Prep Time : 30 Minutes | Cook Time : 20 Minutes | Total Time : 1 hour | Difficulty : Easy
Almost everything tastes better freshly made, and what’s fresher than, like, 10 minutes ago? I make these tortillas almost every week now – they are so easy and being half corn masa and half wheat flour they are the best of both worlds. Full of wonderful toasty corn flavour while still being soft and easy to handle. Using corn masa rather than ground corn flour makes a huge difference to the flavour so seek it out. Kiwi’s – if you can’t find it in your local supermarket you can get the wonderful La Boca Loca brand online. Use any colour you like, I love the blue corn because I have a thing for food that’s an unexpected colour!
First step is as simple as making a cup of tea. Do it sometime during the day you are going to have the tortillas for dinner. When you boil the kettle to make a cuppa, get the tortillas started! Mix the corn masa and salt in a bowl.
Pour over the boiling water and mix to a thick smooth paste. Scrape it all together in the middle to minimize dried out edges on the sides of the bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap and walk away. Doop-dee-do. About an hour before dinner it’s time to get to work! Well actually it’s more like playing with playdough so don’t be discouraged. Add the oil and mix in well. Add the flour and mix to a soft dough. It should be like firm playdough (I wasn’t kidding before). For smaller tortillas the perfect size for a soft taco, divide the dough into 10 portions. If you’re precise (not OCD, ahem) then you can weigh these out. Each piece should be 55-60 grams or about 2 ounces. Roll them into balls.
Now we are going to roll them all out into circles about 7 inches in diameter. You can use a pastry mat like the one in the photos or you can find a side plate that’s about the right size and draw a circle in marker pen on one side of a piece of baking paper. Turn it over and use it as a template to roll the dough on top of. Consider getting a mat though, I use mine more than I thought I would and it’s great to roll things out without adding too much flour or wasting off-cuts.
You can pat the dough out with your fingers quite a bit before getting the rolling pin out to finish them.
Dust them very lightly with flour and then peel them off the mat/paper and set floured side down while you roll the rest. In no time you will have an army of tortillas!
To cook these beauties use the heaviest frying pan you have. Cast iron gives the best results especially since we are cooking dry. Heat the pan on medium and pop in the first tortilla. Dust off any excess flour before cooking as it can start to smoke and burn in the pan. It might take a bit of adjusting to get the right temperature on your cook-top. It should take about a minute on each side to cook each one. If you find it’s taking a little long to develop lovely dark spots before turning, turn the heat up a bit and keep going. Having to turn them back and forth a few times isn’t a problem!
Soon you will have a stack of soft warm delicious tortillas waiting for taco Tuesday, or Friday, or Saturday – let’s be honest tacos are an anytime food…
Keep the tortillas covered with a folded tea towel until you’re ready to serve!
Half + Half Tortillas
Prep Time : 30 mins | Cook Time : 20 mins | Total Time : 1 hour | Difficulty : Easy | Makes : 10 x 7 inch tortillas
Soft flavourful tortillas made with half corn and half wheat – perfect for soft tacos!
Ingredients:
- 140 gm | 5 oz | 1 metric cup | 1 US cup corn masa
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 250 ml | 8.9 fl oz | 1 metric cup | 1 US cup boiling water
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 160 gm | 5.7 oz | 1 metric cup | 1 US cup all purpose flour
Directions:
Mix the corn masa and salt in a bowl.
Pour over the boiling water and mix to a thick smooth paste. Scrape it all together in the middle to minimize dried out edges on the sides of the bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap and walk away. About an hour before dinner it’s time for the next steps. Add the oil and mix in well. Add the flour and mix to a soft dough. It should be like firm playdough. For smaller tortillas the perfect size for a soft taco, divide the dough into 10 portions. If you’re precise then you can weigh these out. Each piece should be 55-60 grams or about 2 ounces. Roll them into balls.
Now we are going to roll them all out into circles about 7 inches in diameter. You can use a super pastry mat like the one in the photos or you can find a side plate that’s about the right size and draw a circle in marker pen on one side of a piece of baking paper. Turn it over and use it as a template to roll the dough on top of.
You can pat the dough out with your fingers quite a bit before getting the rolling pin out to finish them. Dust them very lightly with flour and then peel them off the mat/paper and set floured side down while you roll the rest.
To cook these beauties use the heaviest frying pan you have. Cast iron gives the best results especially since we are cooking dry. Heat the pan on medium and pop in the first tortilla. It might take a bit of adjusting to get the right temperature on your cook-top. It should take about a minute on each side to cook each one. The tortillas should have lovely dark spots in places and be firm but still bendy.
Cover the warm tortillas with a folded tea towel until ready to serve.
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One should be able to use a Tortilla Dora tortilla press with this recipe and avoid the rolling out step, don’t you think?
Hiya Harold – of course! I use a tortilla press now on all sorts of things. If you cut pieces of baking paper to fit the press – just rough squares it will help with clean up too 😀
I made these tonight Kearin, totally awesome thank you! Worth the grizzly baby around my ankles while I rolled them:)
Yay! Glad you liked them- I made partially successful Gnocchi for dinner haha
Oh wow—this recipe worked a treat, first try! After adding the flour, the dough seemed too dry to come together dry but I persisted squishing it with my hands and it did indeed come together into a moist but not wet dough. I rolled the dough into a thick log and sliced off 55g pieces that I didn’t bother to roll into balls, just popped the disks into a tortilla press. Easy and fast. since there was no extra flour on my tortillas, they cooked perfectly (without burning flour dust). I used the double flip method Pati Jinich recommends and got lovely puffed up tortillas. Taste wise they had the flavour of corn with a toothsome bite, but all the flexability of a wheat tortilla. My new fave! I never would have tried this if it hadn’t been for the covid 19 lockdown, so a happy discvoery for me. Thanks for these, they tasted great!
I’m so glad you like them! I do the double flip too – love Pati! Great idea with slices from a log – I’ll have to try that next time 😁