Sourdough Tortillas
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My family LOVES tortillas! I make them all the time. They are easy to whip up and great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
These sourdough tortillas are excellent for egg breakfast tacos, fish tacos, or fajitas! If you don’t eat them all, you can pop them in the fridge and reheat them the next day for an easy taco breakfast.
Make burrito style large tortillas by only cutting the dough into sections of 4 instead of 8.
If you want to make them ahead, you can freeze the rolled tortillas in between pieces of parchment paper and keep in a ziploc bag. Once you are ready to cook, let them defrost for about 15 minutes on the counter before heating.
Cold Proof
Optionally, you can let the dough rise on the counter for at least an hour and then transfer to fridge for a cold proof. This is great to make the dough ahead of time for breakfast prep or if you are trying to use leftover sourdough starter, but don’t want tortillas right away.
I also do this when I am making tortillas and then decide I only want half the recipe for dinner. Just cover the bowl or put in a plastic bag and pop them in the fridge for later.
They can be left in the fridge for about 48 hours, after that point the integritiy of the tortillas starts to decline.
Fat Choice
Beef tallow is my favorite fat to use, but if you don’t have this on hand then olive oil is a great alternative. Traditionally, tortillas are made with lard, which you can swap in for the fat as well. Since beef tallow is equally fatty and delicious, I always use this first.
Cooking
A cast-iron skillet is your best choice for cooking. If you have a lot of smoke and burnt tortillas, your heat is too high. You should see puffing and bubbles in about 20-30 seconds. The second side of the tortilla will cook much faster. Tortillas are normally cooked on a non-greased skillet, but you can add fat if desired. Make sure that your burner is set lower and use a cooking fat with a high smoke point, so stay away from olive oil.
What are the timings?
- 8:00 am: feed starter
- 12:00 pm: mix dough
- 3:00 pm: divide and roll
- 3:15 pm: cook
Step by Step Instructions
1. Feed your starter
I recommend a 100% hydration starter for this receipe. This means equal parts water, flour, and beginning starter, a 1:1:1 ratio. I feed mine 10g rye, 70g all-purpose, 80g water, 80g starter.
2. Make dough
Measure 130g water, 152g starter, and 3 tbsp fat of choice. Stir until mix turns cloudy in color. Add 330g all-purpose flour and 10g salt and mix with hands until flour is fully incorporated and dough is slighty sticky to the touch.
Feed leftover starter and place in fridge or on counter for future use.
3. Cover dough
Cover dough with a damp towel and let sit for 1 - 6 hours. Tortillas are traditionally unleavened so you don’t need to go very long. It depends on if you want the extra fermentation or if you are just trying to use up your extra sourdough starter.
4. Divide dough
Clean countertop and work dough with hands into a rough ball. Place on counter and divide into 8 pieces with a bench knife. Begin by first cutting in half, then cutting perpendicular to your previous cut making a cross. You will have 4 pieces. Cut each piece in half to make 8 equal sections. If you want to make burritos leave at 4 large sections and begin rolling.
5. Roll tortillas
Preheat cast-iron skillet to medium heat. Using a rolling pin, roll each section into a flat, circular shape. You do not need to flour or grease your counter or rolling pin, the fat in the dough is enough to prevent the tortilla from sticking. Your shape does not need to be perfectly circular, homemade means unique! You can roll all the tortillas at once or roll one at a time before cooking. I generally roll two, begin cooking and while waiting for the tortilla to cook roll another.
6. Cook
Once pan is hot, place tortilla on ungreased skillet. At 20-30 seconds you should see bubbling. Flip the tortilla using a spatula and cook for about 20 more seconds. If you prefer a greased skillet, turn down burner and cook for about 1 minute each side. Avoid burnt blisters and a lot of smoke by turning down your pan. You may also have residual oil in the pan from previous cooking that needs to be wiped away. Repeat cooking the remaining tortillas and eat hot. I like to store them between two plates or a caserole style dish with lid to keep warm.
- 8 tortillas
- 1 - 3 hours
- 8 minutes
Ingredients
Starter (Leaven)
- 10 g rye flour
- 70 g all-purpose flour
- 80 g starter
- 80 g filtered water
Dough
- 330 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 130 g filtered water
- 152 g bubbly starter
- 10 g salt
- 3 tbsp olive oil or beef tallow
Tools
- Scale
- Glass jar with lid
- Mixing bowl
- Bench knife, plastic scraper
- Rolling Pin
- Cast-iron Pan
Directions
Starter
- Feed starter. Mix 10g rye flour, 80g all-purpose flour, 80g starter, 80g filtered water.
Tortilla Dough
- Make dough. Measure and mix water, starter, and fat of choice in a mixing bowl until fully combined. Measure flour and salt and add to wet mixture. Work with hands until flour is incorporated in dough and slightly sticky.
- Cover dough. Cover dough with lid or damp towel and let sit for 1 - 6 hours.
- Divide. Shape dough into a rough circle with hands. Divide dough using bench scraper into 8 equal pie sections.
- Shape. Using a rolling pin, roll each section into a flat circular tortilla shape.
- Heat Pan. Heat cast-iron pan on medium heat. You can add butter or beef tallow for cooking, but it isn’t required and doesn’t work as well in my opinion. If you do, reduce heat of pan and cook a little longer to avoid smoking.
- Cook. Once pan is hot, place tortilla on pan and cook for about 30 seconds each side until brown and bubbles form. Repeat with remaining 7 tortillas.
More delicious sourdough recipes
This is one of the many fantastic sourdough recipes available on this blog