daily. Their tortilla’s would have so many air pockets. These that we made today had many air pockets and would almost inflate like a balloon while cooking.
The olive oil worked great and I am glad to not be using shortening. I think I will keep it with one cup of wheat and two cups of white flour as they taste great.
Steve, thanks for sharing your good news! I’m glad they worked for you. It is good to stay away from shortening, so I’m happy to hear your good report.
Hello! I just found your website and am so thankful that I did. We have already tried this tortilla recipe and LOVED them! Wow! I am so thankful for your website. It is already such a big help for me in my quest to feed my family healthy foods! Blessings to you and your family!
Hi, Shelley! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the tortillas. Please let me know if I can ever be a help to you! Love, Wardeh
I came looking for a decent tortilla recipe (thank you!) but lingered to look at the picture on your masthead. Its quite nice — you must be quite proud of them!
I made these tortillas for the second time today. They are so good! I’d tried to make other whole wheat tortilla recipes before, but they were always brittle. These are so soft. I love your website. Thank you for taking all the time to keep it up.
Thanks for sharing your successes, Erin! I’m so happy to hear you love the tortillas. They are very love-able.
Love, Wardeh
What type of whole wheat flour do you use for different baking? I have been using hard red winter wheat, but I have just ordered some soft wheat (whole grain that I grind in the old vitamix). The hard red winter wheat is very strong tasting for things like pancakes, pizza dough, etc, but fine for bread (according to my family). What do you use?
The soft wheat will work fine for tortillas and muffins and cakes, etc. That soft wheat, when ground, becomes whole wheat pastry flour.
If you’re looking for a lighter tasting whole wheat for breads, pizza dough, I’d recommend hard white wheat, or hard spring wheat (the names are interchangeable). You’ll find it to be lighter, sweeter, fluffier, but still have a good protein content for making good structure. It can also be used for pancakes and muffins and cakes, but it will be heartier, while the pastry wheat (soft wheat) will make more cake-like texture.
Hope this helps!
Love, Wardeh
Do you think this recipe could work with a flour other than wheat? My son is off wheat right now, though he is still having other gluten flours.
Kelly,yes it will! You may have to experiment as to liquid, but these can be made successfully with spelt and kamut, at least (I’ve tried those) and probably with additions of barley and rye also. See my spelt-kamut tortilla recipe. The dough is more fragile but the resulting tortillas are delicious! Love, Wardeh