Fresh Homemade Sourdough Tortillas with Fresh Milled Flour

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These Fresh Homemade Sourdough Tortillas with Fresh Milled Flour are so much better than anything you can buy in the store. I love how soft and chewy they are and the flavor is unmatched. Fresh homemade sourdough tortillas are easy to make and don’t require much time! So simple that anyone can make homemade sourdough tortillas.

Homemade Sourdough Tortillas with Fresh Milled Flour

These homemade sourdough tortillas crafted with freshly milled flour offer a delightfully fresh and flavorful treat. Those who have yet to indulge in the pleasure of freshly made tortillas are truly missing out. The incorporation of freshly milled flour not only enhances the flavor but also provides a rich source of nutrients, making this combination truly exceptional.

I have a lot of food allergies that prevent me from eating most store-bought tortillas. I never knew how easy it was to make tortillas at home until the last few years.

These homemade tortillas have become a staple in our home and I love that the recipe is so versatile that they can be made into thin tortillas or thicker rounds for flat breads!

Why Homemade Tortillas Are Better

These tortillas are DELICIOUS. They taste so fresh and are soft and chewy.

By making them at home with just a handful of healthy and simple ingredients, we can turn tortillas into a healthy food.

Store-bought tortillas can have harmful ingredients like modified corn products, seed oils and yucky preservatives. No bueno.

These homemade tortillas even have the added benefits of fermented grains with the sourdough component. Sourdough tortillas have an extra health benefit and a really beautiful depth of flavor.

How To Make Sourdough Tortillas with Fresh Milled Flour

You are going to be amazed at how simple these homemade sourdough tortillas are to make! Just a few simple ingredients and less than an hour and you will be enjoying these homemade tortillas!

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups fresh milled hard white wheat, finely milled.
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1/3 cup water + 1 tablespoon
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter

Directions

• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Cut in the butter using a fork or your hands until it is well incorporated. 
•  Next, add in the water and sourdough starter and mix until a shaggy dough forms. 
•  Flour a countertop and turn out the dough onto the floured surface. Knead with hands for a few minutes until the dough is smooth and not sticking 
•  Cover the dough and allow it to rest at room temp. for 30 minutes to an hour.
•  Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll into balls. 
•  Using a tortilla press or a floured surface and rolling pin, roll the dough as thinly as possible. Until they are almost see-through. We like thicker tortillas, but this recipe works great with ultra thin tortillas too.
•  Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. 
•  Cook each tortilla for several minutes on each side. 
•  Serve immediately or cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days. 

What is the best way to store fresh tortillas?

With homemade tortillas, it’s important to store them at a steady room temperature. Because room temperature will vary from home to home, I recommend refrigeration as a fool proof method to help maintain proper freshness. Just keep in mind that you will need to bring the tortillas back to room temperature before you use them in a recipe.

Lard vs. Butter

Although traditionally Mexican tortillas are made with lard, these tortillas are just as delicious using butter in place. Both are equally good at room temperature and will bind strongly to make pliable tortillas that can be rolled and handled easily. 

How to Make Tortillas Last Longer?

The good news is that whole wheat flour tortillas spoilage can take a while, their lifespan extended even further in the refrigerator or freezer if you are not going to use them within the next day. Even better news, the acids produced by bacteria specifically found in sourdough bread will lower the pH balance of the bread, which then prevents the growth of food-borne pathogens.

This means sourdough bread has the potential to stay shelf-stable for even longer than regular tortillas, and more resistant to mold.

 If you’re going to use your tortillas up soon, store them in a zippered plastic bag for 2-3 days on the countertop. If you plan to use them for a recipe in the near future, homemade tortillas can be stored in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. When properly stored in the freezer, in between layers of parchment paper and in a freezer bag, homemade tortillas can last 6-8 months.

The Best Ways to Warm Up Homemade Tortillas

Heating up your whole grain tortillas before serving makes them more delicious and savory, so be sure not to skip this step!

OVEN:

 If you have the extra time, this is the preferred method for warming up sourdough tortillas because of the slow control and cooking time. It’s perfect if you have a large group of friends and family over and need to heat your tortillas in bulk. Preheat your oven to 300°F. Now you want to wrap your tortillas in aluminum foil and place them in the oven center rack for 10-15 minutes, or until fully heated through.

STOVETOP:

 Place the tortillas in a dry (no oil) skillet over medium heat and heat each tortillas for 20-30 seconds on each side. Stack each tortilla in an aluminum foil wrap once they’ve been heated through, and serve immediately. You can also do away with the skillet and char the tortillas directly over a gas flame for a few seconds. This task may sound daunting to many, but it’s quite easy and takes only seconds. Practice caution with this method and use tongs!

MICROWAVE: 

This is our fastest method, of course, but you are more at risk for a gummier, more dry tortilla, so watch the timer and pay close attention. Place about 3-4 tortillas at a time on a microwave-safe plate and cover with a lightly damp paper towel. Microwave for 25 seconds at a time, then set aside until ready to serve. Do not microwave for more than 30 seconds at a time or the tortillas will harden up very quickly.

How you decide to heat and warm your tortillas will have a direct impact on how they will hold and taste when used in your recipes! Keep them warm before serving. The best way to do this is by wrapping them in a damp towel and setting them on a large serving dish until it’s time to eat.  

Why Make Your Own Tortillas?

Homemade whole wheat tortillas are extra soft, doughy, and chewy. They are extremely easy and only take five ingredients. Not only are homemade tortillas tastier, healthier, and much better than store-bought tortillas, they are so much cheaper and so simple to make. Making them at home allows you total control over what ingredients you’re consuming, so that means no binders, no overly refined seed oils, or other unknown additives.

How To Use a Tortilla Press

This specialty equipment is not necessary, and I find a rolling pin to be almost as useful, but it can be a helpful tool in the kitchen to flatten tortillas evenly and speed up the process. If this is your first time using this handy machine, proceed to these next easy steps.

Once you have rolled the dough into 12 equal balls, line your tortilla press with 2 pieces of parchment paper. Do not skip this step! Your dough will stick to the tortilla press and be impossible to scrape off.

Place your dough ball slightly off-center, close to the hinge, as the dough will spread once it has been pressed.

Close the top plate. The weight from the top of the press will help you, so don’t exert too much force.
Press once, and flip the tortilla with a 180 turn, and press once again. We want the dough thin, until it is almost see-through. 

Ingredients Breakdown

Flour – We’re using freshly milled hard white wheat flour for our tortilla dough. Hard white wheat is a whole grain just like traditional whole wheat, but it has a lighter color and much more mild flavor.

Butter – Lard is the traditional ingredient in tortilla recipes, but I decided to use butter because I personally like the taste better and feel it complements the sourdough flavor. It gives the finished tortillas this rich flavor and super soft texture. I’ve not personally used coconut oil as a substitute, but it’s a common substitute. If you try it out, let me know your results!

Salt – Any salt will do. The salt itself is critical in bringing out the flavors and textural properties of the tortilla, so don’t skip this step. It also helps strengthen the gluten bonding, increasing the roll-ability and robustness of the dough.

Water – I use plain filtered water. Water will help us in the making of these tortillas by gelatinizing the starches in the flour and trapping the water in the dough.

Sourdough Starter – Using a sourdough starter has so many benefits to the nutrition and taste of your dough. The healthy bacteria gives it a unique, sour flavor and aids in the digestion of gluten. It even makes a lighter texture as well.

What is the Healthiest Type of Tortilla?

When it comes to nutrition, any recipe using freshly milled flour will blow store-bought out of the water. This is the advantage of recipes made with whole grains, the flour is alive with its enzymes, nutrients, and fiber.

The fiber in these grains provide structure and texture, the bran and germ add flavor and even the teeniest bit of sweetness. As with any version of tortillas you buy, there’s a big difference between handmade and large mass-produced tortillas. Regardless of whether they are wheat tortillas or corn tortillas.

In general, store-bought tortillas will contain extra preservatives, which are not present in freshly milled tortillas. Making your own will always be the healthiest option.

What are the benefits of sourdough?

Sourdough is making a big comeback in our kitchens, and it’s no surprise why. It’s not just about the unique tangy flavor, but for many of us our renewed interest in sourdough breads is health-related. The interest in sourdough breads exploded during the pandemic, though it is anything but just a trend and it is certainly not new. Sourdough goes way back as an ancient and old fashioned baking method, dating as far back as ancient Egyptian times. With sourdough prices soaring in an 11% increase, it looks like the interest in sourdough isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

DIGESTIBILITY:

Sourdough breads are thought to be more easily digestible by most people, with a greater bio-availability of nutrients. The lower gluten content is also well-tolerated by those who have some sensitivities to commercial yeast, sugars, and other additives found in common grocery store breads.

PREBIOTIC:

Some studies suggest that sourdough acts as a prebiotic, which means the fiber in sourdough bread helps feed the good bacteria in our bodies. These good bacterias are incredibly important to our health by helping us maintain a level and healthy digestive system. The heat process will kill off some of the prebiotics during baking, however, the prebiotics that survive will act as food for probiotics and they will support the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut.

YEAST:

The healthy community of wild yeasts and bacteria found in a sourdough starter are actually completely naturally occuring in the environment. The yeast and bacteria comes from the flour and water that was used to make the starter, the kitchen it was made in, and from the air in the room. Since everyone lives in a different microbial environment, every recipe using a sourdough starter will come out unique to the environment it was grown in.

VITAMINS: 

Let’s look at the vitamins found in sourdough. Sourdough breads provide vitamins and minerals, including vitamin B, iron and calcium, and is a wonderful source of antioxidants, and, as we mentioned, prebiotics.

LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX: 

Sourdough has a lower glycemic index when compared to commercially made breads. Foods with a lower glycemic index will raise your blood sugar in a much slower, steadier way. This means you won’t have those terrible symptoms from a sudden blood sugar spike, such as thirst, blurred vision, and headaches, to name a few. Sourdough takes longer, but is easier, to digest.

Although all types of sourdough bread are known to be relatively healthy, the absolute healthiest type of bread, sourdough or otherwise, uses whole wheat.
Tortillas made using freshly filled flour contains the entirety of the grain berry, which will bring along all of the nutrients, vitamins, fats, fiber, and more. All of the nutrients that were stripped away from all purpose flour.

What Goes Well With Sourdough Tortillas?

So you’ve made your own delicious sourdough tortillas, now what?

This healthy breakfast quesadilla recipe is the perfect way to start your mornings, balancing a nutrient packed ingredients list with eggs, zucchini and spinach, without sacrificing flavor. If you’re looking to start your mornings off right with vitamins, fiber, protein, and iron, this is the recipe for you!

If you’re interested in a tasty dip for the above quesadilla breakfast recipe, you can whip up a healthy and creamy avocado dip in just 2 minutes:
Combine 1 avocado and 1/4th cup of plain Greek yogurt with lime juice, garlic powder, and salt to taste. That’s it! Mash with a fork.

For lunch/dinner, this healthy oven baked chicken tortillas recipe would pair well with the flavors of these sourdough tortillas. The recipe calls for a substitute of your own soft tacos, so opt out store-bought tacos for your fresh homemade sourdough tortillas!

Tortillas may not be the first thing you think of when you think dessert, but it’s a thing! Check out this healthy cinnamon sugar tortilla chip recipe. This recipe is easy, with only 3 ingredients, customizable, and the perfect dessert when you’re craving something sweet but light.