Homemade Blue Flint Torrtillas

[Nikud]

We've been trying to be more cautious about what we eat. We have been doing our best to avoid GMO products and use only Organic produce.
We found a good recipe for Homade tortillas. It's time consuming but worth it.

How to make nixtamal and then masa

1. 4 cups of water- Bring to boil. Drop to 200F and maintain.
2. Pour 2 cups Dry Blue Flint Corn into the boiling water.
3. Add 1/4 cup of cal (flake lime, calcium hydroxide) or only 2 Tbsp of pickling lime.
4. Stir very well, Cover with a lid, Turn off Heat
5. Remove the top after 45-60 minutes, or when the corn is soft enough to remove the outer skin by pressing it against the palm of your hand. The corn should absorb some of the water and look a little plump and be firm yet soft enough to eat.
6. Remove the top and let stand for 8-12 hours. The corn will nearly absorb all of the water in this time.
7. Remove the nixtamal (corn at this stage) from the excess water. Lightly rinse large container. The husks/shells will flow over the top of the rim if you set the faucet on a slow and steady stream stir with you hands to get the bottom husks up. Try not to wash too vigorously.
8. Begin grinding. If using a kitchen aid meat grinder set the speed to 5 or 6 max and work in small batches, have water handy to adjust consistency and improve the grind. Basically the same process for hand grinders or metates but a lot more effort and time is involved. If you have a stone masa grinder, one grind will suffice, just ensure you have the right setting, fine or coarse. add 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt. Adjust to your taste.

If you are planning to make tamales a coarser masa is required, so maybe stop after the first or second grind. Tortillas do better with a finer grind but sometimes they are nice with a rough grind as well.

How to make a corn tortillas with a press
Materials needed:
Tortilla Press, Bowl, Scale (optional), Plastic bag (cut into a square to fit both sides of your press with 3 openings and one edge), cast iron pan (comal, griddle or whatever flat surface you prefer), neutral cooking oil.

1. Check the masa and if needed add water and mix until the masa is wet enough to leave a bit of moisture on your hand but come off easily and not so much as to be tacky or sticky.
2. Heat your cooking surface and apply a bit of oil to coat the pan. Not too much oil. Medium high heat.
3. Take a clump, weigh if you have a kitchen scale handy 30-35 grams makes a nice 5" tortilla, adjust up or down to your preference.
4. Gently roll between your hands. Rubbing the back sides of your opposite palms together with the ball resting in the heart of your palm works well. You need not have a perfect sphere the press does a good job with anything close.
5. Place the ball between the sheets of plastic on the press base 1/3 away from the hinge).
6. Close the handle lightly and press down firmly. You are not trying to complete the tortilla in one stroke, so keep that in mind when applying pressure.
7. Open the press, look at the dough and turn 90 degrees or 180 degrees to complete rounding out the tortilla with one or two more less firm presses.
8. Remove the tortilla encased in the plastic. Carefully open the plastic, peeling back like removing a sticker off a container, yet apply a light pressure to ensure the dough sticks to the other side.
9. Flip the tortilla dough into your other palm and carefully peel off the other side. Again, light pressure.
10. Place in hot pan, gently but deliberately.
11. Cook under the edges begin to curl up (about a 1/4 " wide) and the dough looks to be drying out.
12. Flip and cook for about 20 secs.
13. Flip again with 20-30 more seconds.
14. Put in a container or wrap in a towel to keep warm. Or pop it into your mouth. watch out, it's hot.
15. Re-heating cool tortillas is a snap. Same pan, same heat, sprinkle a bit of water (Or use a mister, which works best) on the non pan facing surface. Flip once it has absorbed. Serve with ingredients or your dreams.

That's great Kevin but I don't have a tortilla press or kitchen scale so your recipe is kinda useless to me.

Neither do I this is how I do it.

Divide your dough up into 1 1/2 inch sized balls. Roll them a little bit in your hands until smooth. Cut out 2 6 inch circles of parchment paper. They don’t have to be perfect circles. Just roundish. Grab yourself a heavy plate/pot/pan. I like to use a glass pie dish so I can how big the tortilla is getting. Place a dough ball between the parchment circles. Use the circle shaped thingabobber to press the tortilla to about 6 inches diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Then follow steps 8-14.