Melissa, I had the opportunity today to mix 100g of finely ground whole grain Nixtamal with 150g of hot water for your Sourdough-Corn-Rosemary Bread. While waiting for the corn to cool I decided to press some tortillas. Below are my observations
First the corn absorbed 10g more water than the coarser grind, I used the first time. The dough was soft, pliable and stuck together well. After an hour the dough which was covered had the same consistency. So my observation of requiring an hour to let the corn absorb water WAS NOT needed with the fine grind.
I used wet hands to handle the 60g pieces of dough for the tortilla, rolled in a ball and placed a large dimple in the center. Placed a good size dab of water in the dimple and folded the dough over on it and re-rolled. Pressed into a 5" disc and easily removed the plastic. I actually manhandled the tortilla a bit to see how well it stuck together and it did. No splitting. I was lucky to get the plastic off my past tortillas. I pressed one shortly after making the dough and an hour later to see if there was any change. There was not.
The hydration rate is DOUBLE what I have been using. The texture of the dough is much different, more of a plasticky feel when playing with it.
It appears from this that the fine flour is required and whole grain is not an issue. Drying of course is important so that is next as I am now set up to try again using a different method.
I realize that all corn varieties will be different and a little playing with the variety will be necessary. I could not believe how much liquid it soaked up without getting sticky.
8/15/20; Tonight made my first PERFECT corn tortillas. They were a dream to make and Diane absolutely could not cook them faster than I could press them. They turned out soft, did not crack, they were a pleasure to make. I could actually man-handle them to the grill.
Whole grain home milled (very fine) Nixtamalized Dent corn:
419g hot water (176% hydration)
238g of Nixtamal (will make about 8+ – 60g tortiilla balls)
1 tsp salt
Final texture similar to very soft play dough. I cut and rolled all at one time. Placed in covered container with wet paper towel over and when she was ready (about an hour later) I wet my fingers removed each, pressed down to make a rough circle without any cracks, made a dimple in the middle and placed a good dab of water, then folded the dough ball over the water and re-rounded. Placed in the press and perfecto!!
So interesting. And I’m so happy for you and Diane that you achieved your perfect tortillas! I’m sorry it took me so long to respond.
I didn’t know I should dimple the tortilla dough ball and put a drop of water in the dimple, fold around it, and the roll/press. Do you know why this last minute hydration addition is done?
I checked my bag of masa harina and it doesn’t say to refrigerate, though I see flecks in there and I do refrigerate. My googling says,
" According to the Whole Grains Council, masa harina is not labeled “whole grain” because of the process that’s used to make the flour. … The thought is that some of the corn is lost when the liquid is drained, but the Council says the loss is so minimal that the end product is very close to a whole grain flour."
I am going to take a stab at the “dab of water” in the middle. I have only seen one person make tortillas using that method (Views on the Road) and have seen many others that do not do it. SUPPOSEDLY if the Masa is made properly (and my bet cooked properly) the tortilla will puff up. All the videos I have seen they did this. Last night my tortillas turned out perfect again but only one puffed up. I don’t think Diane has the heat right yet but I am only guessing.
If they are left on the pan too long it boils out the excess moisture and they don’t puff up? I keep thinking this little extra bit of moisture is to help the tortilla to puff, but at this point it is just a guess.
Yesterday I had made the Masa a couple of hours before I needed it and the dough needed a bit more hydration than the 176% I started with as it was cracking. With wet hands I reformed the balls but my guess is my dab of water was sucked up into the dough.
EVENTUALLY we will get them to puff up but in the mean time they taste really good.
I’ll definitely try the drop of water next time and see if I get puffiness. I’d imagine with a flour tortilla that would be even more likely. And could I guarantee pita-pocketing of my naan if I do this?
Hey Meliisa! Did a bit of research on the net and it seems the cook heat and moisture have something to do with the puffing. Yes this may also help with your naan also. I will definitely try on naan and tortillas the next time. I copied this out of Quora it seemed the most relevant.
"the trick is to have a really hot comal or thin pan. For corn tortillas, I have a 1$ mister bottle, hit each side of the tortilla with spray, put the tortilla on the comal. You want the heat high enough to puff the tortilla and toast it just a little brown in spots. Too high can burn it too quickly. Watch the cook, try to flip only once. After the first flip is when most of the puff occurs.
For flour tortillas, similar, I usually don’t spray them. The toasted spots are the best taste. Most tortilla are not cooked when you buy them. I didn’t realize that at first.
A comal is a pan or surface used to heat/toast the tortilla. The best in Mexico are shallow “pans” made of clay, about 1/2″ thick, various diameters; street food ones about 16in. Often used over charcoal. In use, the top surface is coated with lime. That helps keep food from sticking.
A thin steel pan works too at home, or a griddle, but it needs to be hot, a little hotter than I like for teflon. I recently bought for $3 or $4 a round “comal” at 99centOnly store. It is coated steel, about the thickness of a good quality steel cookie sheet (.035in, actually). It’s round, 11in. in diameter. I can do 3 corn tortillas at a time on it."
I believe my Diane is cooking them too long actually drying them out. The last batch did break awful easy compared to others we made in the past.
I tried the approach of dimpling the dough, filling it with water, folding the dough around it, and then pressing. I think the tortillas maybe did come out more bubbly on the surface as a result. Here are a couple of pics.
The filling was sauteed onion, bell pepper, jalapeño pepper, zucchini (because I have too many in my garden), tofu (Chipotle does that and it’s tasty) and taco seasoning.
This method shown by Rick Bayless using two heat settings on a rectangular griddle works well. He’s unclear about temp, just saying medium and medium high. My high setting is about 540° and medium is just under 500°,when I have the time for that method. I was in a hurry over the weekend and just used 540° on the whole griddle. The tortillas still puffed but not 100%.
After reading through it all and watching a few you tube videos on making tortillas, I set up the dough before I went to bed last night and left it on the counter. I made them today and of course slightly adjusted, and they were great. cooked on my new baking steel stove top, no edges to worry about, holds the heat nice and even. Sprayed with a water spray bottle and then they puffed up more. Used 100 g corn flour ( I had bought a big bag to have on hand for another recipe, not corn starch, corn flour) and 100 g fine corn meal. I am sure with fresh ground corn would be nicer, but they were tasty. Used bacon fat instead of the lard, same thing, just salted and I already paid for it so might as well use it. Most people are unaware that lard has a better fat profile than butter. . After I made the tortillas and they were resting, covered, I made scrambled eggs on my steel, two separate batches of two, made sure to have my solid flipper/spatula handy, actually cooked on residual heat after I turned the heat under the baking steel off, then rewarmed tortillas with some grated marble cheese on them, spread with a few tbsp of refried ( cheat: use a tin of lowest sugar sauced premade beans, mash, done! lower fat and very tasty, learned from a Mexican home cook years ago in rural Mexico while visiting. ) Served with my refreshed home canned tomatillo salsa I made from homegrown tomatillos this summer. added fresh chopped cilantro and fresh squeezed lemon juice. So, warm tortillas with cheese, spread with a few tbps of beans topped with perfectly cooked scrambled egg omelet style with preserved herbs, then the tomatillo salsa, wrapped up and we were transported to a gourmet Mexican memory!. yum!.
My preserved herb mixture for eggs, is parsley, chives, green pepper, in equal proportions prepped by weight, then ground through a meat grinder and 1/6 the total weight ( easiest to do in grams) of kosher salt added. stir and let rest in bowl until lots of juices some out, then put in bottles. No need to refrigerate, I keep my extra in my cold cellar downstairs, the current bottle I keep in fridge as I use it. for eggs 1/4 tsp per 2 eggs and do not add extra salt. FOr a soup base, 1 tbsp or so per cup, for meatloaf etc, 1 tbsp per pound of meat. I do another one with more veggies, 1 lb prepped parsley, 1 lb garlic, 1 lb onion, 1 lb carrot, 1 lb tomato, 1 lb green or red pepper, 1 lb celery. Garlic is optional, but we add. As above through meat grinder, then add 1 lb kosher salt, mix well, let sit and then bottle. I always use bottles that have a rubber inner seal, ie like a recycled jam jar and prefer smaller type bottles, like 4 to 8 ounces. They will not seal as this is not heat processed, but has enough salt that it does not ferment and does not spoil. Very tasty addition to the eggs.
Your tortilla meal sounds so good. Huevos rancheros is one of my favorite brunch dishes and your meal sounds like that.
Thanks for the recipe for your herb mixes. The veggie one reminds me a little of Argentinian / Uruguayan chimichurri, though that has a base of red or white wine vinegar.
I have done a little reading on lard vs butter. It’s fascinating. I have lard in my freezer for use in pie crusts and Cuban bread.
I didn’t have any yellow dent corn so I ground yellow popcorn (twice through, once coarse, once fine) and used that along with all purpose flour. The tortillas had great elasticity when rolled out. The slow ferment with sourdough was key - I didn’t get the big bubbles like in your photo but it definitely had enough rise. I used them for vegetable fajitas and we really liked the texture and flavor. Much better than store bought tortillas!
I finally took the time to make these. The taste and texture of these are amazing. I am going to use them to make carnitas tostadas with a cilantro-lime slaw on top. I will absolutely use this recipe for all my future corn tortilla needs. It is wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
When I created this recipe, I used fresh milled corn flour and all-purpose flour. If I used whole wheat flour (combined with corn flour), I found the tortillas a bit fragile when transferring to the pan.
A couple of days ago, I tried 50:50 mix of nixtamalized corn flour (masa harina) paired with whole grain white sonora flour. The tortillas had awesome handling and were delicious, of course. Masa harina has more binding ability than corn flour so it can be paired with whole wheat and still feel pliable.
I was trying to mimic this flour blend that Breadtopia carries.
Here’s the tortilla video I made with my blend and using basically the same recipe as the blog post at the top of this thread though I didn’t have enough sourdough starter to make the tortillas “sourdough” this time. And this flour combo needs much more water.
200g masa harina (~1 3/4 cups)
200g whole grain white sonora wheat (~1 1/2 cups)
60g avocado oil (~1/4 cup)
Approx 300g water, start with 200g and add more (1-1 1/3 cups)
9g salt (1 1/2 tsp)
