These easy, cheesy grain free soft tapioca wraps are made with simple gluten free pantry ingredients—plus they stay flexible even when they’re cold and freeze beautifully.
Wherever they go, these soft gluten free wraps made from tapioca flour in the style of Brazilian cheese bread are the star of the show. They’re soft and flexible, and are simply. not. going. to. break.
For lunch, I like to fill them with turkey and basil, with a nice spread of hummus. For dinner, we love them with c0le slaw and chicken fingers. They’re also perfect spread with hummus and stuffed with julienned vegetables.
The wraps can be made long ahead of time, and so can the dough if you want to roll them out and make them fresh. To make the dough ahead of time, just wrap it tightly in plastic wrap when raw, and store it in the refrigerator for a week, or in the freezer for even longer. The dough rolls out simply and easily, too.
How to make these grain free wraps
Unlike most gluten free recipes made with an all purpose gluten free flour blend, they’re made with only one flour, tapioca starch. The recipe is a riff on our recipe for Against the Grain-style rolls, which itself is a variation of Brazilian cheese bread.
When I first started making this recipe (and the rolls), the method I used was the traditional Brazilian cheese bread method of bringing milk to a simmer before adding tapioca flour, egg, and cheese. Then, process everything until smooth in a food processor.
Since I have made these recipes so many times over the years, I started simplifying the recipe to see if it still worked, and was thrilled when I saw that it did.
A new, simpler method
Now, to make these wraps, I just load up the food processor with the grated cheeses, egg, salt, oil, and tapioca starch/flour, and add about 1/4 cup of the milk. Process until it begins to combine, and stream in about another 1/4 cup of milk. Stop right when the dough is smooth.
Not only does this method make everything simpler and easier, but it allows you to modify the amount of moisture based upon the type of cheese you use.
If you use pre-shredded cheeses, which I recommend, they’re a bit drier and you’ll need a bit more moisture. If you use freshly grated cheeses, you’ll need a bit less.
What if I make the dough too dry? Too wet?
If you add a little bit more milk than you should, you can simply wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator until it’s firmer. Working with the dough when it’s cold, you’ll find it much easier to handle.
If you add way too much milk, you may want to simply double the other ingredients (cheeses, oil, egg, tapioca starch/flour) and process while adding more milk very, very slowly. That’s the only way to rescue dough that has had way too much liquid added.
You’ll know that your dough is too dry if it crumbles at all when you try to knead it. If it breaks off in shards, it probably also needs some more moisture. Just add it slowly through the open shoot of your food processor and allow it to process fully.
Ingredients and substitutions
Dairy-free: I’m afraid these are just not a good candidate for making dairy free. They rely upon 9 ounces of cheese total in 10 wraps. I have tried making our Against the Grain rolls recipe, which is very similar, with homemade Miyoko’s Kitchen recipe cheese and with many different packed dairy-free shredded cheeses. All failed miserably.
The cheese: This recipe works best with pre-grated low moisture mozzarella cheese. It contains anti-caking ingredients, often starch, that prevent the dough from becoming too sticky and not holding its shape during shaping and baking.
Egg-free: There is only one egg in this recipe, and I am cautiously optimistic that you could replace it with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel)—especially since these wraps don’t have to rise.
Tapioca flour/starch: There simply is no proper substitution for tapioca starch (which is also called tapioca flour). The quality of this ingredient varies a ton.
I can only recommend buying tapioca starch from nuts.com, Authentic Foods, or Vitacost.com. Bob’s Red Mill tapioca starch/flour is of very inconsistent quality and I recommend against it. I also recommend against using tapioca flour from the bulk bins in the Asian food stores, as the product is frequently contaminated with gluten-containing ingredients and of inferior quality.
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
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Can you use a tortilla press and is there anything I would need to do to keep it from sticking if it could be used?
Hi, Sherry, please see my post about fresh corn tortillas for how I like to use a tortilla press and keep dough from sticking to it.
ANY info on calorie content?
I’m afraid I don’t have the manpower to provide nutrition information for all of my recipes. Feel free to plug the ingredients into an online nutrition calculator. That’s all I would do anyway! :)
My journey is just beginning and these wraps give me hope. I think I will need both your cookbooks. Money is tight, but the change needs to happen soon.
There’s lots of hope, Lorie!! I promise. Don’t buy a book just yet. Use the blog first and go from there. If you do decide to buy a book, buy the second edition of my first book (available in bookstores, or on Amazon).
We almost always have your flour tortillas or these delicious tapioca wraps (from Small Bites) on hand, so we had to try this simplified version of the recipe this evening. They turned out so well! I agree with Jennifer’s enthusiasm… It isn’t often that we get something so delicious with a nice chewy feel. It is a real treat!
Is there any other oil that can be used? Canola oil and I unfortunately do not get along at all.
Sure, Misty. Any neutral oil (like grapeseed, peanut) will do!
Thanks, I’ll see if I can’t incorporate a little more milk into it and then try to roll them out.
I made this recipe yesterday and had to leave it in the fridge overnight. When I rolled it out this morning all it did was crumble. Too dry perhaps? Also, how thick should you roll them out? I have a rolling pin that rolls to 1/16th of an inch.
It sounds like you didn’t add enough milk, and that perhaps it wasn’t wrapped tightly enough when you set it in the refrigerator. The refrigerator is very drying to anything exposed to the air. 1/16 of an inch is most definitely too thin, since they’d be practically translucent! Between 1/8 and 1/4 inch works, but they work regardless of thickness.
Can I make these without the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese?
You can try replacing the Parm with more pre-shredded mozzarella, Channa, but I really recommend you make them exactly as written!
If I am on the keto diet can we have these in the diet I am hoping I could but it says no flour does your flour count as a bad flour?
I’m afraid these are not appropriate for the keto diet, Jeanna, since tapioca flour is not appropriate.
These look un-freaking-believable! I’d happy eat that wrap for lunch every day of the week.
These are fantastic! They really remind me of staffordshire oatcakes – soft and chewy. And as they are traditionally eaten with some combination of cheese, bacon, sausages, onions and mushrooms, these are a perfect replacement.
Do you think a tortilla press would work instead of rolling these out?
Any idea on great tapioca flour options in Canada?
I am so darn excited to try this!!
Have your books, can’t wait to get the bread one!
Thank you!
I am so excited to try these that I don’t want the wrong quality to mess with my success!
Oh, Nicole, you had me at soft wrap! I am really feeling bummed about packing my daughter’s lunch with toasted Udi’s bread… no offense to the brand, but when you heat and then pack to eat later, it’s really really SAD. I know I should try to make my own bread – um, I have your books (!!) and your white sandwich bread from book one has been beckoning to me for ages – I just have not found the time to do so. Pathetic, I know. However, these wraps give me hope! They seem easy to make and really a great bread sub. So thank you for this! Can’t wait to try asap. (One day I will make bread, maybe when my little son is not trying to climb up my legs.)
-Dana
Thanks Nicole! It was two thumbs up from the gluten-free boy in panama!!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Minutes ago I was telling my daughter that I would have to make your copycat Against the Grain rolls more often & freeze them (said as she mentioned that she’d eaten another of the $8 ones for breakfast). Having another recipe like this in my toolbox is GOLDEN. Perfect start to my week! Gina
So glad, Gina! Thanks so much for the nice note – and I hope you are able to stay away from those crazy expensive rolls!
I’m a fan of your tortillas and can’t wait to try these – woot!
These MUST be good if you were willing to get out your food processor!
I know it’s not right to be this excited about a wrap that tastes good and is flexible but holy cow am I right now!!! THANK YOU!
Also, went and bought some freeze-tite and snapware after your reminder about that post! totally forgot about that one.
And, I made the PB cookies with sunbutter. They are ok – just really for taste only. Technically the recipe turned out fine though the dough was greasy and the cookies were completely normal looking. If you use sunbutter religiously – you’ll love them with it.
I know it’s not right to be this excited about a wrap that tastes good and is flexible but holy cow am I right now!!! THANK YOU!
Also, went and bought some freeze-tite and snapware after your reminder about that post! totally forgot about that one.
And, I made the PB cookies with sunbutter. They are ok – just really for taste only. Technically the recipe turned out fine though the dough was greasy and the cookies were completely normal looking. If you use sunbutter religiously – you’ll love them with it.
Absolutely beautiful! I’ve been waiting/looking for a soft wrap…can’t wait to try. Funny you mention Brazilian cheese bread (Pao de Queijo) as I found a recipe last week on Globetrotter Diaries and I would have never thought to make them into wraps. Brilliant idea!
Can’t wait to try this! I’ve been so lazy lately eating gluten foods, feeling ick. This is my inspiration to behave again, thanks so much.
Love your stuff…. ahhh where would we be without you?