3 Secrets for Authentic Homemade Flour Tortillas [+Video]

Homemade flour tortillas are easier to make than you think! We have 3 simple secrets that will have you cranking out the most deliciously soft and tender tortillas.

“These are incredible! I have tried for years to make tortillas and they have never turned out better than the store bought ones you cook at home. I followed the recipe exactly and I couldn’t be happier with the end result. Trust me, this recipe is the only one you will ever need for soft, pliable and delicious tortillas.”

-OSB Reader

Easy Tortilla Recipe

My friend, Shelly, grew up in Mexico and when I heard that she makes the best tortillas I just had to try her recipe. I’d been testing off and on for years and finally decided that homemade tortillas were just not my fave. I loved the uncooked tortillas you get at Costco and had totally given up.

But now that I’ve tried these, I’ll be whipping up tortillas homemade from now on! Well, I’ll probably keep a pack of the uncooked tortillas from Costco on hand for dinner in a hurry, but homemade flour tortillas are SO MUCH BETTER!

These tortillas are perfect for tacos, burritos, fajitas, and of course, quesadillas! The first thing you are going to want to do once you’ve cooked these tortillas is to make yourself a quesadilla full of gooey melted cheese. I know, you’re not 9 years old, but trust me on this, you’ll never want a classic quesadilla more. Check out our quesadilla post if you find yourself in this boat.

If you want a real treat, take one of these tortillas hot off the griddle and spread some butter all over it. Roll it up and devour that baby! Yummmm, I’m totally craving a butter roll-up now!

Flour Tortilla Ingredients

One of my favorite things about this flour tortilla recipe is that they use normal pantry ingredients. Just 5 simple ingredients is all you are going to need!

• bread flour
• baking powder
• salt
• oil
• water

That’s it! Can you believe it?! Nothing fancy, just the basics! Now let’s jump in to how to make them…

How to Make Homemade Tortillas

Start by adding the flour (see secret #1 below), salt, baking powder and oil (see secret #2 below) to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the dough hook attachment and turn the speed to low. The mixture will slowly come together. When it looks like slightly wet sand that holds together when you squeeze it, you know that you have the right consistency.

Now it is t

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I’m curled up on the couch at my sister’s cabin this morning as I send this email. The snowy view out the window is making me very grateful for indoor heating, fuzzy warm socks, and cozy blankets.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: With a velvety broth loaded with the goodness of corn, potatoes, and bell peppers, this cheesy, Creamy Vegetable Soup is one heck of a hearty meal.

Hearty noodles serve as the perfect backdrop for slightly sweet cabbage and savory bacon in this simple Cabbage Spaghetti. This is SO good, I ate it three days in a row. And then, I made it again.

The sweetness of caramelized onions gives traditional hummus an extraordinary upgrade with this Caramelized Onion Hummus.

There’s plenty of spicy kick in this easy-to-make Canned Tomato Salsa. It just might have you saying goodbye to store-bought varieties forever. (And no one is more surprised that I’m writing that than I am!)

Loaded with pecan pieces and plenty of coconut flavor, these Coconut Pecan Cookies are perfectly chewy with just the right amount of crunch.

These Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies are soft, chewy cookies filled with tart cranberries and infused with sweet oranges and fragrant cardamom.

Fresh Lemon Sorbet is a light and refreshing treat that is a terrific addition to any meal. At first glance, a scoop of sorbet is unlikely to grab your attention and impress. However, at first taste, you’re certain to be won over immediately.

What I’m CRAVING: There aren’t many cookies that I crave the way I crave my friend Christi’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. If you love chocolate and peanut butter, these cookies are truly as good as that combination gets. I need to make another batch soon. They are FANTASTIC.

My FAVORITE THING this week is this travel toiletry bag. The interior is waterproof, so it wipes clean easily. The compartments are so well thought out that after using it for almost 3 years now, I have no complaints at all. I like it even more now than I did when I first started using it. And it gets bonus points for the hook that allows you to hang it on a towel rack or hook for super easy access to everything.

What I’m READING: Read more

Smoked Brisket Chili – 5 Different Ways

Our chili recipes are some of the most popular out there, so it was time to share our mega tasty Traeger smoked brisket chili! And we are sharing 5 different ways to make it – stove top, oven braised, smoker, slow cooker or Instant Pot.

The smoky flavor of the brisket with those bold chili flavors ands spices makes for an outrageously good bowl of chili. I love to top my bowl with shredded cheddar cheese and some sour cream.

I mean, where do I even start? This smoked brisket chili recipe has been living in my brain for probably the past 5-6 years and it has taken me all this time to get it down on “paper”. How weird that we rarely use paper anymore. Remember all those calendars on walls and sticky notes of reminders?

5 Different Ways

Anyway, I always have leftover brisket, those things are huge and my children are small. Therefore, brisket chili. And you don’t need a ton for this recipe…just 1.5 lbs.

I want to help you out so there will be five different versions explained. Please don’t get bugged! I will get questions about making it different ways so I’m just trying to anticipate that and help. The five different ways are stove top, oven braised, smoked, slow cooker and Instant Pot. Then there will be instructions for both uncooked brisket and leftover brisket for each method. Make sense? Sheesh, I hope so! Here we go…

First, I will start by explaining how to brown uncooked brisket if you’re going to go that route…

How to Brown Brisket for Chili

1. Cube the pieces of raw brisket meat – Trim any hard fat as that will not melt away in the cooking process. Remember, the size of the meat is what you’ll be eating so we want no bigger than 2″ pieces (these will break down so you can smash them a bit, creating smaller pieces once cooked).
2. Season the brisket with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in the bottom of a cast iron dutch oven or large pot until shimmering. Cook the brisket in batches, never at once or it will end up cooking in liquid, aka boiled meat. Remove to a plate and proceed with the recipe of your choice, oven braised, smoked, or stove top. 

 Using Leftover Brisket for Chili

If you have leftover brisket either from our smoked brisket recipe or our slow cooker brisket, your steps will be fewer…

1. Because your meat is already prepared, start by cooking the veggies and seasonings first. 
2. Add cubed
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Fresh lemon sorbet is a light and refreshing treat that is a terrific addition to any meal.

At first glance, a scoop of sorbet is unlikely to grab your attention and impress. However, at first taste, you’re certain to be won over immediately.

Lemon Sorbet

My sister and I often talk about that “unforgettable bite.” A special meal or fancy dinner out that you remember fondly often contains a certain food or combination of flavors that simply wows you.

It never fails to impress me when a small number of ingredients are combined to create something truly amazing. I tasted a lemon sorbet for the first time while on a cruise with my sister Jenny and we found ourselves talking about it repeatedly over the next few days.

I got back home from our trip on a Saturday night and on Sunday I was in the kitchen mixing this sorbet together. I simply had to recreate it for my family.

Sorbet Palate Cleanser

While I typically choose a rich ice cream, a fruit cobbler, or a chewy fudge brownie for dessert, believe it or not, there are times when I crave something lighter.

Whether you’re serving this sorbet as a palate cleanser, a light dessert, or a fancy after-dinner treat, I’m willing to bet that you’re going to love it every bit as much as we do.

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White Chocolate Banana Bread

We’ve only given you 50 Banana Bread recipes, so why not make it 51 with this moist white chocolate banana bread full of white chocolate chips and banana flavor!

STOP! Before you read this post, have you read our post on The Very Best Banana Bread? It’s essential before you make this white chocolate banana bread recipe. The batter is really simple, but you’ll want to follow a few tricks to make it turn out perfect.

Especially if you choose to make muffins like our Crumb Banana Bread Muffin recipe because muffins that are over mixed are flat topped.

This is a recipe our daughter created when she was only 7 years old and it was the perfect opportunity for me to teach her about the banana bread rules.

Banana Bread Rules

• Ripe Bananas- This is a tricky one as everyone claims a banana to be ripe at different points, but I would look for medium bananas that are starting to brown and are heavily covered in freckles. Once the banana has gone black its sugar and water content is different and can lead to a lame finished product.
• Use a regular loaf pan instead of a very large one and I’ve found that metal actually works best.
• If you’re not comfortable with the tap test to be sure it’s cooked through, gently insert a toothpick into the center and it should come out clean.
• All purpose flour is best here, but you can experiment with half whole wheat as well.
• Sweet White Chocolate melts down in the loaf and disappears a bit so don’t be shocked if you don’t slice the bread and find chocolate chips everywhere.

After we created our best moist banana bread recipe (you guys, it literally took us years and years, no joke) we were dying to take a break, er I mean try even more recipes, haha.

Ok, it was a balance of both. On the one hand we really did need a break from banana bread, but on the other our minds were suddenly bubbling with ideas. After breakfast one Saturday, our youngest daughter asked if she could create a white chocolate banana bread recipe, and how could you ever turn down that?

Secret Ingredient

The banana bread is super moist thanks to the oil and mashed bananas, but what’s really awesome about it is that it almost has a slight churro flavor with the hint of cinnamon and those creamy white chocolate chips. My goodness, she nailed it!!