Soft Corn Tortillas

4.65 from 17 votes

Our soft corn tortillas use a mix of all-purpose flour and cornmeal to create easy, versatile, and super-tasty tortillas. We love to use these for tacos, but you don't have to stop there.?

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Additional Time30

Total Time45

Course: Mexican-Inspired

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: corn and flour tortillas, corn tortillas, soft corn tortillas, soft tortillas

Servings:

Calories: 102kcal

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

1 ⅓ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour
⅔ cup (78 g) yellow cornmeal
4 tablespoons (56 g) bacon fat or oil
9 tablespoons (128 g) water
½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Instructions

Add the flour, cornmeal, and fat to a medium mixing bowl.
Mix together with your fingers until the fat is incorporated. The mixture will look like coarse sand.
Pour in water and salt.
Mix together until all the water is incorporated and the dough forms into a ball. Then knead a few times until the dough becomes smooth and no longer sticky. You can knead it right in the bowl.
Divide dough into 10 equal portions. I like to weigh them on my kitchen scale. They should be about (40 grams) each. You can eyeball it if you'd rather.
Use your hands to roll each portion into a little ball. Place on a plate and press with your fingers to flatten into a small disk.
Cover with a piece of parchment or a kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes. If you'll be longer than 30 minutes, place the plate in the fridge so the dough doesn't get too soft.
Set a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat to preheat while you press the tortillas.
Open the tortilla press and line the bottom with a piece of parchment about the size of the press. Place one of the dough disks in the center and cover it with another piece of parchment. Close the press and press down on the lever.
Open the press. Gently peel away the top layer of parchment. Remove the tortilla from the press, still on the bottom piece of parchment. Gently peel the tortilla from the parchment. (see note)
Place tortilla onto dry preheated pan. Cook until blistered on the underside, then flip once and cook until both sides have some nice dark-brown spots.
Repeat pressing and cooking with remaining tortillas, one at a time, stacking on a plate as you go. Keep covered with a towel until ready to serve.

Video

Notes

Mixing the fat into the flours before adding water gives these tortillas a great texture.
If you find that the dough is very sticky after adding the water, it's probably because your cornmeal is more coarsely ground. Let it sit for a few minutes until the cornmeal absorbs the water before kneading.
The trickiest part of this recipe is placing the tortillas onto the skillet. If you find it hard, pop the dough balls into the fridge for 20 minutes or so at the end of their resting time. The firmer dough will be a lot easier to work with.
I find it easiest to flip the tortilla onto my open hand and peel away the parchment with the other hand. If you don't have a tortilla press, you can place the dough between two pieces of parchment on a work surface and use a rolling pin to roll it out into an 8-inch circle. I used to do this before I bought a tortilla press, and while it takes a lot longer, the dough is very cooperative.
Not gonna lie, these (and really all) tortillas are best eaten fresh. If you need to store them, wrap in a damp paper towel and then an airtight plastic bag or container. If you leftovers, migas is a GREAT way to use them.

EQUIPMENT WE USE FOR THIS RECIPE

Adapted from King Arthur.

Nutrition