Sourdough Flour Tortillas (Edit recipe)

RECENTLY UPDATED QTYS FOR: STARTER/WATER! Our decade long health journey has brought these back into our lives, as journeys can. Making these stir up so many memories of making flour tortillas as a child with my Tia Rita when we visited them in Arizona. While she never made them with sourdough discard, I think she’d really appreciate the added gut benefits the sourdough brings to these. You can make 12 small or 6 large, your choice.. There is a learning curve rolling them out, so you may want to start with a half batch and make 6 smaller ones before diving into making the larger variety.

30 minutes

00 minute

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Show nutritional information

This is our estimate based on online research.
Calories:	220
Fat:	8 g
Carbohydrates:	29 g
Protein:	4 g
Cholesterol:	0 g
Sodium:	311 mg
Fiber:	1 g
Sugars:	0 g
Calculated for total recipe.

by Back Porch Paleo

Serves: 6-12

Ingredients

.25 cup Organic [*Spectrum Brand, sustainably sourced] Palm Oil Shortening, this is my go-to shortening
1.5 cups All Purpose Flour, +1-2 tbsp as needed, I use a local organic variety here, which we tolerate well
1 tsp Redmond Real Salt
3.5 oz Homemade Sourdough Starter, I've had my starter for over 5 years, that I know was made from organic local flour
3.5 oz Water, room temperature

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Process

Cook Mode

Note, these instructions are written assuming the standard serving size, since you have modified the number of servings, these steps may need to be modified for best results

In a small pan, melt the shortening* over low heat. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.
Add flour and salt to a medium sized mixing bowl, toss to combine. Add cooled shortening and mix together. You’re looking for a nice mixture of coarse crumbs. I like to use my fingers for this step to make sure I’m getting everything combined really well.
Weigh out the water and sourdough starter mixture in a measuring cup and whisk to combine. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together initially with a wooden spoon then complete the combining with your hands, rolling/kneading until you have a nice soft dough.
I weigh my dough at this point and depending on if I’m making large or small will divide dough accordingly into balls. Cover with plastic wrap and let them rest for about an hour.
When ready to roll them out, dust your work surface with additional flour and roll out your tortillas, the thinner the better since this will make sure you have nice thin tortillas after they’re cooked. I typically rotate the dough and flip, adding additional flour as needed, to ensure I end up with a nice round tortilla*.
Heat up your large cast iron pan* over medium heat and allow it to come up to temperature so it’s nice and hot. Do NOT add any oil as this would fry your tortillas and not cook them.
When the pan is ready to go, carefully place the tortilla in the pan. Once you see some nice bubbles starting to form (a slight pop with a spatula can release steam as needed) and some golden color, carefully flip over to cook the other side repeating the same as needed to release steam.
Place cooked tortilla on a baking sheet and repeat with remaining tortillas, stacking them as you go. I usually stack up to 6 at a time. Once slightly cooled, place them in a plastic bag and serve, making soft tacos, burritos, quesadillas etc right away or store in the refrigerator.
Use within about 10 days.

Notes

I like starting with this step to ensure the shortening is completely smooth, creating a softer tortilla. I’ve found that the organic shortening I use often isn’t completely smooth so when the tortilla cooks, it creates little holes in the tortilla. For large tortillas, roll out to approximately 10” for small tortillas, aim for 5½ -6” I’ve never used anything other than cast iron, but I would assume you can use a non stick pan as well. TIP: the steam will be very hot, so as you pop those bubbles, be mindful of where your fingers/arms are!