I’ve heard the hype for years, that homemade corn tortillas are so much better than store-bought. So this weekend I put it to the test ….
I mean really, how much different could they be? Same ingredients, same cooking method, same everything – right?
Boy, was I ever wrong.
The soft, amazingly tasty tortillas that came out of my pan were NOTHING like those rubbery things I’ve been buying in the store. And I mean NOTHING!
I’m talking night and day different.
So I thought I’d show you how I made them this weekend.
It’s not so much of a recipe as the instructions are written on the back of every bag of cornflour. But there is a certain technique you want to learn if you want perfect tortillas that don’t stick to your pan.
All it takes to make yummy homemade corn tortillas are 3 simple ingredients:
- Masa Harina (cornflour – NOT cornmeal!)
- Salt
- Water
And that’s it.
A tortilla press is a handy little tool for making perfectly round tortillas too. I picked mine up for about $30 at a local store, but they’re not absolutely necessary. A large flat-bottomed pan would work to press out your tortillas or even 2 cutting boards would probably work too – just as long as there is even pressure.
Here is a link to a cast-iron model, just like mine, that I found on Amazon. Remember, any purchase through this link will result in a small commission to me – but at no extra cost to you.
Victoria 8″ Cast Iron Tortilla Press – Amazon
The only other point I want to stress before we move on is to make sure you buy Masa Harina.
- Regular cornmeal is simply dried corn that has been ground and will NOT work. Good for cornbread – not so much for tortillas.
- Masa Harina uses corn that’s been soaked in an alkaline agent like lime or wood-ash lye. This dissolves the outer skin and improves the nutritional value of the corn (plus it tastes better too).
- And Masa Tamal? Tamal is simply Masa Harina in a courser grind, typically used to make tamales. Get Masa Harina for tortllas.
Once again I’ll give you some links with the same disclaimer as above. But you should be able to find Masa Harina is your grocery store as it is a typical staple for many Latinos. Maseca and Bob’s Red Mill are two popular brands.
Ok, let’s make some tortillas. This really is super easy.
Homemade Oil-Free Corn Tortillas
You’ll need a cup of Masa Harina. Add a pinch of salt and mix.
Now stir in close to 3/4 cup of HOT water. Not cold, not lukewarm, not boiling, but tea kettle hot – and mix.
When the dough begins to form into a ball, use your hands to work it and knead it for a few minutes. This will let you feel the dough and get an idea if it’s mixed right or not.
It SHOULD feel like really soft play dough, or cookie dough.
It should NOT be sticky. If it’s too wet and sticks to your hands, add 1/2 tsp of Masa at a time until if is no longer sticky.
If it’s too crumbly, add 1/2 tsp of water and mix.
Like I said – you will get a feel for it. Simply add masa or water as needed to get a perfectly soft, play-dough-like consistency. Then, simply place the ball of dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp cloth so it doesn’t dry out.
Next we heat up our pan.
I used my cast-iron skillet. A griddle will work too. No oil needed – just heat up the dry pan to medium to medium-high heat.
Once the pan has heated up, we’re ready to make out tortillas. Because I’m a kitchen nerd, I bought a scale so I could measure exactly. You want to form your balls of dough to about the size of a walnut, or exactly 1 oz (28g).
Now we place a piece of parchment paper down (I used a ziplock that I cut), place our dough ball in the center, and cover with another piece of parchment (or ziplock) and gently flatten it with your hands a little.
Now we press.
Again, I used my tortilla press. You can use a flat-bottomed pan if you want (but tortilla presses are pretty cheap). You should end up with a perfectly round, 5″ to 6″ tortilla.
Peel away the top later and gently flip the tortilla into your other hand lining up the top edge with your index finger. Now you can gently peel away the bottom layer of paper or plastic.
Keeping your palm up, gently lay the tortilla into the pan, dangling end first, allowing it to gently slide off of your fingers. I’ll have a video of this shortly so stay tuned, but it really is easy.
If you just drop the tortilla into the pan, or flip it in, it’s probably going to stick. Gentle – that’s the trick.
Once it’s in the pan, let it cook until the edges start to look done and maybe even curl up a bit – about 30 to 45 seconds. Then gently flip it with a spatula. Cook for another 45 seconds to 1 minute and flip again, this time pressing down with your spatula. You should see your tortilla ‘puff’ up with air.
Perfect. Cook another 30 seconds, give it one more flip, wait 5-10 seconds and then remove.
Place your cooked tortilla into a large bowl lined with a napkin or towel. You want to keep them warm and let them steam for a good 15 minutes or so before eating. This is the magic of fresh tortillas – they will get so soft and yummy when they steam.
Go back to your covered dough and repeat the process until all of your tortillas are cooked.
This recipe will make 8 to 10 tortillas.
I know it may seem like a bit of work, and here I am suggesting you go buy yet another gadget when they sell packaged tortillas, already made in the store
But like I said, the difference in taste AND texture – it’s really unbelievable.
If you do decide to try these, be sure and let me know how it went. And also what kinds of goodies you used to fill them!
Until next time – happy cookin’.
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I’ve heard the hype for years, that homemade corn tortillas are so much better than store-bought. So this weekend I put it to the test …. the difference is unbelievable.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Masa Harina
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup hot water
Instructions
- Whisk masa and salt together in a large bowl. Add water and mix until a smooth, soft dough ball forms
- Knead for a few minutes and then cover with a damp towel
- Heat a skillet or griddle to medium-high heat
- Pinch a walnut-sized piece of dough (1 oz or 28g) and form into a ball
- Lay parchment or a cut ziplock bag onto your work surface or tortilla press and place ball in center
- Cover with more parchment (or ziplock) and gently press into a 5″ to 6″ round tortilla
- Carefully remove paper or plastic and gently lay the tortilla in the pan
- Flip tortilla after 30-45 seconds
- Flip again and cook 1 minute
- Flip again and press with the spatula so tortilla puffs up, 30 sec
- Fip one last time cooking for 5 to 10 seconds
- Wrap tortillas in a towel and allow to steam for 15 min before serving
Keywords: homemade corn tortillas
Sarah
How long do they store for? Also have you tried making tortilla chips out of them by baking them in the oven?
I do plan on trying them this week. Sounds yummy!
Pauline
Sarah, I’ve made them and cut into tortilla chips. Baked at 350 for about 8-10 minutes,. Works great.
Barbara Wroten
Chuck you are a mind reader! I decided to make your nachos today for the first time with al the toppings. Out of the blue, I decided it would be fun to make the tortilla chips from scratch. So I googled a recipe and headed to the store. to buy ingredients. When I got home, I saw this post! Amazing! Great hungry minds must think alike!
Elizabeth
Hi, Chuck…
See my comment to your post of this recipe in the “Plant Based Recipes and Transitioning Support” group here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/474813706059998/permalink/1141873219354040/?comment_id=1141967596011269
Regards, Elizabeth…
Robin Means
I want to make these with blue corn flour!
Pauline
I’ve made these tortillas many times using the exact same recipe. Love them, You are right, they are way better than store bought. I do have one question though, mine have never puffed up while cooking as you and many other recipes I’ve read have stated.I’m wondering if it is the masa I’m using or something else? Any ideas?
★★★★★
Chuck Underwood
Maybe your dough is too dry? I think the moisture in the dough, creating the steam between the 2 layers, is what makes them puff up. I used Maseca and a cast-iron skillet. I just made some more today on a griddle and while they didn’t brown, they did still puff up.
Elizabeth Adams
Hi, Chuck… Your article on homemade corn tortillas brought back memories of my own first adventures into the wonderful world of homemade corn tortillas. I followed this path all the way, right up to the part where you grind the corn you’ve cooked with calcium hydroxide (lime)… and that’s where I bailed out of the traditional method of grinding the corn by hand in a big granite metate and used a Breville food processor instead.
In the same way that tortillas made from masa harina (flour made from dehydrated ground corn that’s been cooked with lime) taste way better than those rubbery, tasteless things you buy in packages at the store, tortillas made from corn you cook with lime and grind into flour yourself are truly an orgasmic experience.
TIP 1:
Hand-grinding corn on a metate produces a flour with a moisture content that’s perfect for making tortillas, whereas grinding it in a food processor produces a flour that’s a little *too* moist, so what you do is, you add a few tablespoons of a quality masa harina to the dough at the end to soak up just enough of the excess moisture to make it the perfect consistency for making tortillas.
TIP 2:
Discriminating chefs the world over are now using chef-grade masa harina from https://masienda.com/, a company that sources heirloom corn varieties from small farmers all across Mexico. You can buy their whole corn and make your own masa harina, like I do; or, you can buy their chef-grade masa harina and make tortillas like you’re doing now, only with a flour that’s much superior in flavor and texture to what you can buy in the store. It’s also, I regret to say, much more expensive, but the flavor and consistency of the tortillas you make with it are so wonderful that you may decide it’s worth it. Plus, your purchase helps support the small farmers who grow these ancient heirloom grains.
TIP 3:
If you’re interested in making your own masa harina, here’s where I learned how to make mine:
Mesoamerican Miracle Megapost:
Tortillas and Nixtamalization
by Dave Arnold, March 9th, 2011
http://cookingissues.com/2011/03/09/mesoamerican-miracle-megapost-tortillas-and-nixtamalization/
TIP 4:
I was a bit intimidated by the process, at first; but, after learning that women in Mexico have been using it day after day for over 10,000 years, I figured that the least I could do is give it a shot.
Although it took me awhile to get it all down pat, after awhile cooking the corn in lime and letting it soak overnight before whizzing it up into tortilla dough the next day is not much more complicated or burdensome, I found, than soaking beans overnight for cooking the next day. I’ve gotten into a rhythm where I make two days’ worth of each at a time without hardly even thinking about it. I do keep canned beans and corn flour in the cupboard as a “back-up” so we can always have a beans-n-rice meal and a tortilla-n-fixins meal in case something happens to interrupt my routine, but that occurs less and less as time goes by because tinned beans and bagged flour just don’t taste as good!
TIP 5:
When you make bread with ground wheat flour, it’s the gluten in the wheat that contributes to its ability to “rise” and be light and fluffy.
When you make tortillas with ground corn cooked with lime, you get a feel for how to adjust the “flexibility” of the dough by including either more or less of the “hulls” that you rub off the corn kernels after they’re finished cooking and soaking.
This flexibility factor in the hulls is what enables you to bend a homemade tortilla around all those delicious fillings without breaking… but it fades as the tortilla cools, so the name of the game is to rig up some way of keeping them warm between the time they come off the griddle and the time you’re ready to serve them.
I did invest in a bright-orange pottery tortilla warmer with a lid, but it’s become a $32 dust catcher ever since I switched to the $8 “pocket” type of warmer made out of cloth. It does a much better job of keeping them warmer longer, and that’s what you want. Once your tortillas get cold, they become “rubbery” rather than “flexible” and attempts to re-flexibilize them by re-heating them won’t work. Ask me how I know!
TIP 6:
With respect to the salt called for in the recipes printed on the store-bought bags of masa harina, I’m happy to report that tortillas made without it are perfectly delicious. If you’re planning on eating them plain like you would a slice of bread, you might like a tiny pinch of salt sprinkled over the top of your tortillas while they’re cooking so your tastebuds can enjoy a little bit of it without making your kidneys work overtime to get rid of too much of it. This is a little salt-reducing trick I learned from Dr. John McDougall that helps make it possible to stay under the recommended limit of 1000 mg of sodium a day.
warmest regards…
Elizabeth 🙂
Beverly
Hi Chuck, Is your tortilla press 6.5 or 8 inches? Thanks! Beverly
Chuck Underwood
8″
Kathy B.
Curious… how would it work to use the flat plates on a panini press to both press AND cook the tortillas? I’m thinking press, cook, then open the grill up for the last 30 seconds or so, so the tortilla could puff up? Thoughts?
Chuck Underwood
That definitely sounds like it’s worth experimenting with! I’d try it!
Pamela
I made our first tortillas yesterday. They were delicious. Seeing the video was very helpful and made the experience exciting. They were simple to make. I’m sure mine will improve as I practice. Thank you. Buck.
★★★★★