Homemade Corn Tortillas – Easy As…Tortillas!

My cooking inspirations sometimes come in very strange places…like thrift stores! Like the time I found a tortilla press in The Crowded Closet in Iowa City. I dragged that tortilla press all the way to Fort Lauderdale this year, and I FINALLY got around to making my very first batch of homemade corn tortillas…just in time to make a batch of fish tacos for a Lenten meal. 

I’ll share that fish taco recipe in my NEXT blog post, but today I want to show you how easy it is to make your own corn tortillas…and it’s FUN too! I think it will be a perfect cooking activity to share with our grandkids when we head back North. 

I followed the simple recipe I found on the bag of Pueblo Lindo Instant Corn Masa Flour I bought at our local Fort Lauderdale Aldi grocery store.

Since this was my “Maiden Voyage” of tortilla making I had no idea what to expect so I just jumped right in. I decided to make the recipe for 16 tortillas.

First I measured 2 cups of the masa flour into a bowl and I added 1/4 tsp. of kosher salt.  Then I stirred in 1 1/4 cups of warm water.

I decided the mixture was too dry, so I slowly added more warm water until the mixture felt like damp sand to me. 

And next came the part I KNOW our grandkids will LOVE to do…I rolled the masa dough into balls. It felt like Play-Doh to me…and it was FUN!

Next I took a quart freezer bag and slit the sides. I laid the bag inside the tortilla press and I sprayed the plastic with cooking spray before I made the first tortilla.

I set one of the “balls” on the plastic.

Then I folded the other half of the plastic bag over the dough ball and I pressed the dough down slightly before I closed the tortilla press to flatten it completely.

It took a little trial and error to decide exactly how big to make each ball. I wanted them just big enough to cover the base of the press but not to squish out the sides. (As you can tell, this was one of my first attempts…a little too big on this one.)

I brushed the skillet with vegetable oil and I cooked the tortillas one by one over Medium heat.

I turned them often to allow them to cook through. I’m guessing the total cooking time was about 30-45 seconds per side.

I placed the cooked tortillas in a pie pan and I covered the stack with a wet paper towel to keep them from drying out as I finished cooking the rest of them. (Some recipes call for adding oil to the masa to keep the tortilla shells pliable but I didn’t find that to be necessary.)

I’m happy to say I’ve tackled another cooking project I’d never tried before, and I can’t wait to show you how I turned those corn tortillas into a delicious meal.

Yes, some folks go skydiving for adventure…but I just head to thrift stores. And I’m sure glad someone decided to ditch that tortilla press back in Iowa City!