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Homemade Corn Tortillas are simple and delicious
I know that you can buy corn tortillas. You can always find those fried-into-a-U-shape ones with the Mexican food. The soft ones are often available in the refrigerated section of the supermarket. So, why would you make Homemade Corn Tortillas? Because you like yummy things. Because you like clean ingredients. But, mostly because they are so darned easy.
The cost/benefit ratio weighs very heavily on the benefit side.
Store bought corn tortillas can be no bueno
Yes, of course, you can buy corn tortillas at the supermarket. But, let’s look at the ingredients: Yellow corn masa flour, water and salt. AND cellulose gum, guar gum, amylase, propionic acid, glycerin, xanthan gum, sodium hydroxide, benzoic acid, phosphoric acid. A lot of those things are preservatives, plus some thickeners [I think if you use thickeners, you can get away with less corn, maybe?]. The crunchy fried kind seem to have fewer preservatives, but they are all fried in some one seed oil or another, which seems like more of a bad choice all the time.
Homemade Corn Tortillas are simple
Masa. Salt. Water. That is all that needs to be in there.
And making tortillas is fun. It’s one of those things that make you feel like you are really doing something – like making your own bread or caramel sauce. In the back of your mind, you are thinking “I don’t have to buy this at the store, because I know how to cook.” Yes, you do!
Don’t use regular cornmeal
You need to find masa corn flour. Back when I first started making my own homemade corn tortillas, masa flour was really difficult to find. Now they have masa at every Walmart, and a lot of other supermarkets. If all else fails, you can always find masa on Amazon. It’s pricey there though, so definitely check for it locally. I keep it in a ziplock in the freezer, so that it stays fresh.
Get a tortilla press
You can roll these out with a rolling pin. My attempts resulted in something less than round and even. I decided that a tortilla press was a good idea. A well reviewed one starts at around $20, and it is worth it in my opinion. You can also use it for some kinds of cookies, and to make tart shells or similar things. I cut a ziplock bag along the sides to line the tortilla maker, so there’s no sticking. You can use parchment paper if you prefer. You may have to turn the tortilla after the first press, to get an evenly pressed tortilla.
Be patient with yourself
If you have never made anything like this before, give yourself some grace while you are figuring it out. It is going to get easier as you go along. There is no gluten in masa, so rerolling a tortilla back into a ball to try again isn’t going to hurt anything.
How to make Homemade Corn Tortillas
Homemade Corn Tortillas
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups masa flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cups water [approximately]
Instructions
- Put the masa in a largish mixing bowl, and stir in the salt.
- Stir in the water.
- Use your hands to knead the dough a bit to get it into a nice uniform, smooth ball. If it seems terribly dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, and if it seems really wet, add more masa, a tablespoon at a time. It should be pliable, and stick together well if you gently squeeze a piece between your thumb and fingers. If the edges are too crumbly, add more water, and if it doesn't hold it's shape when you squeeze it, add more flour.
- Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and allow to rest, at room temperature for 30 minutes. You can leave it longer if you need to, but if it's more than hour, it should go in the fridge.
- It's best to cook tortillas on cast iron - like a cast iron griddle, which is what I use, or a cast iron skillet. You can cook more at a time on the griddle. If I have a lot to make, I use my griddle and both of my skillets, but it's hard for one person to keep up with that many at a time.
- If all you have are stainless steel skillets, they will work, though you might have to oil them very lightly. Don't use non-stick, as it is not safe to heat empty non-stick cookware to the temperature needed to bake the tortillas.
- This amount of dough will make about 12 6 inch tortillas - you can divide the dough, and roll each piece into a nice round ball, and then press each one right before you put them on the griddle.
- Line your press with plastic - I cut open a heavy duty ziplock type bag, because they hold up better. Put the plastic bag on the press, with the seam that was the bottom of the bag toward the hinge. Place one of the dough balls on the press, fold over the plastic, and press with your fingers to flatten it a bit.
- Close the press, and gently fold the handle over a little - don't try to flatten it completely at first. Flatten it a bit, open the press to see where the tortilla is, and adjust it so that it's more in the middle. Press a little more, and adjust again if needed, before finally getting the handle all the way down. I usually look at it 3 times and even turn the whole plastic and tortillas around to get it to press evenly.
- Once it is flattened out to the size of the press, carefully open the press, and pick up the plastic bag and tortilla - carefully peel the first side of the plastic off, and put the tortilla in your other hand, and peel off the second side of the plastic. Save the bag to use for the remaining tortillas.
- Place each tortilla on the preheated griddle or skillet. The heat should be on the high side of medium - each side of the tortillas will take about a minute to 90 seconds to cook if you have the heat set correctly. They should have some nicely browned spots on each side.
- Place the cooked tortillas on a plate, cover with a damp paper towel and a folded over kitchen towel to keep them warm and to prevent them from drying out.
- Once you get a rhythm going you can probably have a fresh tortilla pressed to take the place of each one that you remove from the griddle - if not, it won't hurt anything for the griddle to sit empty for a few moments.
- Keep the tortillas warm if you are going to eat them right away - they will keep tightly wrapped in the fridge for the better part of a week. You can freeze them as well, but the quality will suffer a bit.
Notes
Nutrition
Perfectly delightful Homemade Corn Tortillas
How to use Homemade Corn Tortillas
You can use these to make any of your favorite Mexican or Tex-Mex meals. You can use them to make Quesadillas or Breakfast Burritos. They are great with beans and rice, as the bread – or scoop up the mixture to make soft shell tacos from that recipe. They are also really good fried until crisp for tostadas. If you cut the cooked tortillas into triangles, you can deep fry them for chips.
Originally published in August 2014, updated in July 2018, and again in August 2024
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wow..they have turned out so perfect. How cool that you even own a tortilla press!
It takes a little practice Angie, but then they are very easy. 🙂
Beautiful and ever so tempting! I love corn tortillas.
Cheers,
Rosa
Thanks Rosa – glad that you like them!
These look so much better than anything you would find at the shops! 😀
Definitely, Lorraine – a world of difference 🙂
I love Mexican! That spicy herbed sauce caught my attention! Again, thanks for coming and linking up at The Weekend Social. All posts get pinned on our pinterest board! Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST on culinaryflavors.gr ! I hope to see you there!
Thanks Katerina – I’ll be there!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I have a gluten intolerance and finding corn tortillas in HK is never an easy feat . I can find taco shells at some of the specialty stores but now if I can find some masa harina we are in business. Pinning this recipe so I can make later. Wishing you a super week Donalyn! Take Care, BAM
Thanks Bam – I hope you can find it there. It used to be very difficult to find it locally, but now it’s in the big supermarkets.
My tortilla press is my favorite little gadget in the whole world! These are so good I could eat the dough raw.
I have to agree with you there, Sue!
There is nothing better than fresh homemade tortillas . I had some last night in our downtown taco bar attached to a Mexican restaurant . Your tortillas look fantastic. One of these days I have to make my own.
It was a local Mexican place that made me start looking for the wherewithall to make my own a few years ago Gerlinde – theirs were SO good!
I would absolutely love to have a homemade tortilla over store bought any day 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
For sure CCU!
I have never had the courage to try making tortillas at home and I sincerely admire you. They look perfect! They must taste great too.
Thanks Sissi – one of those things that isn’t hard at all once you do a few times. Give it a try!
Those tortillas look great! I tried making them once. I bought this tortilla maker from the US – had it shipped to Australia and turned it on. Put the first one in and did what the directions said – slowly, slowly, lift up, put down, lift up, etc.. way more complicated than I thought it needed to be. Every. single. one exploded. John came in and said, “Gonna blog these?” LOL
THEN, when I decided to try again, I opened the bag of masa and found bugs in it. It was fate telling me to let those more capable make the tortillas.
Yours look wonderful.
Ew – that would put a stop to my explorations for awhile, Maureen! Time to give it another try maybe?
Well, we do sit around a lot eating bowls of pinto beans with green chile and warm corn tortillas. I wish I had that stack of your tortillas right now. They do look perfect!!!
I love how easy you made this. I had never made tortillas myself, but decided to make it a project with my granddaughters. We had so much fun and the tortillas are SO good! Thank you!
Mimi, I am so glad that you had fun and made great memories. We made these a family project a few summers ago during out annual get together and it was a great time. Thanks for letting me know!