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
Can you use bread flour for this recipe?
I have never tried it, but I don’t think it can hurt to try, maybe with half a recipe just to see what happens.
Forgot to rate, sorry!
These were great, just the perfect texture, easy to roll out and pick up. I made mine bigger because I like them that way but I still got 20 tortillas out of the recipe. I didn’t use the last cup of flour at all, but live in a very dry climate. Hubbie loves them too. Froze the rest with parchment paper in between. Thanks for a great recipe!
Thank you so much!! Your rating and review mean a lot to me 🙂 I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This recipe makes me so happy! This was the best way to use up my discard and I fully plan on never buying flour tortillas again. Thank you!
Thank you Miriam!! 🙂
Just made a half batch. Kneading and then rolling out by hand is a bit of a pain. Might have to get a tortilla press (okay and a stand mixer). These taste great though! Had a bit of trouble with the heat — maybe it’s a your-mileage-may-vary sort of thing, but I heated to medium-high and then dropped down to a hair below medium and that seemed to work best for me (in a cast iron pan).
Next batch I’ll try a longer ferment and report back 🙂
Awesome James! Thank you so much!! I often use my pasta machine to do the rolling part.
Jumping in here as a grandfather who has been working on making Sourdough EVERYTHING lately! I just tried an SD Tortilla recipe, and they were good, but called for a HUGE amount of added fat. I don’t mind healthy fats at all, but they were a tad too oily in texture. Yours looks like the right proportion for an excellent, more traditional Tortilla, but if I may, I’d like to suggest adding a 24-hour fermentation period to the process. This long ferment will make them more digestible, more nutritious (by neutralizing the phytates), and (I think) easier to roll out or press. Just might need a few minutes of kneading the next day to knock out the excess gas. I’ll let you know how it works! Thanks for spreading the Sourdough love!
Awesome! Someone just asked yesterday if they could do this. Great stuff. Thanks Kevin!
Hi, I’m excited to try these but I am wondering if you can mix up the dough the night before instead of resting for only 30 minutes to get more of the sourdough benefits? Have you tried this?
I haven’t tried it, but if I did, I would keep them in the fridge. I have tried freezing the dough, and it did work fine.
I made it once so gr and they were awesome! Could o let them rise for longer than 30 minutes?
I would probably put them in the fridge if that’s the case. make sure to cover it with plastic, very well covered, so it doesn’t dry.
These were amazing, Camila! Thank you so much for sharing! They were everything you said and more!
Yay! That’s awesome!! Thank you Denise!
I’m new to sourdough, and in fact haven’t actually made bread yet, but using up the starter I keep being unsuccessful with has been great. These are wonderful! I used a tortilla press, and just made a 1/2 recipe. Thank you!!
Thanks Julia.
Two questions – First, can the flour, salt, and baking powder be substituted with self-rising flour? Equal weights? At one point that was all they had at the grocery and I now have two packages of it and would like to use it up.
Second, I am new to sourdough baking but I have made some amazing bread in the last couple of months. I guess I really don’t understand the “discard recipes”. I understand the need to discard when you feed. What I don’t understand is the inclusion of the discard into recipes for biscuits, pancakes, muffins, etc. Most of the recipes I’ve found are complete recipes without the discard, just a little less of the original liquid. Most do not call for the dough/batter to proof for a long time. What does the discard add to the tortilla recipe? More lift? Sour flavor? In reading some blogs that have discard recipes it seems that the discard is only added to the recipe in order to prevent the cook from feeling guilty about throwing it away? Haha! Your thoughts?
So, I don’t know how well the self-rising flour would work because I believe it has way more baking powder than you need for this recipe. for a whole 5 cups of flour in this recipe you need only 1/2 tsp of baking powder, while in the self-rising flour i believe it contains about 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder per cup.
So I am not sure how it would work in this recipe, it would have to be an experiment.
And about the discard, it adds a layer of flavor to recipes, specially if my starter is on the sour side. And my sourdough tortillas are fluffier than my regular flour tortillas.
Plus if you bake sourdough often, you’ll find yourself always having to throw out a part of the starter, and recipes that use up that discard are indeed a great way to reduce waste. I mean, why not use it instead of throwing it out, if there’s an opportunity to do so.
Thanks for the info. I skipped the self-rising flour as per your recommendation and just followed the recipe. Used ghee for the fat. The tortillas were terrific. I found that using a small sieve of flour to super lightly dust the work surface was the trick for me to roll out the dough without sticking. I’m cooking for three of our bachelor neighbors and last night was chicken fajitas, rice, and beans. The tortillas really stole the show, warm and fresh and fluffy. Thanks for your help.
Amazing! I am so happy to hear that!!!
Easy recipe to follow. Personally would add more salt and use a more savory fat in place of the oil, but overall these were great.
Thank you for teaching me about Sourdough Tortillas!
I can’t wait to try these! I have a tortilla press. Do you think I can use that instead if rolling them all out? Thanks for the recipe!
For sure! 🙂
These are fabulous. This quarantined Travel Agent is not booking any travel, so I’m baking. Sourdough is my new passion. LOL!
Thank you so much Donna! Hopefully you’ll be booking lots and lots of trips soon!
Tried making these tonight – first time making tortillas!! Halved the recipe, yet only got 8 tortillas out of it. I’m not that proficient with a rolling pin, it seems, but the ball half that size just didn’t seem to be big enough to get a tortilla out of!! I’ll try my pasta roller next time.
All in all, very tasty!! Yours seem to be nice and fluffy, mine almost turned into pita/naan – it pocketed during cooking. Any clue why? Too much dough and should have been thinner, despite my feeling that it wasn’t going to be big enough?
Again – super delicious and I will try again! (Even with my ooopsie, still the best tortillas I’ve ever had!).
I make them about 30 grams each tortilla. So if you wanted bigger ones id recommend making them with more dough but still rolling them thin. If you have a pasta machine that really helps in getting them super thin.
My sough has been sitting on my counter for 3 hours.. has t risen much. And it’s VERY sticky. Thoughts? Thank u
You’re only supposed to let the dough rest for about 30 minutes, 3 hours is way too long.
Well shoot. I read the directions wrong. Is it a goner?
Used a scale, starter was made with whole wheat. I tried to use as little flour as possible when rolling, but had to use some…which made it worse. I finally gave up and put the last 4 balls in the fridge, wrapped in plastic. The other half of the dough is in the freezer for another time. Flour is impossible to get right now, so these will have to be eaten, but they sure aren’t tortillas!