Whole Wheat Tortillas

Haven't you all wanted to just make yourself a dang quesa-dilla? Me too, Napoleon, me too :) The best quesadillas (and tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and wraps) come from homemade tortillas. They are so unbelievably delicious you won't even be able to stand it! They can be a little time consuming to make but there are tricks to help cut down your overall dinner prep time. Let's go start some magic.


Ok, I think the most important thing to point out with homemade tortillas is the ingredients needed... water, flour, oil, and salt. Yup that's it, 4 things! Yet for some reason store bought whole wheat tortillas have around 25 ingredients... I'm not sure what monocalcium phosphates are but it sure doesn't sound like food to me.

 So lets embrace the warm fluffy delicious tortillas that are real food.

Start by combining 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup oil, and 1 teaspoon salt (if you want to get really crazy and add flavor to your tortillas use garlic salt) in a mixer with the dough hook. If you don't own a stand mixer; a hand mixer with a dough hook or a food processor with a dough hook works too. If you don't have any of these items it can be done by hand, it will just require a little more work (although I'm pretty sure that will qualify as your aerobic exercise for the day Bonus!)

Once you combine the ingredients turn the mixer on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula as it mixes to get it all blended. Once the dough turns nice and crumbly gradually add 1 cup of warm water (the warm part is very important!) 

Keep mixing for another 3 minutes or so until it becomes a smooth ball. Take it out and place on a clean dry surface. If it seems sticky you can always dust the surface with a little bit of flour.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces, roll into small balls and then slightly flatten. Cover them with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 15 minutes. This is a good time to prepare other parts of dinner; chop tomatoes, grate cheese, dice avocado... or enjoy a glass a wine while you check out Pinterest :) 

Once the tortillas have sat it's time to roll them out into about a 10 inch circle (to be completely honest I don't think I've ever made a perfect circle tortilla but that's ok!) and place one in a hot skillet. To check if the skillet is hot enough flick some water on it; if it is hot enough the water will dance and evaporate. You can add a little bit of oil to the pan to cook the tortillas in but if you have a good nonstick skillet I don't really find it necessary.

Once the tortilla begins to bubble up (about 30-45 seconds) flip it over. If the skillet is not hot enough the tortilla will cook slowly and end up being too hard and crunchy instead of soft. If you get very quick at rolling out the tortillas you can roll the next one out while the first one cooks BE CAREFUL with doing this though! Yes it saves time but the tortillas can burn quite quickly. You could also brown the meat while cooking the tortillas but I hate doing dishes with a passion so I would rather take a little bit longer preparing dinner and use the same skillet for tortillas and the meat than have to wash another pan.

Once you flip it to the other side, it should take another 30 seconds to cook. You can keep them in a tortilla warmer as you cook the rest or on a plate in a preheated oven. Otherwise you can enjoy them at room temperature or just reheat them for a couple of seconds in the microwave before serving. Also, you can put in a little extra time and do a double or even a triple batch. They can be frozen and then you have a good supply of homemade tortillas on hand... like for late night quesadilla cravings.

Cost Break Down!

I bought a 5 lb. bag of whole wheat flour for $2.99 which equals out to $0.56 a cup; 2 1/2 cups of flour costs $1.40. I got a 32 ounce bottle of oil for $3.49 which is about $0.11 an oz. 1/2 cup of oil is 4 oz so the oil costs $0.44. I didn't calculate the cost for water or salt because I'm pretty sure a teaspoon of salt is less than a penny. To make 12 whole wheat tortillas costs $1.84 which equals out to $0.15 a tortilla

A package of 10 whole wheat tortillas at the store costs $1.90, which equals $0.19 a tortilla. Homemade tortillas are similar in price to store bought ones (although the homemade ones are slightly cheaper) but lets also refer back to the ingredient list. The homemade tortillas have no additives, no preservatives, and nothing in them that I can't pronounce - and that makes me smile :)

Whole Wheat Tortillas

 Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

2 1/2 cups wholes wheat flour

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water