Spelt Tortillas

Tortillas are such a staple in an average American household, and we believe every baker should have a tried and true recipe in their back pocket. Good tortillas should tick each of these five boxes: taste, texture, flexibility, durability, and nutrition. Bad news, you’re not going to find that in the store. Store-bought tortillas always seem to fall short in one of those categories. This is why we’ve been searching high and low for a recipe, and we’ve finally found it!

Tortillas are rarely the star of a dish, but, boy, can they stand out when they’re done poorly. The wrong taste, and they’re like the wrong note in the symphony of flavor in your mouth. If the texture is not just right, they break and all of your taco goodness spills onto your plate. Sometimes you’ll work for hours over tortillas only to find that they’ve dried out and crumble at the slightest handling. These tortillas are not that!

Want a simple but healthy recipe with a soft dough that rolls out like a dream and maintains its texture longer than it takes to cook the next one? Follow these instructions and you’ll have tortillas that check every box in less than an hour.

How to make spelt tortillas

These tortillas are made with whole grain spelt flour, which can be produced by blending Spelt berries for 90 to 120 seconds in a blender until you have a medium-fine flour. We love our flour to be as fresh as possible, but if you have whole grain Spelt flour ready to go, that works great as well! Make sure you mill or blend a little extra for rolling out the dough.

First you’re going to combine your flour, salt, and baking powder. We know baking powder may seem odd for tortillas, but trust the process! It’s one of the key ingredients to making these tortillas soft and chewy. Next you’re going to add your avocado oil and water to the flour mixture and knead for a couple of minutes. Don’t expect a perfectly smooth texture, yet. If your dough seems sticky and shaggy, you’re doing it right! At this point, cover your dough and let it rest for about twenty minutes.

After the dough has rested, knead it for another couple of minutes until it has that nice smooth texture we want in a dough. Form it into a ball, flatten it, and divide it into 8 equal pieces (about 50g). Roll these smaller sections into balls, covering as you go. This will prevent the dough from drying out. Remember that the rounder your balls are, the easier they will be to roll out into circles.

Sprinkle some flour onto a clean work surface, and flatten one ball into a disk. Make sure each side is well floured to prevent the tortilla from sticking to your rolling pin. Roll it out into a circle with a 7-8 inch diameter. Essentially, roll the dough out to a size slightly smaller than the pan you are using to cook it. Place the tortilla on your hot pan and cook on both sides. It doesn’t take much time. 10-20 seconds per side should do the trick. Place the cooked tortilla onto a clean kitchen towel, and cover it to keep it warm, soft, and flexible. Repeat 7 more times, and enjoy your delicious tortillas! Their nutty warm earthiness perfectly complements the flavors of a zesty taco, cheesy quesadilla, or rich breakfast burrito. Whatever you throw at them, these tortillas can take it!

Why should you make your tortillas at home?

Store-bought tortillas are cheap and super convenient, but most of them have no nutritional benefit. Some of them are downright bad for you. In order to keep these tortillas shelf-stable, a lot of beneficial nutrients and enzymes have been removed (because they go bad faster) and preservatives have been added. This makes them harder to digest, and a lot of the chemicals and preservatives are harmful to our bodies.

These Organic Whole Grain Spelt tortillas are exactly the opposite! They have so many rich nutrients like proteins, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. Your body will thank you for choosing them–not just your tongue!

You can purchase Organic Spelt Berries on our online shop.

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Spelt Tortillas

Prep Time35 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Servings: 8 Tortillas

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ Cups (227g) Organic Whole Grain Spelt Flour (or 1 ¼ Cups Spelt Berries)
• 1 tsp (6g) Real Salt
• 1 ½ tsp (4.8g) Baking Powder
• 3 Tbsp (40.5g) Avocado Oil
• ½ cup (114g) Water, lukewarm

Instructions

• To get medium fine flour, blend spelt berries in a blender for 90-120 seconds
• Combine the first three ingredients.
• Add Avocado Oil and Water to the dry ingredients and knead for 2-3 minutes. The dough will be slightly sticky and may be shaggy (surface not smooth)
• Cover the dough to prevent it from drying out and let the dough rest for 20 min.
• Knead the dough again for 2-3 min, until it is smooth, and form a ball.
• Flatten the dough ball, divide it into 8 equal pieces (~50g), Roll those into smaller balls and cover them to prevent the dough from drying as you roll your tortillas
• Place a ball in some flour and flatten it into a disc. Make sure both sides of the disc are well-floured.
• Flatten the disc on a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll your dough into a 7”-8” disc.
• Place your dough onto a hot (medium-high heat) pan and cook for 10 seconds. Flip the tortilla over and cook the other side for 5-10 seconds.
• Remove them from the pan, place them onto a kitchen towel, and cover them to keep them warm and soft.
• Repeat steps 7-10 with the remaining dough.

Notes

If using berries, make sure you mill some extra to use for rolling your tortillas.

Roll your tortillas to a size that fits your pan. If you only have an 8” pan, you should make smaller tortillas.

You can make smaller tortillas by dividing the dough into smaller portions.

Make sure your pan or griddle is hot before cooking your tortillas. This will help give your tortillas a nice toasted look and flavor while keeping them soft.

The thinner you make your tortillas, the quicker they cook, and the crispier they can become. Thicker tortillas will be softer and will take a couple of seconds more to cook. Play around with this until you get the desired texture.

When rolling out your dough, make sure your dough can slide and move. This means that the dough will not stick to the table and will be easier to form a circle.

Try not to add too much extra flour to your surface when you are rolling. You may have uncooked flour left over on your tortilla after cooking or the extra flour may burn in your pan and create an unpleasant flavor/smell.

To help make your tortillas more round, rotate your dough after every roll.