Best Whole Wheat Tortillas Recipe (with Fresh Milled Flour!)

The first time I made whole wheat flour tortillas using fresh-milled grains, I decided I’d never buy tortillas from the grocery store again. Yes, they are that good! We’ve had families over for “Taco Tuesday”, and they’ve all agreed (and asked for the recipe before leaving.) 

I’ve been making these tortillas for about four years now and finally decided to share the recipe so that others could benefit from our experience and get to try the best whole wheat tortillas for themselves. 

Homemade vs. Store Bought Tortillas — What’s the Difference?

Have you ever looked at the nutrition label on a bag of store-bought tortillas? Just one glance at the ingredients list, and you’ll see that most of them are full of junk. Lots of unnecessary stuff like bleached white flour that’s “enriched” with chemically produced synthetic vitamins and bad oils like soybean or palm oil …

Of course this depends on the brand of tortillas, but the good ones are few and far between (and usually much more expensive).

If we’re limited on time and don’t have the luxury of making tortillas at home, we’ll buy Siete Almond Flour Tortillas from our local Costco, because they’re a healthier option that’s available in bulk. But for the most part, we opt for homemade tortillas with fresh milled flour.

Benefits of Fresh Ground Flour 

If you‘ve never milled our own flour and don’t own a grain mill, no worries! You can still make this with store-bought whole wheat flour. But I encourage almost everyone I talk to who‘s interested in eating healthy to start milling your own grain. I promise there’s nothing like it. The main benefit of whole wheat vs white flour — especially when you mill it fresh just prior to cooking — is that it’s packed with nutrients! 

Whole grain is made up of the entire grain kernel, which includes the bran, germ and endosperm. The bran and germ contain many nutrients that aren’t present in white flour, because commercial mills remove these essential parts from whole grains, leaving the starchy part behind. Sadly, this part is mostly void of nutrients.

When you eat white flour instead of whole wheat flour, you’re missing out on things like folate, vitamin E, fiber, antioxidants and enzymes. In fact, white flour is often “enriched” with synthetic versions of these nutrients later on! 

If you think about it, this really doesn’t make much sense. Commercial flour producers are removing the real, live nutrition from whole grains and replacing it with synthetically produced fake versions. As a result, most of the bread products we buy from the store are essentially “dead”.

Why would they do this? Most likely it’s to maximize profits. But that’s another post for another day…

“So why can’t I just buy organic wheat flour from the store instead of milling my own?”

Well, technically, you can. But the result won’t be the same.

Most grains we consume are seeds. When seeds are damaged, the oils in them are released and will slowly begin to oxidize and eventually become rancid. How long this takes depends on a variety of factors like temperature and exposure to light, air, etc. but the process starts quickly — usually within hours of milling. 

So when you buy flour from the store that’s already been milled, it likely began this process of going rancid a long time ago, and it has lost most of it’s nutritional value and flavor as well. 

What is the best type of flour to use when making whole grain tortillas?

Another benefit of milling your own grain is the amount of choices you have on the types of flour you can use. Hard white wheat, soft white wheat, or ancient grains like einkorn or spelt will produce a variety of different flavors and textures in different baked goods. 

I’ve made these tortillas with several different flours, and I’ve found that a combination of hard and soft white wheat produces the perfect elasticity and texture. It’s also most similar to all purpose flour, which is what you’re likely to use if you don’t have the option of fresh milled. 

A quick note about all purpose flour: I’ve been milling my own flour for several years and have never made this recipe with store-bought AP flour.

Fresh milled flour absorbs liquid much faster than all purpose, so you may need to adjust the amount used. I always add a little at a time and observe the texture and thickness of my dough to determine whether or not more flour should be added.

Remember: you can always add more flour! Adding too much can lead to a dry dough that doesn’t press well. You definitely want the dough to be somewhat moist but not so wet that it sticks to your tortilla press and is difficult to work with. 

How long does it take to make fresh milled flour tortillas from scratch?

I won’t sugarcoat it for you: this can a somewhat labor-intensive recipe. If you make a large batch and only cook one tortilla at time, it can take awhile. So if you’d rather just buy a bag of dead flour tortillas from the grocery store, I totally get it and won’t judge you for doing so.

(Well, I may judge you a little bit…)

But trust me when I say that tortillas made with fresh milled flour are the best whole-wheat tortillas you will ever eat!

It is so worth the time spent rolling each ball of dough out by hand and hearing that initial sizzle when you place it in your hot cast iron skillet. You’ll smell the flavors as the edges begin to crisp up and when you take that first bite into a soft chewy taco, you’ll never look back…

There are also ways to make it go faster. You can use a large electric griddle that cooks a few at a time. Or you can spread a few skillets out over your stove and cook several tortillas at once. If you cook 2 or 3 at a time, you can easily have this recipe done in an hour or less.

Simmer your taco meat in the crock pot all day long, or use an instant pot to pressure cook it while the tortillas are being prepped, and you have an easy weeknight dinner that’ll quickly become a family favorite.

Ingredients for the Best Whole-Wheat Tortillas:

• Warm Water
• Oil — I use extra virgin olive oil, but you could use avocado oil or coconut oil as well.)
• Sea Salt
• Baking Powder
• Flour — I use fresh milled flour made from a combination of 50% hard white wheat and 50% soft white wheat. You could also use Kamut, or spelt flour for a nuttier flavor.
• Sunflower lecithin — This is optional, so don’t worry if you don’t have it on hand! Sunflower lecithin is an emulsifier and dough conditioner that helps to bind water and make the dough less sticky. It also makes for a softer tortilla. It comes in either liquid or powder form. I’ve used both but prefer the liquid due to ease of use. If you use the powder, you will need to whisk it into the flour and break it up a bit, as it does tend to clump up when mixed with the wet ingredients.

How to Make the Best Whole Wheat Tortillas

Here is the process for making homemade whole wheat tortillas with fresh-milled flour. If you’re using all-purpose flour, you can skip the milling step:

Step 1: Mill the wheat berries into flour. 

Step 2: Mix the wet ingredients together.

Step 3: Add the dry ingredients.

Step 4: Divide the dough into equal portions and shape each portion into a ball.

Step 5: Press and roll each ball into a flat tortilla shape and cook over medium heat for about 1 minute on each side. 

I use a cast iron skillet and cook each tortilla on the stove, but you can also use an electric griddle or tortilla press to make the process faster and easier! If I’m cooking a lot of tortillas, I’ll place several skillets on the stove at once. 

Note: One batch of this recipe makes about 10 to 12 (8-inch) tortillas. If you make them smaller, you can easily get more.

How to Store Whole Wheat Homemade Flour Tortillas

Fresh-milled flour tortillas can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks in a resealable plastic bag, (or reusable beeswax wrap if you prefer a nontoxic, long-lasting option.) But I recommend using them within 3 days for the freshest texture and flavor. You can also store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.

How to Reheat Handmade Flour Tortillas

To reheat cooked tortillas, warm them in a skillet over low heat one at a time. Or you can stack them on an ovenproof plate or in a tortilla warmer, cover with foil, and heat in a 350-degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until warm throughout.