I’ve been sitting here for ages trying to figure out what to say about these tortillas. If you’ve been gluten free for long, you can understand why I’m speechless. The wonder of it all… To have tortillas that bend without breaking. That are big enough to actually wrap around something; that taste like flour tortillas.
If you’ve ever used gluten free bread as a wrap for a chicken salad sandwich, you’ll definitely want to give these tortillas a try.
And again, if you’ve been gluten free for long I’ve probably already said enough to convince you to try these. They are inspired by a recipe of Bette Hagman’s, but I’ve changed up the flour mix to add nutritional value (gotta love the iron and fiber in the bean flours) and made the recipe casein free.
If you’d like an idea for something to put into these incredible tortillas, try my recipe for gluten free tacos and stop back by on Friday for a tutorial on rolling tortillas.
Instructions
Yield: makes 8 tortillas that are gluten free and casein free.
- 2 c. Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
- 2 Tbsp. shortening (or lard, butter, or oil)
- 1 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
- 2 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 c. warm water
- Add the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix the ingredients thoroughly. If you’re using a solid fat, cut it into the flour so that it’s evenly distributed. (I do all this with my hand)
- Add the cup of warm water to the bowl (and liquid fat if you’re using it) and mix the dry goods into the water with your hand. Just squish it all up until all of the dry ingredients are no longer dry. And then keep mixing a minute longer because it’s fun and we should all be pretend we’re kids once in a blue moon. =)
- Separate the dough into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Place all but one of the dough balls back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap until you’re ready to work with them.
- Sprinkle a clean, flat surface with a bit of rice flour and then roll you dough ball into a roughly circular shape. Get is as thin as possible. (If you need some practice on rolling out dough, check back here Friday for a tortilla rolling tutorial)
- Throw the tortilla onto a hot griddle (I use a cast iron griddle on medium heat with just a smidge of shortening or oil) and let it cook approximately 1 minute – or until it has started puffing up and the bottom side is developing those lovely brown spots. Flip the tortilla and cook the other side until is toasty as well.
- Slide the cooked tortilla onto a waiting plate and repeat from step 4 until you’ve cooked all 8 tortillas. I generally roll one tortilla out while another is cooking, so that there’s is always a tortilla on the griddle.
Notes
To get a nicely-shaped circular tortilla, use a tortilla press on each ball of dough first, then finish rolling them out with a rolling pin.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve really been wanting to find a recipe for tortillas that taste like flour tortillas. 🙂
Mary Frances-
BOY – have you been missed!
Welcome back from the paper work.. and GREAT call on the tortillas. ‘Tis the season. I think I’ll have to make our yummy shrimp tacos with your tortilla recipe. 🙂 A little Celebrate-the-return-of-MaryFrances dinner!
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I tried this recipe last night for supper and they turned out great! My DH and I really enjoyed them, but the kids didn’t like the sandy texture from rolling them out with the rice flour. What would you recommed for something different. They were very pliable and didn’t tear apart and they looked alot like yours. I would also like to try them with the alternate flours that you suggested. By the way, we had fajitas. YUM! Thanks so much!
Dillygirl,
I’m so glad the tortillas turned out well for you. I try to brush the rice flour off of the tortillas as much as possible before I cook them, but there’s only so much you can do. You might try using corn starch or a bean flour for you rolling board; they should be less noticeable. Thanks for the feedback=)
Welcome back! You should be in Hawaii or something, but here you are posting marvelous things. The thought had crossed my mind that making these might be possible, and here they are. I look forward to trying them.
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Gotta try these!!! Thanks for the recipe! I’ve been looking for a flour tortilla that bends, this one sounds like a winner…
Can these be stored? I am just curious as only one of my children has to be gluten free, and I can’t afford to let them all four have the good stuff. (They ALL beg for your bread by the way, as soon as it comes out of the bread machine they all want some of “Anna’s Bread.” (My gluten free daughter is Anna…) Anyway, I know Anna wouldn’t eat all of these at once, so I am trying to figure out if they would freeze or refrigerate without drying out. Guess I will just have to try it.
Amy
Amy, I bet these can be frozen but I haven’t tried it yet. We are still so obsessed with them that they haven’t even lasted till the next day yet. I love that your kids love the bread so much. That’s awesome! Thanks for letting me know.
Hello Mary Frances : ) I found your blog the other day trolling for gluten free sandwich bread recipes. My son has been recently diagnosed with Autism and we are now aboard the good ship Food Intolerance. We are doing a “Free-ing” diet or at least that is what I am telling myself. Sans Gluten, Casein, Eggs, Glutimate and its many forms, preservatives and all things artificial out the window as well as going organic.
I just wanted you to know that I finally got around to making these for my family tonight and they were Scrum-dilly-umptious! I made burritos with homemade black beans, tomato salad, poached chicken, scallions with roasted butternut squash bits all rolled into your amazing tortillas. FABULOUS. These are definately going on the list, I can see lots of nut butter & gooey rollups involving said tortillas in my near future. If it resembles a sandwich there is a good chance that my son will eat it. Thanks Loads!!
~Fruitey_girl or now that I am older I may have graduated to Fruitey_mom lol.
Fruitey_girl, That filling sounds delicious. We’ll definitely have to try it since we think black beans + anything sweet (the roasted butternut in this case) is yummy.
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My prayers have been answered! Woohoo! I made these today to make quesadillas and they turned out beautifully with this recipe. I did use my own gluten free all purpose since i already had it on hand.
Thanks so much! since both my husband and 3 year old were diagnosed with celiac disease a few months ago the whole family has gone gluten free and the only thing i really missed until now was a soft flour tortilla 🙂
You have a new subscriber!
@Rachel: Thanks for subcribing! And for your comment. That’s just what this site is supposed to be: an answer to prayer.
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Hi Mary-Francis
I’m confused. You recommend substitons for ingredients I don’t see in the main receipe; are they in the basic flour mix?
Can’t wait to try these. I’m in New Mexico and I would love to put as much masa as possible in it, as we aren’t corn allergic. Is that possible?
Here are the substutions that confused me:
If you’re allergic to corn, try tapioca starch instead of the corn starch and almond meal instead of the masa harina.
M-F; I can’t bless you enough for the great service you are giving us.
Sometimes when there is nothing else my husband can eat, one of your creative ideas gets on the table and makes him happy even when he can’t eat much.
First off, thank you for your site! I tried your tortilla recipe and although the final product came out VERY delicious, I had a real problem making the darn things.
I used regular all purpose flour on the rolling board and sprinkled some on top of the tortilla before I rolled it out, but I still had a very difficult time getting them not to stick to everything. Is there a magic trick to this? Do I just need to totally saturate everything with the flour to prevent it to stick? I’m an amateur with this, so any cooking advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Todd: The tortillas are TOUGH to roll out. It requires a lot of flour on the board and on the rolling pin and frequent flipping of the dough. If any of the dough gets stuck on your pin or on the board, be sure to scrape it off before proceeding as it will only continue to gather more dough to it. Good Luck!
Ok, so really the only trick is to oversaturate the board and the dough with the flour so it doesn’t stick to anything. Next time I won’t be so conservative with it, lol. Thanks again!
Thanks Mary Frances. I appreciate this recipe.
These GF tortillas are wonderful! I live on a small island in the Bahamas where most people have never heard of Gluten Free anything, so I have to make my own bread-type foods. I’ve been craving tortillas for the past 6 months(how long I’ve been gluten-free), so this recipe was a God-send. These smell wonderful cooking and are flexible, just like you said.
I made a couple changes to accommodate the items I had on hand.
I used 1 &3/4 C of GF all-purpose flour, 1/4 C Garbanzo Flour, and 2 tbsp honey, instead of sugar. I cheated too…after rolling them out thin, I used a pan lid to cut them into uniform circles. Anyway, Thanks so much for this site…I can eat like a normal person again!
Oh, I forgot to mention that instead sprinkling rice flour out to keep things from sticking, I used very fine corn flour. YUM-O!
I am fairly new to this site…AMAZING! I tried this last night with some friends. We rolled them with a bit of the basic flour mixture we used for the tortillas. Didn’t get too grainy. They were actually amazing. So far, your recipes are simply amazing. Everyone loves what I make, they don’t know that it’s gluten-free! It’s a trick I have to play with a closed-minded family!
@Nicole: woohoo!
Thank you for the recipe.I can’t tolerate soy,so I just used a rice,tapioca,potato flour mix and threw in a little pinto bean flour .I whipped some up tonight for dinner in a snap.I made chicken tacos with them.(To be perfectly honest,I enjoyed them warm with some cold butter!!)
I’m so glad to find this recipe and all the positive feedback that goes along with it. I’ve been happily eating store-bought soft corn tacos but am always disappointed by the limitations of their size. I’ve bought several different brand GF tortillas but have found each and every one of them tough. I hate to admit I bought something and then threw it out: but I did. Having a composter reduced the guilt of throwing the food in the “garbage”!
I’m really looking forward to making this recipe!
Hurray! I am so glad to find a tortillas recipe that doesn’t require the use of bean flour. I will be trying them for sure. I was just wondering about the gluten free flour mix. The corn stuff, is it basically corn meal? or is it more ground up than that?
Thank you!
Masa harina is similar to corn meal, but it’s processed differently and soaks up a lot more liquids than corn meal. You can’t substitute one for the other. Masa harina is usually with the other Hispanic ingredients in the grocery, and is very inexpensive.
Oh good to know. Thank you!
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone would have anyidea if they sell Masa Harina in Aus? I am from Australia and I can’t seem to find it anywhere!
Ps. these are the best recipes. thank you so much!
Mima
I know if you use a tortilla press with some seran wrap long enough to cover the top and bottom you dont need anythin to roll tortillas out, they are usally softer also with this trick. Good thing is presses are very cheap and small, so they can fit in any cupboard. Another big trick is after you make balls out of the dough let it rest covered for a few minutes, lets the dough relax a little so they are a bit softer.
Thank you so much for creating this recipe! My husband has recently been diagnosed with a gluten allergy and I do what I can to still make things taste as close to normal as I can. Corn tortillas just weren’t cutting it. This recipe worked so well…messy, but completely worth it to enjoy burritos again! We enjoyed quesadillas with the leftovers! Off to try more of your recipes…
Mary thank you thank you thank you… these are so yummy. Altho it took me a few tries to get it right. The first time I made them I got sick and then discovered that I’m allergic to cornmeal or maybe corn although I can have the masa harina. So i used tapioca the second time and they taste so good! So I’m wondering now (me being latina half chilean/half venezuelan) if I can use this recipe for empanadas. I’m not sure if it’ll work. I’m planning on playing around to see if I can get it. But if you’ve tried already or if you have a recommendation please let me know. Here’s the recipe I want to make in case you’re curious http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/18978/chilean-empanadas.html.
Gracias!!!!
@Carolina: What coincidence. My husband requested empanadas tonight and I told him that I’d have to do some research on how to do them gluten free. I’m pretty sure that one of the gluten free bloggers that I follow has done a crust that would be suitable, I’ve just got to go back and find it. I’ll let you know what I find.
@Carolina – here’s the empanada recipe that I was thinking about. I really like that Kate has used the plantains as part of the dough, since I’m trying to increase my intake of fruits and vegetables. I’ll feel a little less guilty eating these!
Oh thank you Mary, that would be great!
I’ve very excited to find this recipe! I’m just getting started eating gluten free and was afraid tortillas were going to be a thing of the past.
Is there a way to get a nutritional analysis of recipes like this (not just this one, but in general)? A website you could recommend, maybe? I know I can calculate it out myself–it’s just time consuming and with so many new recipes I’m trying all at once, it’s making it difficult. On top of eating gluten-free and dairy-free, I’m attempting to lose weight, so I want to avoid too much fat if possible.
Thanks for your help!
I made a single batch of these Sunday night and refrigerated half for a meal for the hubby and I for Monday night. They turned out great both times (although a little thicker than I expected; having a hard time rolling them out correctly), and hubby likes them *better* than regular flour tortillas! Thanks again!
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I’m new to your website, and to being Celiac and gluten free (3 months). Honestly, I’m not sure how I came across your website. I get recipes from the Living Without Magazine; belong to GlutenFreeClub website to get recipes and information; and order my GFflour and CrahamCracker mix, as well as receive recipes from JulesGlutenFree. Somehow I must have received a message to check out your GF pizza video by one of these since I don’t go on anyother website. I’ve not checked it out yet (just finishing out the school year as a SPED teacher), but will soon. I opened up the e-mail that came in the last day or two, only to see the recipe for fajita salad. My eyes immediately saw GF Flour Tortillas! Just last night my sister and I were discussing how I now make messy quesadillas when I join them for “fix your own tacos and burrito night” – when what I really want is a big fat, messy burrito! I’m visiting again tonight (we share a garden that I take care of since I don’t work during part of the summer), and when she came home from work and saw that I’d printed out the recipe for the flour tortillas she just laughed and said “I know what your next experiment will be”. I can’t wait to try it out next week when we do Mexican night. I’m not the “baker” in the family – my sister is; I do other big meals with salads/veggies/meats/pastas. I’ve only learned to do muffins and bread using my Jules’ GF flour. I bought a bread machine and tried out one of her recipes – which was good (I can’t stand the store bought bread/prices). I’ve quickly looked at your bread recipe section and am anxious to try a few of them now. I especially enjoy how people respond to your recipes with substitutions/questions/solutions – many of which I know I’d have myself since I don’t bake. This will surely make cooking easier for me as I learn how to do more. I’ve been anxious for summer vacation to get here to try out all these recipes I’ve collected the past few months. My sister is my biggest supporter in my endeavor to go GF, and just last weekend made me a GF cheese cake (she’s the master at cheese cakes around here) for my 51st b-day. It also had to be fat free since her hubby has a heart condition. She’s been determined to make a fat free/gluten free one for me (and he benifitted as well). It was to die for!! And she’ll most likely never go back to the old way of making them.
If she gives credit for where she got the original recipe (though there are few original indredients she uses now), and the trademark GF products we used (ie-graham cracker mix & flour, etc) will you be able to put it on your website? I’d like for her to share her baking creation she’s done for me. Sure helped me feel “normal”!
Thank you for the hard work you put in to this website, and I look forward to exploring it some more. Can’t wait to taste those flour tortillas next week.
kathie
I’ve checked out your site several times for recipes and tips — and am always racing off too busy to comment! Well, I’m in the process of making a batch of these yummy tortillas (my diabetic/celiac son and myself had them as wraps for lunch!) and I had to let others know a little trick for the sticky dough. I gave up on the roller as I didn’t like all the added flour, and instead sprayed a piece of parchment paper with an olive oil cooking spray. I patted the ball of dough into a round, using just a touch of brown rice flour on my fingers, and continued pressing it out into the size I wanted. I then flipped the “pressed” tortilla directly into the pan and peeled the paper off —- no sticking!! It toasted up nicely, with little air pockets almost resembling a pita bread. In fact, I just ate one with organic hummus and it was delicious! I forgot to mention that in the interest of time (a hungry 8-year old was waiting!), I used Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Baking Flour and added 1/4 c. masa. They were flexible, with no graininess — going to make more for the hubby and older brothers. Thanks for a wonderful website!
We made these tonight and they were a hit. My husband was so appreciative of actual flour tortillas with our fajitas. A whole new world …
Thanks Lori!
We were so excited about the no more naked burritos (not burriTOES) by Mary Frances. My sister and I have been gluten free and cooking our own recipes for three years with a lot of success.
This recipe however was a total failure. The dough is sticky and smears, making it impossible to cook. I don’t know if the instructions were faulty or if I did something wrong, but my sister tried it and had the same result.
Never been to your site before, but if I am going to come back I would appreciate some help. We really want this recipe to work. Thanks, Justin
@Justin Powell: The tone of your comment does not create a desire in me to help you, so I guess you should just not come back.
I found your site this morning and for lunch my son was able to have a rolled up taco! We really enjoyed them. I love the chewyness and have a tip.
When they were cooled, I took a pastry brush in my right hand and laid the tortilla over my left hand and brushed away any excess flour. It really made a big difference.
As nice as these look, traditional nixtamalized corn tortillas have been around for centuries. They bend, they come in all sizes, and they taste better than any flour tortillas I’ve ever found. Plus, they’re about a dollar for 30-50 packs at ethnic markets.
These were the BEST tortillas I have ever eaten! I can’t believe they came out of my kitchen!!!!!! 🙂
I tested 3 recipes looking for a GF Flour Tortilla for my client who loves Mexican food, and this recipe was the winner! I think the masa harina really gives it an authentic flavor. It took me a couple of times to master the technique: letting the dough rest, & keeping it airtight helped a lot with the handling; using a small amount of oil and not overcooking helped, too. I was so excited to offer my client a tasty tortilla that rolled up without crumbling! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It’s hands-down a winner, especially over the packaged alternatives.
My first time ever making homemade tortillas…can’t stand the store bought ones….my hubby liked them a lot(cannot get him to eat store-bought gluten-free bread – he hates it!) and I am trying to convert him since I have to eat this way, and, according to Blood Type diet, he should be anyway. I would like to find your tutorial as it was a little dificult foe me to toll them thin, then be able to get them off my board without thenm pulling apart _ I did not let them rest very long though – started working on them immediately. Very tasty and hoping to refine my technique…thanks!!!
I use to make home made tortillas daily before my son became autistic eight and a half years ago. I had to make the house completely gluten and dairy free (eventually soy free as well) so that meant no more home made flour tortillas. We have lived a life of store bought corn tortillas and not very good ones either, until today. These are EXACTLY the same as the ones I use to cook before we went gluten free (without the gluten of course). I am beyond excited. I don’t bake, or cook complicated things, and these were so easy with few ingredients. I can’t tell you how happy my whole family is now!!
Letting them rest is a good idea, as well as using warm water. Those were both your suggestions as well as things I did with the original gluten ones I use to make. The texture was EXACTLY the same. I used a premixed “all purpose flour” btw. I used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour Mix. No grainy texture and no weird smell once it was cooked.
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve tried so many tortilla recipes without success – I have a good feeling about these! Looks like they make quite a few. I’m single. How well do they keep? Have you frozen any? Thanks!
Delighted! I just made a batch and they are good. I had purchased rice tortillas at a well known store and
ended up throwing them out(yuk). I was very happy to find your receipe and I am very happy with the results!
Thank you!
These are absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe. My 2-year-old loves them. Such a welcome change from the store-bought rice tortillas we’ve been choking down. I’ll be making these every week from now on. Thanks!!
P.S. I wrote a post about these tortillas: http://dreamimaginehappen.blogspot.com/2010/01/tortilla-heaven.html. And I added you to my blogroll. Thanks again!