Store bought tortillas are not something to be enjoyed so much as they are a tool. They are great for wrapping, containing, and delivering other delicious foods to your mouth. In recent years I’ve wanted something better than a tool, so I decided to make homemade tortillas.
Ingredients
This makes about 15 tortillas
| Ingredient | Amount | Amount Units | Usage Cost | Cost Explained |
| Flour | 3 | cups | $0.24 | 100 cups (25 lbs) = $7.89 at Costco |
| Baking powder | 2 | tsp | $0.15 | $3.69 for 8.1 oz at King Soopers, 48.6 tsp |
| Salt | 1 | tbsp | $0.02 | $1.00 for 26oz at King Soopers, 52 tbsp, 156 tsp |
| Vegetable Oil | 0.33 | cups | $0.24 | $4.39 for 48 oz at King Soopers. 48oz = 96 tbsp = 6 cups |
| Water | 1 | cups | $0.00 | |
| Total: $0.65 |
Prep Steps
Total time to make the dough and cook the tortillas is about one hour. The time could be reduced with a tortilla press, and a cooking surface that allows for multiple tortillas cooking at one time. I roll my tortillas by hand and use a cast iron skillet which can only fit one tortilla.
- Heat the water until slightly hot to the touch
- Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl until you have a consistent dough ball
- Knead the dough on a flat surface for a few minutes to ensure it is consistent throughout
- Put dough under a damp cloth and let sit for 10 minutes
- During that 10 minutes, begin heating a cast iron pan on medium high heat
- Tear off golf ball sized chunks of dough, flatten by hand into a small circle, and then roll into a thin large circle
- Cook in cast iron pan for about 30 seconds on each side
There is a rhythm I settle into when making these. While the first side of the tortilla is cooking, I tear off another chunk of dough and form it into the small circle. Then I flip the tortilla to cook the other side while I roll the next tortilla. The timing of this back and forth is perfect where I don’t have to run a timer to know when to flip the tortilla.
The Numbers
Cost
This recipe makes a batch of about 15 tortillas. The entire batch costs $0.65, and each tortilla is about 4 cents. A month’s worth of calories from these tortillas is $19.25 based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet. The benchmark of budget eating, Cup Noodles, costs $108.75 for the same calories. Neither of them has any real nutritional value on which to survive for a whole month.
| Calories Per Tortilla | 135 |
| Cost Per Tortilla | $0.04 |
| Cost Per 1K Calories | $0.32 |
| Cost to eat nothing but this for one month | $19.25 |
Mission Tortilla Comparison
Comparing cost and macronutrients against Mission Super Soft Flour Tortillas, Soft Taco Size is a mixed bag. The homemade tortillas win on cost, lower sugar, and taste (in my opinion). Mission wins on protein, fiber, and convenience.
| Homemade | Mission | |
| Cost per 1K calories | $0.32 ✅ | $2.14 |
| Protein (g) per 1K calories | 19 | 28.4 ✅ |
| Sugar (g) Per 1K calories | 0 ✅ | 14.2 |
| Fiber (g) Per 1K calories | 5 | 7.1 ✅ |
The work to make these tortillas can really only be justified on texture and taste. Macronutrients are a wash, and the cost savings which are large in percentage terms, are a small actual amount. If you ate one homemade tortilla every day, you are saving 26 cents per day, or $94.90 per year. The investment amount needed to instead passively buy Mission tortillas is just a rounding error in your portfolio, $2,372.50.
The hourly rate you are making for cooking these at home is $3.90 per hour. It’s not worth your time to make these unless you enjoy eating them, which I do.
Notes
The prices shown here are current as of September 12th, 2026. The numbers for calories and macronutrients were pulled directly from the product labels.
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