Corn Tortillas

Once you've made masa from dent corn, you've actually done about 90% of the work for making corn tortillas.  You really have only the mixing and pressing (or rolling) and cooking left.

Corn Tortillas (using store-bought masa harina)

2 cups masa harina

1 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and knead into a soft dough.  Cover with plastic and let rest 10-20 minutes.  Use a tortilla press or roll out and cook as described below. 

Corn Tortillas (using home nixtamalized dent corn as described here)

7 ounces nixtamalized dent corn
store-bought masa harina, as needed

water, as needed

After nixtamalizing the dent corn and removing the bran, transfer the corn to a food processor.  Process for about 10 minutes, adding water as needed to help process the corn, and scraping down the sides every other minute.  The dough is ready when there are no large chunks of corn and the texture is like thick hummus.  

Transfer the corn to a mixing bowl and add masa harina a little at a time, kneading it into the dough until it is the consistency of Play-Doh.  To test, roll a ball of dough and then press it between your fingers.  If the dough cracks, it's too dry.  If it sticks to your fingers, it's too wet. 

Hopefully you've got a tortilla press of some sort.  It will make the job go a whole lot faster.  If life is good, you're using an electric tortilla press.  If not, get a quart-size Ziploc freezer bag and cut the zipper and two sides off, so that only one side is intact.  (Wax paper does not work as well as a freezer bag.)  Place a golf-ball-size amount of dough in the bag, and put that inside your press and press down to make your tortillas or use a rolling pin.

Carefully peel the tortilla from the plastic and cook on a hot skillet, about 30-60 seconds on each side.

Stack in a clean towel to keep warm.  Serve immediately. 

Family reviews:  We're pretty sure we'll never be able to make these as well as the manufacturer does.  The taste is acceptable, but you know, we really prefer flour tortillas.  But if you need corn tortillas, or especially if you want to make tortilla chips, these recipes will work just fine.

Links to related posts:

What To Do with All This Cornmeal

Flour Tortillas