45 min · Vegan · Side dish · For confident cooks
Tortillas de Maíz
In German: Maistortillas · In English: Corn Tortillas
For 12 servings · US units
Fresh corn tortillas from masa harina, soft, fragrant and straight off a hot comal
Once you've had homemade tortillas de maíz, it's hard to go back to the packaged kind: they smell of toasted corn, stay soft and puff up right there in the skillet. All you need is masa harina, water and salt, and if you skip the lard they're vegan. They're an everyday staple, good any time of year, and done in about 45 minutes.
Ingredients
- 8½ ozflour from nixtamalized corn; with home-ground masa only to dry out a wet doughFinely ground flour made from corn that has first been cooked in lime water. Mixed with water, it becomes the dough for tortillas and tamales.Substitute: There is no good substitute. Cornmeal, corn flour, grits or polenta have not been nixtamalized, so they do not form a cohesive dough and crumble when shaped into tortillas; the characteristic flavour is missing as well. Fresh masa, where available, can be used instead.Read more
- 1⅔ cupswaterwarm, added gradually until the dough is pliable
- 1 tspsaltfine
- 2 tbsplardfor a softer, richer dough (optional)
- 12⅓ oze.g. popcorn kernels or white Olotillo corn; only for home-nixtamalized masa instead of masa harina (optional)Fully mature, hard-dried maize kernels, not sweetcorn; the starting point for nixtamal, masa and pozole.Substitute: For pozole, ready-cooked canned or jarred hominy is a good stand-in, just a little softer and less corny. For tortillas and tamales use masa harina, the already nixtamalized corn flour, instead; ordinary cornmeal or polenta won't come together into a dough without nixtamalization.Read more
- 1 tbspfor nixtamalizing the corn in about 2 l water (optional)Caution: Use only food-grade product, never builders' lime, and keep the caustic powder away from your eyes, skin and lungs.Food-grade slaked lime, a white, strongly alkaline powder in which dried corn is soaked and cooked for tortillas and tamales.Substitute: There is no good substitute: baking soda is not alkaline enough to loosen the hulls reliably and will not give a cohesive dough. If you cannot get cal, use ready-made masa harina, which has already been nixtamalized.Read more
Method
- In a bowl, mix the masa harina and salt. If you're using lard, add it now and rub it in with your fingertips.
- Gradually stir in the warm water, then knead for about 3 minutes into a smooth, pliable dough.
- Check the texture: if the dough cracks at the edges, add water a spoonful at a time; if it sticks to your hands, work in a little more masa harina.
- Divide the dough into golf ball-sized pieces and keep them covered with a damp towel or plastic wrap so they don't dry out.
- Heat a comal or a heavy skillet over high heat until it's very hot.
- Place one ball between two sheets of plastic and flatten it in a tortilla press or with the flat bottom of a pot, then carefully peel off the plastic.
- Lay the tortilla on the hot comal and flip it after about 10 to 20 seconds, then cook each side until brown spots appear; on the final flip it should puff up.
- Stack the finished tortillas in a tortilla warmer or wrapped in a towel so they stay warm and soft, and serve them as soon as you can.
- Store leftovers airtight in the fridge and reheat them in a dry skillet before eating.
Tips and variations
If you want to go all the way, make your own masa: simmer dried corn kernels, such as popcorn kernels or white Olotillo corn, with calcium hydroxide in about 2 liters of water for 20 to 30 minutes, let them soak overnight, rub off the skins, then grind the corn with salt and water in a blender into a dough. You can also buy fresh masa dough and just bind it with a little masa harina if it's too wet. A bit of lard in the dough makes the tortillas softer and richer. And if you'd rather skip the quick first flip, simply cook each side for 1 to 2 minutes straight away. They're best really fresh, so put the tortilla warmer right on the table and let everyone grab a warm one as they go.
Allergens
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
