Make Your Own Corn Tortillas

One of the most important things to know before you decide to try to find and use a corn tortilla recipe is that you need the right equipment. One thing you must have for a great corn tortilla is a cast iron pan. The right pan can make the difference between a successful corn tortilla recipe and a headache. You will also want a tortilla press. Trying to make corn tortillas without a press will be a lot more work, and if you have never done it before you may not get evenly sized and shaped tortillas. You can get a tortilla press for a reasonable price, so you are saving yourself time and effort from the outset by getting the right tools for the corn tortilla recipefirst.Corn tortillas are made from a special flour mix called masa harina. It should be just corn and lime (and for best results and flavor, make sure that is all that is in yours). All the ingredients that you need for your corn tortilla recipe is this corn and lime flour mix, some water, and a little salt (if you prefer; some recipes have it, some don’t).

There are varying recipes online and in cookbooks that all dispute the masa harina to water proportions appropriate for the perfect corn tortilla recipe. They range from about 2 parts masa harina to 1 part water, all the way to equal parts masa harina and water. You may want to experiment with different corn tortilla recipes and proportions, or just add water until it seems like the consistency you want (if you have a good eye for dough consistencies). If this is too much hassle for you, there are some places where you can buy the premeasured and premixed masa dough. At that point all you have to do is press it and cook it (which is quite enough work to count as cooking it yourself).

From this point, you usually have enough dough to divide into approximately 15 balls of dough. You then want to put some plastic or wax paper on either side of the press (so that the dough isn’t on the tortilla press) and begin shaping your tortillas. As soon as your tortilla is shaped it should go into a hot griddle. It should only take about 30 seconds per side to cook, which means that once you get the hang of it, you should be able to press and fry your tortillas in no time.

If you are feeling very ambitious after the success of your first foray into corn tortilla recipes, there are also recipes out there for making your own corn tortillas without even using the masa harina mix. This means making your own masa dough from corn and lime. There was even a TV special with Alton Brown on how to make tortillas with this corn tortilla recipe, and the recipe can still be found on the food network website.