Have you seen that we now carry masa harina made from heirloom corn? It’s delicious and seriously a step above what you can buy elsewhere. If you’re at all interested in making tortillas, keep reading and then head down to Harvey’s to get your masa and a high-quality cast iron tortilla press!
Two things have happened recently to ignite my long-simmering (but thus far unsuccessful) attempts to master fresh corn tortillas: First, a tourist wandered in several months ago and we randomly discovered that we have many mutual friends. We went from uncovering connections to talking about freshly-milled flour and briefly discussed corn tortillas as a natural next step after one starts milling their own grains.
This new friend, Diane, said that she’d been recommended the Masienda brand of masa harina, made from non-GMO, heirloom corn grown in Mexico, and that this particular brand of masa was worlds above the typical masa found at the grocery store.
As we often do when a customer recommends something they really love, I noted it as a potential option for Harvey’s to carry and it went on the back burner.
Then more than one of you kept coming in to ask about what kind of corn to mill for fresh corn tortillas, so I decided it was time to figure out the fresh corn tortilla thing since I knew there was more to it than just grinding corn into cornmeal. This Kansas girl didn’t exactly grow up making tortillas with her grandma.
So, in brief, here’s the two ways to make corn tortillas: If you want to start with whole corn, you do not want or need to mill it first. Dried corn is extremely hard and though not impossible to mill on a home mill, it’s pretty rough on a mill.
Instead, take the whole dried corn and nixtamalize it by soaking it in calcium hydroxide, which is also called pickling lime. That’s the “lime” you see listed on a package of corn masa.
To nixtamalize, you’ll soak the corn in the calcium hydroxide in order to make it easier to grind, help it bind together, and may also make the nutrients more available. Then, you’ll puree that mixture in a food processor, not a grain mill. You do not need a grain mill in order to make fresh corn tortillas! This will make a fresh corn masa mixture that you’ll immediately use to make tamales or tortillas. You can read more about how to do that process here.
We’ve actually had calcium hydroxide available at Harvey’s from the very first day we opened, because it’s also used for water glassing (preserving) eggs, among other things. So if you want to make corn tortillas truly from scratch, come on down to Harvey’s for your dried whole corn and lime!
The second way to make corn tortillas is buying ready-made masa, where the nixtamalization process has already been done and the resulting ground masa is then dried so it’s shelf-stable.
This is where the Masienda masa we’ve started carrying has been making a world of difference in my corn tortilla efforts. After having tried several different recipes and failing to produce tortillas that actually stay together without falling apart, I’ve been making corn tortillas with Masienda masa and have had success for the first time in my life! I follow the exact instructions on the back of the bag, down to the gram weights for water and masa, which takes out the guesswork of what the consistency of the mixture should be.
It’s quite literally as simple as weighing the masa and water (no other ingredients) and mixing them together briefly by hand. Press in a tortilla press and then cook on a hot griddle. (Here’s a tip which is kind of a requirement to me: Cut a plastic freezer bag to about the same size of your tortilla press, and put one piece on the bottom and one piece on the top of your ball of masa before you press. It’s easy to peel off the freezer bag and then slap onto the griddle.)
I’m still figuring out the perfect level of heat for the griddle, as I haven’t gotten them to “puff” consistently. Regardless, the tortillas made with the Masienda masa we sell at Harvey’s are absolutely delicious and such a delight to cook after having tried quite a few times with only lackluster results.
We carry Masienda’s Heirloom Corn Masa Harina in white corn, blue corn, yellow corn, and red corn; as well as organic dried whole corn, calcium hydroxide/pickling lime, and cast iron tortilla presses. Come and try your hand at fresh corn tortillas – it’s Hot Springs’ latest trend!