I have been dying to give these a try – and they were well worth it! If you don’t have a tortilla press it’s a tad time consuming, so bear that in mind (It took me a good hour to roll them all out … never mind cooking them!). Once cooked you can keep them in the fridge for a day or two and reheat them in a steamer – I’ll let you now how this goes when we have had them with the slow-cooked pork in a few days …
As for the recipe, well, having mixed up teaspoons and tablespoons when writing down my sourdough recipe I should perhaps be more forgiving, but Margarita Carrillo Arronte’s recipe needed at least three times the amount of water than she suggested, and the timing for the recipe, 25 minutes altogether, seems also a bit optimistic. I have no idea how quick it would have been had I used a tortilla press, though, but pressing out the dough balls between clingfilm sounds a tad fiddly, too… Never mind, they taste absolutely amazing and were well worth the effort and the purchase of corn flour!
Corn Tortillas (makes 25 tortillas of 15cm diameter)
- 5 cups / 450g masa harina
- 3 1/2 cup water, adjust if necessary
- 1/4 tsp salt
Mix the ingredients until you get a sticky dough, adjusting the quantities of water and masa harina. Form 30 doughballs. cover them and rest them for 10 minutes.
Either use your tortilla press or roll out the doughballs between two sheets of baking parchment. I used a bowl to cut them into a round shape but you might as well go for a more ‘artisanal’ look and simply roll them out to a thickness of around 3mm.
Stack them up, keeping sheets of baking parchment between each tortilla to prevent them from sticking together. 
Heat a flat frying pan and heat them up, ca. 2-3 minutes on each side, until lightly golden. They might puff up a little, which is even better.
Keep them warm, again separating them with the parchment paper. 
Serve straightaway with frijoles charros or guacamole, or store them in the fridge for a few days and reheat them in a vegetable steamer, as Rick Bayless suggested in Food&Wine. It works an absolute treat!
Off to get the leg of pork for the cochinita pibil now, an incredibly tasty pulled pork dish from the Yukatan peninsula.
Ginger&Bread 
Brilliant, another recipe I must try. Never made tortilla’s before but have always wanted to.
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The corn flavour of these is to die for! Just don’t make them too thin (I got a bit carried away …)
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I definitely want to try this!! Are they hard or more on the chewier side?
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Do try them, they’re well worth it! I made them too thin, I think: the instructions called for ‘paper-thin’ which made them rather crispy, like (very healthy!) tortilla chips! Gorgeous with the guacamole, though 😉
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Good one Ginger! I always buy the readymade ones from the supermarket, i think i should try making this at home.
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If you can get hold of the masa harina, absolutely go for it! Where I live it’s a bit more complicated, but we really liked them so I am sure they’ll resurface again in my kitchen!
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Kudos to you Ginger to putting forth the time and effort!
They look great and cooking them looks relatively easy.
Well done woman!!
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They are so much fun – perfect fingerfood for a party, I suppose!
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That’s beyond the capability of my hands…. even if I like them a lot, especially with frijoles.
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I was considering using our pasta machine and rolling strips out between to sheets of baking paper or cling film! They are quite delicious when freshly prepared 😉
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These look amazing Ginger but….can I come over and have yours? I will never make this but really admire those who do!:)))
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Absolutely, Johanne! I’d love to have you round for dinner!
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They look perfect!
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They are an amateur photographer’s gift! 😉
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Ooh yummy – I’ve often made regular flour tortillas in Spain (used to be hard to buy them there, less so now) so look forward to giving these a try!
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You see, I’ve never really thought about it but I want to make Mexican pulled pork and the recipe suggested them. Surely I wouldn’t want to go though the effort of cooking the pulled pork, only to serve it with shop-bought tortillas!
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I completely understand your way of thinking!
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Wow! These are impressive 🙂 I definitely wanna give this a try.
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Absolutely – they’re delicious! They have such an amazing aroma, you can really smell the corn, unlike with the pre-fabricated variety.
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Ginger, the tortillas look fantastic! There sure is a big difference in taste from store bought ones isn’t there? Very few Mexican restaurants in our city serve in-house freshly made corn tortillas. It is almost a luxury to find them made to order. They’ve been on my radar to write up for a while.
I’ve also been enjoying “Mexico The Cookbook”. It has great looking recipes and is also a pretty good reference book. The “papel picado” cover is clever.
Very nice work on your tortillas!
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I love the look and feel of the book, but find it very hard to follow. Too many steps are not fully explained to newbies like myself. Marinating some pork as we speak for the cochinita pibil … not very tempting for a vegetarian like you, I know, but the Chileans here are excited 😉
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I admit that making them scares me a little bit,but they look fantastic on these pictures Ginger, mniaaaam
😀
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I tried to make it look more dramatic – it’s really very straightforward!
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I’ve always wanted to learn how to make tortillas- you make it look easy Ginger. Great job 🙂
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Smoke and mirrors 😉 They are quite straightforward, though!
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These tortillas look amazing–I love the puffiness and I can imagine how wonderful they must taste!
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They were great! Time will tell if they really as easily re=heatable as it says ..
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I’ve made bade tortillas before. I’ll have to try your recipe. Your pictures are gorgeous, and I am sure the tortillas are too.
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They can compete with the shop ones, but so can most of my insoles 😉 just joking, obviously. My insoles are more like quesadillas, I suppose …
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Ha! I love your sense of humor.
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They look gorgeous 🙂
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Thanks. Linda! They were the first picture that didn’t feel like an effort!
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Grest looking tortillas, just great!
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You made me do them, Fitzie. I was so going to buy them, but after making fun of your ready-made sauce, only to be confronted by your tortillas … I simply had to. Saving face and all that 😉
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Hahaha..
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I hate the scary ingredient list on bought tortillas. Not sure I’d have the patience to roll them all out (Googling tortilla press Dubai right now).
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They’re a tenner here … just sayin … 😉
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Gorgeous!! I have made them once… with big plans to make them again! I found cooking them to be ridiculously time consuming… but worth it. Yours look AMAZING. Perfect!!
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I agree – a tortilla press might be the way forward!
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I have a press- definitely the way to go!
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These are gorgeous! My Mexican friends sweat by the tortilla press. The good thing about that is that it’s so pretty, you can hang it on the wall when you’re not using it and it!
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They look beautiful. I’ve found that instead of rolling it’s easy to just press the ball of dough flat with a glass pie pan. Just center it over the dough and press down – makes a nearly perfect circle and thin dough.
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I never even thought of that! What an ingenious idea – and so simple!
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Pingback: Review: Mexico: The Cookbook, by Margarita Carrillo Arronte | Ginger&Bread
So sweet! And so fun..
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