Not surprisingly, the options for store-bought tortillas in France are dismal. I buy them anyways out of convenience. However, now we’re in Normandy in confinement. As a result, we’re limiting our outings to the grocery store we decided to get resourceful and make our own tortillas. This homemade butter tortilla recipe is a blend of a lot of different recipes and modified based on what we had on home. I think it’s pretty simple and foolproof, and nothing beats homemade butter tortillas!
So it’s Sunday night. I ask Romain what’s for dinner, and he says soup and salad. I don’t complain about food and I’ll eat anything, especially when I’m a guest in someone else’s house. But for me, Sunday night is for Mexican food…not soup and salad. Luckily, I brought a ton of shredded cheese from Paris so I suggested we make quesadillas.
The Ingredients
I started searching homemade tortilla recipes online and on Instagram and there were a few common denominators:
- Flour
- Oil, lard, or butter
- Salt
- Baking Powder
- Water
Seemed easy enough. Since we’re Normandy, butter was our fat of choice. I also chose butter to try to recreate Central Market’s Butter Tortillas. However, we didn’t have baking powder so we left it out.
I bought a food scale and it’s seriously been a game changer. Honestly, it makes cooking so easy. In short, we measured out the weight of everything in a bowl directly on the scale, mixed it together, let it rest, and fried the tortillas.
If you can find someone to help you for the rolling and frying process it makes the recipe even easier. I recommend being on frying duty.
What To Make with Your Homemade Butter Tortillas
You could use these tortillas for a lot of different things. For example, you could make tacos or quesadillas. Additionally, you could dip the tortillas in queso or fry them to make chips. I’ve even heard of people making pizzas with tortillas. Of course, being French, Romain put Nutella on one for dessert. To clarify, that’s a hard pass for me.
We made quesadillas so we just browned some ground beef and onion seasoned with salt and pepper, paprika, a touch of cayenne, chili powder, and cumin. We used a mixture of shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese because that’s what I found in France.
Of course, the homemade butter tortilla recipe pairs very well with spicy margaritas.
Next time, we’ll probably make the butter tortillas earlier in the day and then do our quesadilla assembly to cut back on the time, but you better believe I’m instating Sunday Mexican food nights in Normandy!
In conclusion, this tortilla recipe is so easy and will definitely become a staple.
Homemade Butter Tortillas
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour, plus additional for rolling out the tortillas (298g)
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup butter (57g)
- 7/8 to 1 cup hot tap water (200 to 227g)
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
- Chop the butter into small cubes and add it into the bowl. Use your fingers to work he butter into the flour until it disappears. This will take about five minutes.
- Start with the smaller amount of hot water and pour it in. Quickly stir the mixture together with a fork or whisk to bring the dough together. It'll look a little messy but that's okay. Use additional water if needed to bring the dough together.
- Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly, just until the dough forms a ball. If the dough is very sticky, add a little bit more flour. Allow the dough to rest, covered, for about 30 minutes. You can add a bit of olive oil to the dough to prevent it from sticking if you'd like. After the dough has rested, preheat an ungreased cast iron griddle or skillet over medium high heat.
- Divide the dough into eight balls. Working with one dough ball at a time, roll into a round about 8 inches in diameter. Some of ours came out as rectangles – it's fine. Get them as thin as you possibly can.
- Fry the tortilla in the ungreased pan for about 30 seconds on each side – just until small brown spots begin to form. Wrap the tortilla in a clean cloth when it comes off the skillet. Repeat with remaining dough balls.
Notes
- If you want to add in a teaspoon of baking powder you can, add it in step one.
- If you don’t have time to let the tortillas rest it’s fine, it just helps them to roll out easier. Likewise, if you go over 30 minutes for resting it’s okay too. The dough is pretty forgiving.
- Add more flour if you add too much water to the dough.
- Don’t worry if you don’t have a rolling pin. You can get creative – we used a bottle of Champagne the first time we made these.
- Let leftovers cool completely and put them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Reheat them in an ungreased skillet.
So, if you end up making these butter tortillas, let me know what you think!
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3 comments
Thank you for the recipe. I’m an American of Mexican decent living in London, I have had a hard time finding tortillas during the lockdown so I tried your recipe. My mother would always make tortillas and these are just as good as hers. Now I can have a taste of home whenever I’m in the mood.
I’m so glad you liked them! They’ve become a staple for me in Paris. I’ve started frying them too to make nachos. I’m going to make some tonight!