The Best Soft Sourdough Tortillas Recipe (With Discard)
Learn to make your own homemade sourdough tortillas, and never go back to store-bought! These soft, pliable, delicious tortillas are dangerously addicting, and are perfect for wraps, tacos, and breakfast burritos.
Equipment
- 1 Large Mixing Bowl
- 1 Pastry Cutter optional
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 cast iron skillet or non-stick skillet
- 1 spatula
- 1 metal cooling rack
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 12 tbsp grass-fed butter cold, cubed
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter active or discard
- 1 cup hot water make sure it's hot!
Instructions
The Night Before
- Mix the dry ingredients together (flour and salt)
- Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter or forks, cut in the butter until it is in really small chunks and can mix into the flour. Stir to combine.
- Add the sourdough starter, and mix until just combined.
- Add your hot water slowly, and mix until fully combined. If the dough is too dry and won’t mix together, add a little more water. I like to use my hands to make sure everything is fully incorporated.
- Cover the tortilla dough with plastic wrap, and leave to ferment overnight (about 8-12 hours is fine).
The Next Day
- The next morning, prepare your frying pan and your work surface to make tortillas. Heat a cast iron skillet to medium low, and sprinkle your countertop with flour. You will also want extra flour for your rolling pin, and to sprinkle on the tortillas if they are sticky.
- Depending on how big you want your tortillas to be, start with a small ball of dough. A golf ball size dough ball will give you a medium sized tortilla.
- Press the dough ball into a small circle with your hands, and then gently roll it from the center outwards. Rotate and flip as you go to make the most even shaped circle. Keep adding flour as you go to prevent sticking. I like to make my tortillas as thin as I can, but you can experiment with the thickness that you prefer.
- Once your cast iron pan is hot, add the tortilla to the pan.
- Cook it for about 30 second – 1 minute on the first side, until it starts to bubble up. Flip and repeat on the second side. You want the tortilla to have nice golden brown bubbles and be cooked through. Tortillas do cook fast, so keep an eye on it and feel free to adjust your stove temperature.
- Repeat with the remaining dough until all of the tortillas are cooked.
Cooling & Storage
- Cool the cooked tortillas completely on a metal wire rack, and then store in an airtight container. Tortillas are best enjoyed fresh. If you keep them at room temperature, they will stay fresh for 3-5 days. My preference for leftover tortillas is to freeze them for several months in a ziplock bag. Just make sure they are completely cool before you store them in the freezer so they don’t stick together. They are easy to thaw by pulling a few out and reheating them in a cast iron skillet, or on the counter.
Notes
- If you want to implement a long fermentation for even better digestibility, After the first overnight ferment you can put your dough in the fridge for up to 3 days. Just make sure to bring the dough back to room temperature before you start rolling tortillas, otherwise the butter will be hard and rolling the tortillas will be a challenge. I learned the hard way on this one!
- For best results, make sure you use enough flour when rolling, otherwise the dough will be really sticky and hard to work with.
- You might think that a tortilla press would save you time, but in my experience it doesn’t. Maybe I am doing something wrong, but my tortillas don’t get very thin and they stick to the tortilla press.