Sourdough Tortillas
Sourdough Tortillas.
I always get questions about my Sourdough Tortillas. I first published the recipe together with my Avocado Tacos recipe. However, I decided to write a separate post about it so I could explain a few things a little better.
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Ok, let’s get to it. First of all, your sourdough starter doesn’t have to be active to make these sourdough tortillas.
That means, you can use your discard. Recipes that use sourdough discard are beautiful to me, because I feed my starter so frequently, I always have a tone of it to discard.
If your sourdough starter is active, no problem using that either. Go for it! But you don’t have to go out of your way, feed your starter, and then wait for it to be active to start making these Sourdough Tortillas.
These sourdough tortillas have a much more beautiful texture compared to the regular flour ones, in my opinion. They are so soft, and taste amazing! By far, my favorite tortillas to make and eat.
Depending on your location (altitude and humidity level), what kind of flour you are using, or what kind of starter you have, you might need to adjust the flour quantity. If the dough is too sticky, add some more flour to it. In the instructions, I specify to add only 4 cups of flour to the initial dough, and add the remaining 1 cup as you knead, and as necessary. You don’t want to add way too much flour, this is supposed to be a very soft dough, not too stiff.
I keep my starter at 100% hydration, which means I always feed it with equal amounts of water, flour, and starter. So, if I am feeding my starter, I usually discard everything but 100 grams of it, then I feed it with 100 grams of water, and 100 grams of flour.
You want to take that into consideration when making these tortillas. In case you keep your starter at a lower hydration level, you might want to add some less flour to the dough.
Also, feel free to half the recipe if you don’t wanna make about 30 tortillas. And if you don’t want to half the recipe, you have many options on what to do with leftover tortillas.
Can I freeze sourdough tortilla dough?
You may freeze just the raw dough if you want to. I actually did that this time to experiment. After making my dough, I let it rise, then I portioned it in half, cooked one half and froze the rest for about 1 week.
Then, when I went to use my frozen dough, I let it thaw in the fridge overnight and the next day proceeded to portion it, roll it out, and cook it normally. They came out tasting fresh and delicious! I’d recommend freezing it for up to 1-2 months.
Can I freeze cooked tortillas?
You may freeze already cooked tortillas. I like to place my tortillas between sheets of parchment paper, then wrap them with some foil, place inside a zip loc freezer bag, and they will keep well in the freezer for about 2 months.
How to make tortilla chips with leftover tortillas?
If you have an excess of tortillas, you may slice your tortillas in triangles, then drizzle some olive oil over them and possibly other spices (salt, paprika, garlic powder, za’atar) and bake in the oven until golden brown, about 5 minutes. And you will have yourself tortilla chips! Most likely the best tortilla chips you’ve ever had in your life.
So, lots of options here on what to do with all of these sourdough tortillas!
This last time I made these delicious Cauliflower Tacos with Avocado Crema.
They were so good, it was hard to stop eating them!! The breaded cauliflower was baked in the oven. I added the delicious fresh corn on the cob we got at the farmers market, and it made for a fantastic #tacotuesday!
I hope you like my recipe for sourdough tortillas. If you are an avid sourdough baker, I am sure you will!
Thanks for reading, and have a beautiful day!
If you want to check out some more sourdough recipes, please click here.
Also, check out this recipe for my Spinach Tortillas. And if you want to, you can check out my recipe for regular Flour Tortillas right here.
And here are some Taco recipes to accompany your Sourdough Tortillas.
Sourdough Tortillas
Ingredients
- 125 g sourdough starter (discard 100% hydration) (1/2 cup, 4.5 oz)
- 320 g warm water about 120F (1 1/3 cup, 11 oz)
- 56 g vegetable oil (1/4 cup, 2 oz)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 637 g all-purpose flour (5 cups, 22.5 oz)
- Plus extra flour for dusting
Instructions
- Mix sourdough starter, water, oil, salt, baking powder, and 4 cups of flour in the bowl of a stand mixer and knead with the dough hook for 4-6 minutes, until dough comes together in a smooth, non-sticky ball. If it’s too sticky, start adding the remaining cup of flour until you obtain the necessary consistency. You may not use the whole cup of flour, so just go slowly until you reach a dough that isn't too sticky or too dry.
- You can also mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon and then knead by hand.
- Once you’re done kneading, place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
- Divide the dough into about 32 equal pieces. I use a scale to measure out my dough and I usually go for 30 grams per piece.
- Using the palm of your hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball, by making a circular motion, pressing down slightly on the dough, against the counter. Use very little flour to do this because you need the traction of the counter to shape the balls.
- Cover dough pieces with a towel and let them rest for 5 minutes.
- Start rolling each dough piece into a circle that measures out about 7 inches in diameter.
- I like to roll out as many dough pieces as my counter space will allow me to lay out, before cooking them.
- I’ve actually already used my pasta machine to roll the dough pieces out too, and it works fantastic, btw!
- Start cooking the tortillas by heating up a cast iron frying pan or a non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. (I actually use 2 or 3 pans sometimes to speed up the process)
- When the pan is hot, add tortilla. Cook on one side for about 1 minute, flip it over and cook on the other side for about 30 seconds.
- You don’t want your tortilla to burn, so cook it until it’s just slightly browned. If you burn your tortillas, they might become hard after they cool down.
- Lay out cooked tortillas on a baking sheet and let them cool slightly before placing them in a tortilla warmer or closed container. That’s because if you immediately put the tortillas away while hot, they will become soggy.
Notes
Nutrition
I’m doing something wrong…I could not get them round or evenly thin. The dough kept springing back even though it had rested 45 minutes! They stuck to the pin, the board, the whole thing was dreadful! They spring back so much they are like naan! Help!
This could be happening from over developed gluten maybe, or too much flour was added. Have you used a scale to weigh the ingredients? They were sticking but still were springing back?
Delicious and amazing and perfect in every way – thanks so much
Thank you! I am so happy to hear that! 🙂
Do you think these are freezeable? 🙂
For sure! I freeze them all the time! I either reheat them in the microwave or in the toaster, or let them thaw in the fridge overnight.
I made these tortillas today with my whole wheat starter for Taco Thursday and everyone loved them. Thank you for this super easy and straightforward recipe! Perfect quarantine meal 😀
Ohhh I am so happy you liked it! Thank you so much! 🙂
Camila, how do I reheat cooked tortilla?
Thanks 🙂
Thanks so much for this recipe! I’m always looking for ways to you my discard starter. Just mixed up the dough and it’s now resting. Looking forward to homemade. Sourdough tortillas soon.
Yay!! This is one of my favorite ways to use my discard also! Thank you!! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I made some of these the other day and used half whole wheat/half white flour. They turned out fantastic but with a bit of “character.” I’m going to make some tortilla chips today!
Oh sounds so yummy!! thank you so much!! 🙂
Hi! I try to stay away from vegetable oil. Curious what substitutes you would use and what amounts. Avocado oil? Olive oil? Bacon grease? Excited to make these!
Any of these would work, and in the same amount. Currently I only make them with avocado or olive oil 🙂 my husband would probably love the bacon grease idea lol!!
I tried these tortillas a few days ago. The dough was easy to work with and flavourful. They have stayed soft and delicious for days. Definitely a keeper! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much!! This is a favorite 🙂
These were absolutely delicious! We scarfed down our tacos and even made ‘dessert tacos’ because we couldn’t get enough. I highly recommend this recipe as a baseline with a major caveat. Even with two people rolling out the dough and cooking in two skillets at the same time, it took us well over two hours from start to finish (following the recipe, same portions etc.). Do be prepared for it to take much longer than the 70 minute estimate. Also, it was nearly impossible to get 7in diameter tortillas with 30g dough balls.
I’m always looking for ways to use up discard (I never toss it anymore) and made these today to pair with fish tacos I planned to make for dinner. I had never made homemade tortillas before and was SO PLEASED with how these turned out. They really elevated the whole meal and my husband agreed! Froze half of the dough for later and can’t wait to make them again. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Yay I am so happy to hear that!! Awesome! thanks for the feedback!! 🙂 these tacos sound delicious!!!
My son found this recipe, for me to make.
It turned out amazing! Thank you!!
We froze the cooked tortillas and then just warmed them in a pan (or directly on the electric stove 😀 ) and thry were nice and soft.
that’s amazing to hear!!!! Thank you so much!!!
I’m going to make these , the recipe looks great. A question, though…. in my kitchen a cup of starter weights about 240-250 grams. Your recipe calls for 125 grams and says it’s 1 cup. Which is correct? I googled it and found the 240 gram number for 1 cup. Thanks!
the weight is the correct measurement. I am sorry about the confusion, you’re right, it’s 1/2 cup!!! I will fix it right now! 🙂
Do you think if I add a TBS of bacon grease I can let these ferment overnight for a long fermentaion?
I cannot wait to try these tortillas and I love that I can use my discard!
Hello Angela, so yes you can definitely substitute some of the oil for bacon grease in the recipe. And to ferment it overnight, place it in the fridge for a slow fermentation, then remove it the next day about 1 hour before shaping the tortillas! Thank you so much!!
Any suggestions for using a corn meal or masa with the sourdough starter? I have been fantasizing about using my sourdough starter to make a sourdough/corn blend tortilla. This is a great recipe for me to get started with. I am so glad I found it and can’t wait to try it out!
Hello Sue, so I would definitely play around with the amounts and try to get a smooth and not sticky dough, but I can’t assure what the measurements would be. I have found this recipe here using masa and sourdough starter https://www.butterforall.com/traditional-cooking-traditional-living/homemade-sourdough-corn-tortillas/ now I feel like giving it a go too! lol
I took a look at that recipe, and seems like she uses less amount of dry ingredients (masa) in comparison to my ratio of dry:wet ingredients. But that could be because the masa absorbs the dry ingredients differently.
If you are looking to adapt my recipe and substitute the regular flour for masa, I would start with 2 cups of masa, instead of the 5 cups of all-purpose flour I use, and add a bit more as you go, until you obtain a smooth dough that’s easy to work with and not crumbly. If the dough is crumbly, maybe add a bit more water.
But I think it’s worth it to take a look at this other recipe I linked above!!
Best of luck, let me know of the results if you get a chance as now I am also interested in making it!!!
These were terrific. Thanks so much for this recipe. I loved them. Another use for sourdough starter or discard, and they were quite delicious. Haven’t figured out how to get nicely circular ones yet, so I’ll have to practice more.
Thank you so much Jane!! Try to get them to be very round when you shape the balls, then flatten them out into an even disk, and when you roll them with the pin, try to apply even pressure, and roll evenly on all sides, rotating the dough around as you roll.
Hope this helps! I am very glad you like the recipe!! Thank you so much!!! Have a fabulous day!
Thanks for the tip and again, thank you DO much for this great recipe. I’m so happy to have found a new. vegan and SD recipe that’s so yummy. I’ll practice which will be no hardship at all 😆
Awesome! Thanks Jane!!!