Homemade Corn Tortillas without a Tortilla Press

If you’ve never looked at the ingredients in store-bought corn tortillas, you should. Not only are they filled with GMO corn that’s been bathed in pesticides, but they also contain unnecessary additives to maintain a longer shelf life, pliability, softness, and to salvage any sort of flavor after they’ve been infused with preservatives.

Typically you’ll find a few types of gums, a couple of acids as preservatives, and depending on the brand, a few other things you may not be able to recognize or pronounce.

Corn tortillas should contain three ingredients. That’s it. Finely ground corn. Water. Salt.

If your tortillas contain anything else, toss ’em, and make you’re own. A tortilla press makes life a little easier, of course, but they’re just as easy to press into a flat circle using a plate to get thing started, and then using a rolling pin to finish the job.

Homemade Corn Tortillas without a Tortilla Press

• Author: This Honest Food
• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: about 15 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 8 (8-inch) tortillas or 16 mini 1x
• Category: Breads
• Cuisine: Mexican
• Diet: Gluten Free

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Ingredients

• 2 cups organic masa harina
• 1 tsp. gray sea salt
• 1  1/4 cups hot water

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Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together masa and salt until well combined.
2. Stir in water; knead mixture with hands until a cohesive dough forms. Cover bowl with a damp kitchen towel or plate, let stand 10 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 8 balls (for 8-inch tortillas), or 16 balls for mini (street taco size) tortillas. Cover dough balls until ready to roll into tortillas.
4. To flatten dough balls, place one of the balls between two pieces of parchment paper. With parchment still in place, position a large dinner plate, pie plate, or similar on top of the dough ball; press down to flatten ball. Using a rolling pin, continue to flatten tortilla by rolling from the center of the tortilla out, turning the parchment 1/4 turn each time to keep the circle shape (like rolling out pie dough). Repeat with remaining dough balls. Stack tortillas between pieces of parchment until ready to cook.
5. To cook, heat a dry cast iron, or similar skillet over high heat for 3 minutes. Add tortilla to pan and cook until lightly charred, but still pliable, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Flip tortilla and cook second side until lightly charred.
6. Transfer tortilla to a tortilla warmer, or plate covered with a dry kitchen towel until ready to serve.

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Keywords: corn tortilla, Mexican food