Tortillas

2023 UPDATE! I have finally mastered a good homemade tortilla using Maseca masa harina! (recipe changed below). Although the recipe makes 16 medium size tortillas, I cut this in half and make 8 medium sized tortillas for 2 people. To make bigger tortillas, you can use a skillet to flatten them – my tortilla press won’t make larger tortillas.

My photos from 2018 below show how they should NOT look – the edges of the raw tortillas should be smooth, not jagged which indicates the dough was too dry.

ORIGINAL POST: I’ve made them before but not many times and not always successfully. I have decided to have that as a goal: successful tortillas. I watched 2 videos to see if I was missing anything. Here’s what I was missing – they don’t put in the videos what you are missing. But the dough needs to stay moist for one thing. “Resting” the dough – one video said 15 minutes; the other said about an hour. The Maseca bag info does not mention this at all. But it makes sense – it allows the masa to absorb the water.

The recipe is really easy – what’s hard is the process from recipe to finished tortilla. I rested my dough as one ball for 1 hour, with the bowl covered by a towel as suggested, to keep it moist. I think it might have gotten a little bit dry. I used a gallon size zip lock bag, cut into one long strip, to line my old, heavy cast iron tortilla press (these days the presses are aluminum). I rolled them into “golf ball sized” balls, per directions, but I think that is a little big. I used just enough to make 6 tortillas, per the calculations from the IsabelEats site – it made more like 8. (who’s counting, since I ate some while the others cooked.) I pressed a couple too hard and had to smush them off the plastic and re-press.

Print Recipe

Corn Tortillas from masa

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• tortilla press or rolling pin
• plastic wrap, plastic bag, waxed paper, parchment paper - to line the tortilla press
• a scale is handy
• comal or skillet
• masa (flour not fresh) - I use Maseca, 2 cups
• water - I use warm (hot tap) water, 2 cups
• salt - I just use "some" - calculation was 1/4 teaspoon

Instructions

1

mix 1 c. water, all salt and masa together with your hands, adding more water a little at a time to create a dough that should not be sticky or too crumbly or dry - sorta like play dough. It usually doesn't take both cups of water, maybe 1.8 or so.

2

cover the bowl with a cloth or plastic, and let it rest for 30 - 60 minutes

3

line your tortilla press and heat up your comal

4

with your hands, take off golf-ball sized chunks and roll them into balls. I measure the weight of the dough and then use measurements to get a consistent size chunk. Cover the balls with a damp tea towel while cooking.

5

put a ball in the center of the lined tortilla press and close to make tortilla - this part takes some practice to get the right size. The edges should still be smooth and round; if not, the dough is too dry.

6

keep the dough covered to prevent drying out!

7

cook the tortillas on a hot, unoiled griddle, one at a time in this order: first, 30 seconds and flip; then 1 minute and flip - on side three, use the spatula to press the tortilla which will then puff up, 30 seconds. Then flip one more time for 15-30 seconds and put into a tortilla warmer of some kind.

UPDATE 2023

I DO THEM DIFFERENTLY NOW!

Here’s the part I think I need work on – I pressed them all, put them on a plate, and fired up the burner under my comal. After futzing with Tortilla #1 – comal wasn’t hot enough, the oil was smoking anyway, I flipped it several times – which the Maseca recipe recommends anyway – the other uncooked tortillas dried out a little, and the top one stuck to the ones below it. In retrospect, I think I need to just press, cook, press, cook, because the stacking of uncooked one on top of the other caused me to have to re-press several.

Also, my comal wasn’t hot enough except the oil was smoking (and my smoke detector chirped twice during the process). Maybe I don’t need any oil on it, but I’m going to get a higher smoke point oil, although I used corn oil which is supposed to be 440F. As a result of the comal not being hot enough, it took 1 full minute per side to get a few browned spots.

I think they need more salt too. I didn’t really measure it since the measurement was 0.25 teaspoon.

Homemade tortillas are a little thicker than the machine-made ones at the grocery, but hot with some butter and salt – oh yeah. How they would stand up to a taco, I don’t know – mine broke when folded (too small to roll successfully), where store-made will roll up. I guess that will be part of my quest. 2023 Update: when moist enough (and frankly, small enough) they work well enough with a taco.