The Simple yet Challenging World of Corn Tortillas: A Guide to Making Perfectly Crafted Flatbreads at Home

When it comes to making corn tortillas, many people assume that this simple task is easy to accomplish. However, the truth is that crafting perfectly cooked and pliable flatbreads requires a combination of skill, patience, and attention to detail. In this article, we will delve into the world of corn tortillas, exploring the key elements involved in making them at home.

The Basics: Mixing the Dough

To start making corn tortillas, you need to mix together two main ingredients: masa harina (corn flour) and water. The type of masa harina used is crucial, as it affects the texture and flavor of the final product. Some brands offer a super-fine grind, which can help create a smoother dough. Additionally, using steam-generating moisture during the mixing process can also make a difference in the outcome.

The Importance of the Right Pan

When cooking corn tortillas, the type of pan used is vital. A well-seasoned cast-iron skillet or comal is ideal, as it allows for even heat distribution and prevents sticking. If your pan doesn't have enough seasoning to prevent stickage, applying a thin swipe of oil can make cooking easier. It's also worth noting that certain brands of store-bought tortillas combine both corn and flour, making them more flexible and shelf-stable.

The Art of Pressing the Tortilla

Once you've mixed the dough, it's time to press it into thin disks. A tortilla press or a rolling pin can be used for this purpose. The key is to apply even pressure and ensure that the tortillas are pressed thinly and evenly. This will help prevent them from becoming too thick or dense.

The Secret to Puffed Tortillas

Puffed tortillas, also known as "puffed flatbreads," have become a staple in some parts of Mexico. These flatbreads are characterized by their ability to puff up when cooked, making them visually appealing and delicious. To achieve this effect, you need to use the right combination of variables: super-fine grind on the masa, steam-generating moisture, and a tortilla that's been pressed thinly and evenly.

Cheat Codes and Training Wheels

If you're struggling to make perfect corn tortillas, don't worry – there are some cheat codes and training wheels available to help. Mixing two tablespoons of lard or shortening into the dough can make the final product more flexible and richer-tasting. Additionally, using a mix of all-purpose flour and masa harina can also create a more flexible tortilla.

The Significance of Steam

After cooking your tortillas, it's essential to steam them in a folded kitchen towel or tortilla warmer to soften and steam them. This step is crucial in making the tortillas pliable and easy to work with. Freshly cooked corn tortillas should be able to be aggressively crumpled in your hands and still return back to their original shape.

The Importance of Tradition

While it's tempting to alter traditional recipes to achieve better results, there's value in sticking to the basics. A masterfully made corn tortilla is a pure expression of nixtamalized corn flavor, and trying to recreate this using non-traditional methods can be misleading. Abuela, who inspired this guide, would want us to tolerate the process, even if it takes time.

A Final Note on the Power of Community

As we conclude our journey into the world of corn tortillas, remember that there's strength in community and sharing knowledge with others. If you're interested in learning more about pottery or ceramics, a great resource is Dinner with Barkley, a company that creates handmade ceramics by hand in Tempe, Arizona.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enCorn tortillas only require two ingredients,so they’re extremely simple, but just likewith pasta, sourdough bread, or any dish withso few ingredients, there are a ton of subjectivevariables to adjust on the path to mastery.So step one: acquire some masa harina.The popular globally available brand is Maseca,which is a portmanteau of masa and seca.A popular boutique brand is Masienda, whichis a portmanteau of masa and tienda.Who knew Mexicans were such big fans of wordplay?Buy the smallest bag you can find.Unless you make tortillas frequently, a bigfive-pound sack can go stale if you don’tuse it all up in a year and develop a reallyoff-putting flavor.All you’ve gotta do is reconstitute thepowder with hot water, but here we come tothe first subjective variable.It’s hard to say exactly how much waterto add.Your bag of masa flour will provide a number,but consider that a staring point.This is two cups of corn, plus one and a halfcups of hot water.I’ll mix it all together until everythingfeels incorporated.Since there’s no wheat flour, there’sno gluten, so you don’t have to worry aboutovermixing.When I grab a little piece, I can squeezeit between two clean hands and observe theresults.If the dough is too wet, it’ll leave a residuebehind.This is no good, because it’ll stick toevery surface it touches….The press, the skillet, it’ll be a disaster.This is what the dough looks like if it’stoo dry.Look at those little fissures around the edge.A dry dough will crack when you squeeze it,break when you cook it, or split in twainupon taco construction.Adjust the dough’s moisture level little by little until it’s just wet enough to mush between twohands while maintaining perfectly smooth edges.It should feel like brand new fresh container ofplay-doh.If you must err on the side of too dry ortoo wet, let it be the latter, because thedried corn will hydrate more fully as thedough sits.Put it in a bowl with a lid or a damp towelso it doesn’t dry out.You can spend the next ten minutes cleaningup, gathering materials for pressing, andpreheating a dry pan to high heat.For this application, stay away from stainlesssteel pans, to which the tortillas may stick,and also from nonstick pans, which aren’tmeant to be used over ripping high heat.Cast iron or carbon steel are two perfectpan options provided they’re smooth andwell seasoned.I’m all set up, so here’s the workflow.Tear off a 2-tablespoon, 30-gram, ping pongball-sized piece of dough and immediatelyput the cover back on the rest of it so asnot to upset its delicate moisture level.I’ll sandwich this ball between two layersof flexible plastic.This is a grocery bag I cut into sheets, andI keep it in the tortilla press so it’salways there for me.This is my go-to tortilla press.It’s made out of heavy cast iron, whichis a lot better than flimsy aluminum.It’s bigger, but not as big (or as expensive)as this massive beauty made of powder-coatedsteel.You could technically roll these out witha pin or smash them under a heavy dutch oven,but a dedicated tortilla press pays for itselfin uniformity, speed, and overall fun as soonas you make even one dozen tortillas withinits lifespan.If the ones online are too expensive, finda mexican market near you and get proper pressfor a couple bucks.This is another skill that has to be learnedwith practice.I can’t tell you exactly how hard to press.Try to develop a sense of when to stop pressing.Not all the way down as far as it can go,but just shy of that.Masa is forgiving, so even if you mess itup, you can roll it back into a ball and try againDue to the physics of a levered press, oneside is a teeny tiny bit thinner than the otherTo compensate for that unevenness, flip itover and press it again.There is a little bit of a technique to thisnext part as well.You want to peel the plastic off the doughso the plastic does all the bending and flexing,not the tortilla.It’s natural to wanna smack this down ontothe pan, but it’s better to lay it downgently like this.It’ll be more likely to get perfect contactthis way.Throwing it down willy nilly can lead to wrinknlesor stickage or folding over onto itself.Let that cook for about 45 seconds on oneside, and then flip.The second side will only need half as muchtime to cook.You should know that depending on who’swatching, your tortilla may be expected topuff up as proof of of its craftsmanship.A brag-worthy puff consists of three variables:a super-fine grind on the masa (which themanufacturer already took care of), as muchsteam-generating moisture as possible (whichyou should have nailed during the mixing process),and a tortilla that’s been pressed thinlyand evenly.If all those variables aren’t perfectlyaligned in your favor, you can cheat by spritzingwater on the cooked surface, then flippingthe tortilla back over and smashing the wholething with a spatula.The water makes steam, and the pressure sealsthe edges shut.To be honest, the type of person who mightroast you for not pulling off a puff are gonnatake issue with your use of a spatula to beginwith.I think you’re better off not concerningyourself with the aesthetic ramificationsof puffed flatbreads and singed nerve endings.What you should be concerned with is the finalstep.The non-negotiable finale of any tortilla’spreparation.Once a tortilla comes off the pan, it’sstill not done cooking.It needs to hang out in a folded kitchen towelor tortilla warmer to soften and steam.Whether they’re flour, corn, store-bought,or homemade, tortillas are not ready to useuntil they’ve steamed for a few minutes.A well-made freshly cooked corn tortilla canbe aggressively crumpled in your hands andstill return back to its original shape.This is the real mark of excellent tortillas.You can't do this with a dry one, an old one,or one that you bought at the local Aldi.There’s no replicating this quality becausefresh corn tortillas don’t stay pliablefor very long.If I wanted to talk about reheating them properly,it would take up a whole other video.For now, just understand that these, likefried foods and fresh noodles, are made tobe eaten immediately after cooking.In the event that you follow all my instructionsand it still goes poorly, here are a coupletraining wheels and cheat codes that can make things easier.If everything is sticking, give your pan athin swipe of oil first.It’ll smoke up the room instantly at temperaturesthis high, but it will make cooking easierif your pan doesn’t have enough seasoningto prevent stickage.If your tortillas are coming out too dry foryour taste, you could mix two tablespoonsof lard or shortening into the dough beforeadding the hot water.It’s not something I do, but it does make the final product more flexible and richer-tasting.If you really wanna play with gameshark on,use a mix of all-purpose flour and masa harina.Certain brands of store-bought tortillas combineboth corn and flour, which does make themmore flexible and shelf-stable, but it willnot have the same taste.A masterfully made corn tortilla is such apure expression of nixtamalized corn flavorso I do hope you try to make it work withthe traditional 2-ingredient method, but Iwon’t deduct points if altering traditionis what it takes to get you cooking this simplestaple at home.This is the kind of tolerant treatment I providethat abuela won’t.That’s right…Where we’re going, we won’t need these.This is an ad for Barkley. Barkley is my little ceramics company, and I’d like to do something different by trying topitch you on it in the time it takes for me to make a little plate. Barkley ceramics are made by hand in Tempe, Arizona. In  a legitimate studio... not in my home office, like this one. I deliberately put out these Barkley brand  aprons with a split in the leg in the middle so I can use them while cooking and also while straddling a pottery wheel.  Are you not in the market for fancy ceramics? Well, this Barkley hate that I'm wearing is on sale right now, it doesship for free. I've probably made this look a little easier than it really is, but in reality something like this would have todry, get trimmed, be fired in a kiln one time, then get dipped in glaze, then fired in a kiln again at insanely high temperatures  before it ends up looking something like this. If you'd like to learn more about the pottery process or if you just wanna poke around the shop visit dinnerwithbarkley.com.Thanks for watching :)\n"