Easy Gluten Free Flour Tortillas (Only 5 Ingredients!)

Tortilla Dough

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Method

1. In a bowl, whisk together the psyllium husk and warm water. After about 15-20 seconds a gel will form. Set aside until needed.
2. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend and salt.
3. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, then add the oil and the psyllium gel.
4. Mix with a wooden spoon until the dough starts coming together, then knead thoroughly by hand: squeeze the dough through your fingers and work your way around the bowl, scraping the sides as necessary. Make sure there are no patches or clumps of dry flour.
5. The final dough should come away from the sides of the bowl and feel very springy, not too sticky. It does not need a perfectly smooth surface – just homogeneous, with all ingredients well combined and no clumps of flour or psyllium gel.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 12 equal portions.
7. Shape each portion into a ball. The surfaces do not need to be smooth – that is due to the lack of gluten and will not matter once the tortillas are rolled out. Cover the dough balls with a dish towel to prevent them from drying out.
8. Lightly flour the work surface and the top of a dough ball, then roll it out into an approximately round tortilla about 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter and about 1 mm thin. Rotate it frequently to prevent sticking and maintain the round shape, dusting the surface and top with more flour as needed.
9. Tip: the tortillas should be very thin, about 1 mm – this makes them easy to use as wraps and ensures they puff up while cooking. You can roll one tortilla while another is cooking, or roll them all first and stack them with pieces of baking/greaseproof paper between them, covered with a dish towel.
10. Preheat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. The pan is ready when a droplet of water sizzles on its surface. Cast iron is not recommended: tortillas tend to stick to it, puff less, and dry out more quickly.
11. Place a tortilla in the hot pan and cook for about 45 seconds. Flip it once you see bubbles appearing on the surface and the underside is dry with occasional light brown spots.
12. Once flipped, the tortilla should puff up in places with bubbles of varying size. Cook the other side for about 45 seconds to 1 minute, until large dark brown spots appear on the underside. If the tortillas brown too quickly, reduce the heat; if each side takes longer than a minute, increase it.
13. Transfer the cooked tortilla to a clean dish towel and cover it well – this traps the steam and keeps it soft and flexible. Cook the remaining tortillas the same way.
14. The tortillas are best served warm, immediately after cooking.

Notes

Servings: 12 tortillas. Per tortilla (estimated): ~149 kcal, ~0.6 g protein, ~23 g carbs, ~4.6 g fat, ~2.3 g fiber. Macros are estimates summed from USDA per-100 g values for the listed ingredients – the source does not state nutrition. Fiber comes mostly from the psyllium husk, which also provides the structure that makes the dough rollable without gluten.

The psyllium husk is the key ingredient: it forms a gel with the warm water that substitutes for the elasticity gluten would provide. Use whole (rough husk) form as listed; if you only have psyllium husk powder, reduce it to 20 g. Do not skip it or substitute – the dough will not roll out.

Flour blend: the creator uses Doves Farm Freee plain gluten free flour, but you can mix your own from 50% finely ground white rice flour, 30% potato starch, and 20% maize flour by weight (maize flour in the UK is equivalent to corn flour in the US). The flour is measured by weight, so weigh it – cups are approximate.

Storage: the tortillas keep well in a zip-lock bag or wrapped tightly in cling film for 2-3 days. To soften next-day tortillas, heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, lightly spray the tortilla with water, and cook it in the hot pan with the lid on for about 45 seconds to a minute per side; then cover and wrap it in a dish towel for a few minutes to trap the steam.

Source: The Loopy Whisk (Katrin Nurnberger), “Easy Gluten Free Flour Tortillas (Only 5 Ingredients!)”, published 2021-07-29. https://theloopywhisk.com/2021/07/29/easy-gluten-free-flour-tortillas/