Sourdough Discard Recipes

Homemade Sourdough Flour Tortillas

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Make the most of your sourdough discard with these easy homemade sourdough flour tortillas. These soft, versatile tortillas are perfect for wrapping up your favorite sandwich fillings, making quesadillas, or serving as the base for tacos. Unlike store-bought tortillas, this recipe uses only a few simple ingredients, and it can be ready in less than an hour. The result? Beautifully textured tortillas with a mellow sourdough flavor that will make your taste buds dance. Don’t let your excess sourdough starter go to waste – try this recipe for homemade sourdough flour tortillas today!

Ingredients in Homemade Sourdough Flour Tortillas

  • Sourdough Discard: You can use fresh, bubbly sourdough starter if you want. If you don’t mind a more pronounced sourdough flavor, you can use refrigerated discard from up to a week or two old.  I always use 100% hydration sourdough discard.
  • Coconut Oil: This recipe calls for coconut oil. The coconut oil gives flour tortillas a soft texture. You can substitute lard for the coconut oil if desired.
  • Baking Powder: A little bit of baking powder helps the flour tortillas to rise and puff up as they are cooked.
  • Salt: Salt enhances the flavor, don’t leave it out!
  • All Purpose Flour: To keep flour tortillas soft and pliable, all purpose flour is used instead of a bread flour. The lower protein content helps the tortillas stay soft and pliable.
  • Hot Water: Hot water is used to help further relax the gluten and make the dough easy to work with.

Sourdough Discard in Homemade Sourdough Flour Tortillas

If you know me, you know I love throwing sourdough discard into almost anything–less waste and the health benefits of sourdough, yes please! I especially like using it in these homemade sourdough flour tortillas. In order to not have an overpowering sourdough flavor, I often use sourdough discard that is no more than a day or two old. Sometimes I’ll even use bubbly, fresh sourdough starter. If you want a more pronounced sourdough flavor, you can use refrigerated discard up to a week or two old if desired. If you use the discard cold, straight from the fridge, you’ll want to add very hot water to the dough to help compensate for the temperature.

Mixing the Tortilla Dough

Homemade sourdough flour tortillas can be mixed in a stand mixer  or using your hands. I like to use a stand mixer for ease, but the mixer here is just used to incorporate the dough and get it smooth – we want to avoid developing a lot of gluten, so kneading by hand is also a great option. Add all the ingredients to the bowl, including the very hot water. Hot water helps relax the gluten in these tortillas, making them easier to shape and roll out. Mix on low speed for about 2-3 minutes until the dough becomes smooth, soft and just a little bit tacky/sticky. Remove the dough from the bowl and let the dough rest for about 20 minutes before shaping into tortillas.

Shaping and Rolling Out Homemade Sourdough Flour Tortillas

After about 20 minutes, cut the dough into:

  • 10 pieces for 10 inch tortillas
  • 16 pieces for 8 inch tortillas

Quickly shape the pieces into little round balls by cupping your hand around the dough and moving it around in a circle on the countertop a few times per piece. Let the balls of dough rest again for about 5 minutes while you heat up a frying pan. If you make tortillas often, you may want to invest in a larger griddle for faster cooking.

Rolling Out Sourdough Tortillas:

Lightly flour a pastry mat. Pastry mats usually have measurement markings on them that can help you know how large to roll out your tortilla, so the pastry mat is optional but helpful. Take a dough ball and flour both sides. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a circle, rotating the dough about 45 degrees after each roll until you have a round circular shape. The goal is to get a very even and thin circle of dough. The dough should be just thin enough that you can almost see through it.

Cooking Homemade Sourdough Flour Tortillas

Take the tortilla off the pastry mat and cook in the hot frying pan. Heat for about 1 minute until the dough is puffed up and bubbly. Then turn the dough over and bake the other side for about 30 seconds. This time will be a little longer or shorter based on the actual heat of your frying pan. If the tortilla is browning too quickly, decrease the heat. If it’s not browning enough, increase the heat. It’s a bit of trial and error with the first tortilla.

The medium heat of around 400 degrees will help the tortillas puff up quickly (within the first 30 seconds) and form the air pockets that are so beautiful in homemade flour tortillas. 

Keep Tortillas Warm and Covered

Place the warm tortilla inside a kitchen towel on a plate. Repeat with the remaining balls of dough and keep the warm tortillas together inside the kitchen towel. Keeping them together like this helps them stay flexible instead of hardening and drying out. Enjoy warm or at room temperature later on in the day.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I store leftover homemade sourdough flour tortillas?

I use them the day I make them and stick any leftovers in an airtight container and place in my freezer. The refrigerator tends to dry bread out instead of keeping it fresh, so I always freeze leftover baked goods. They will last about 3 months in the freezer. Pull them out to defrost before using.

My tortillas aren’t cooking very evenly. Any advice?

This is usually an issue with temperature. Try increasing or decreasing your temperature a bit on the next tortilla. They should bubble up within the first 30 seconds.

My tortillas turned out dense and didn’t fill with many bubbles. How can I fix that?

Make sure you are rolling the tortillas thin and even. Increase the heat on your pan. Tortillas should puff up in about 30 seconds and fill with air bubbles. This gives them their pliability and keeps them light.

Homemade sourdough flour tortillas

Homemade Sourdough Flour Tortillas

Amy
Soft and delicious homemade sourdough flour tortillas are so easy to whip up. They take just a few minutes for the dough to come together and make your meal infinitely more delicious. Wrap up sandwiches or make some quesadillas with a side of rice and beans.
5 from 4 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Rest Time 20 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 10 10 inch tortillas

Ingredients
  

  • 350 grams all purpose flour
  • 5 grams salt about 1 teaspoon
  • 2 grams baking powder about 1/2 teaspoon
  • 70 grams coconut oil or lard see recipe notes
  • 125 grams sourdough discard, 100% hydration see recipe notes
  • 180 grams hot water 100 degrees F or warmer

Instructions
 

  • To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook add the flour, salt, baking powder, coconut oil, sourdough discard and hot water. Mix on low speed for about 2-3 minutes until combined and smooth. You can also knead this dough by hand for 5 minutes if desired.
  • The dough will be smooth, soft and just a little bit tacky/sticky. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes to relax the gluten.
  • Turn dough out onto the counter and cut into 10 pieces for 10 inch tortillas or 16 pieces for 8 inch tortillas. Quickly shape the pieces into little round balls by cupping your hand around the dough and moving it around in a circle on the countertop a few times per piece. Let the balls of dough rest again for about 5 minutes while you prepare the pan.
  • Heat a 12 inch frying pan over medium-high heat (about 400-450 degrees F). The frying pan should be very hot before cooking your first tortilla.
  • Lightly flour a pastry mat. Take a dough ball and flour both sides of the dough ball. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a circle, rotating the dough about 45 degrees after each roll until you have a round circular shape. The goal is to get a very even and thin circle of dough. The dough should be just thin enough that you can almost see through it.
  • Take the tortilla off the pastry mat and cook in the hot frying pan. Heat for about 1 minute until the dough is puffed up and bubbly. Then turn the dough over and bake the other side for about 30 seconds. This time will be a little longer or shorter based on the actual heat of your frying pan. Repeat with the remaining balls of dough.
  • Take a kitchen towel and place on a plate. Once the flour tortillas have been baked place the tortillas together inside the kitchen towel as they come out of the frying pan. Keeping them together like this helps them stay flexible instead of hardening and drying out.
  • Enjoy the tortillas warm or at room temperature. Baked flour tortillas freeze well for up to 3 months.

Notes

Sourdough Discard: You can use fresh, bubbly sourdough starter if you want. If you don’t mind a more pronounced sourdough flavor, you can use refrigerated discard from up to a week or two old.  I always use 100% hydration sourdough discard.
Coconut Oil: This recipe calls for coconut oil. The coconut oil gives the tortillas their soft texture. You can substitute lard for the coconut oil if desired.
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Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

14 Comments

  1. Thank you for this recipe! These are fabulous! 🫓🫓🫓😋

  2. Pingback: Aveia de forno, Carne de peru (reaproveitamento), papas de arroz, tofu. – Menu para o Dia!

  3. Great recipe! Just did them and will do them again for sure 😃

  4. We love breakfast burritos! This recipe took them to a whole new level! Thanks!

  5. I used a tortilla press to flatten my tortillas. When I cooked on the stovetop the tortillas, they immediately shrunk up. They never bubbled up and were quite thick. How can I correct this? Thank you for your help.

    • I haven’t used a tortilla press for these. If I did I would probably do them twice through the press and then roll even a bit thinner if needed. The tortillas will shrink a little as they bake so I try to roll them larger than what I need, compensating for the shrinkage.

  6. Cristina

    5 stars
    I made these tortillas today!! So easy and delicious!!!!

  7. 5 stars
    Just made these today. I use “ simple truth refined expeller pressed coconut oil,” if you don’t like the coconut taste. They were delicious and my husband said they were the best I’ve made. Thank you so much! 😊

  8. I measured everything just the way it was printed in the recipe. My water was 110 degrees, my dough became very sticky the longer I kneaded by hand. Could not get the soft texture, any idea where I messed up? My discarded was about a week old but I let it warm up and was a bit bubbly when I added.

    • Did you add a little extra flour as you kneaded by hand? If it’s overly sticky I would add some extra flour. The dough should feel tacky, not overly sticky when finished kneading. Discard can be more or less runny depending where it is in the fermentation cycle, so you may need a little extra flour as you knead.

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