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Tortillas from Masa Harina

Tortillas from Masa Harina

Since this dough has to rest after it is first made, it’s most efficient to start boiling the water, mix the ingredients, then prep the tortilla stations while the dough is resting. Cooking all the tortillas will take some time, but you can put multiple in the pan as you go. You can adjust the size of the tortillas to suit your tastes.

  • 20 small tortillas
  • 15 minutes
  • 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 16 parts maseca (masa harina)
  • 12 parts boiling water
  • 1 part fat (bacon fat is 🤌)

Directions

  1. Start boiling water.
  2. Place fat and masa harina in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add just-boiled water to bowl.
  4. Mix together (with a spoon) until the dough coheres, then knead until the fat is evenly distributed, and the masa is smooth.
  5. Cover and let rest for 10 min while preparing the tortilla assembly line. Line your tortilla press with either a quart-size ziplock bag cut open like book, or a folded piece of parchment paper. Prepare a bowl or plate with a clean, folded dishtowel. If you’re fancy, maybe you’ll have a tortilla-warmer. Tortillas will go from bowl, to press, to griddle, to towel.
  6. Heat up a griddle to medium heat, you will want to adjust the heat once you have cooked a few tortillas so that you have the right level.
  7. Pinch out a ball of masa about the size of a golf ball. If it has dried out, squish it back and forth in your hand until it is smooth again, then smush it to a flattened UFO shape. Lay it slightly off-center on the tortilla press, a little closer to the hinge than the handle.
  8. Press down until the tortilla has reached even thickness. You’ll just have to practice to find out where this is. If you screw up, just peel the tortilla off, squish it back into a ball and try again.
  9. Once you have a evenly-thin tortilla, peel it off the press liner, and plop it down on the hot griddle.
  10. Cook for ~30 seconds on the first side. Once the tortilla can slide, you’re ready to flip. Flip it and cook until you get a little color on the other side. You can flip it as many times as you need to get the right balance between cooked through and excessively dry.
  11. When it is done, lift it off the griddle and tuck it into the clean towel. Repeat till dough is all gone.