The Recipe - Guatemalan Handmade Tortillas

As D., from a village near Uspantan, Guatemala, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, Maine, September 2015 

Serves: 4-6
Cooking Time: 45 min

3 cups instant corn masa flour (she used Maseca brand)
about 3 1/4 cups water

You can find instant corn masa flour near the flour at regular supermarkets. If they don't have it, you can order it online or find it at a Latin market.

Put the masa flour in a wide bowl. Add water and knead with your hands for about 5 minutes until you have a smooth, soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Knead the dough for about two minutes, then form a smooth top and let the dough sit for 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat a flat iron crepe pan (with no rim) or an iron skillet on medium.

Watch this video to see how she formed the tortillas by hand. She did not use a tortilla press. Her dough, by the way, was softer (had more water in it) than the dough that works well in a tortilla press.

Place the tortilla on a hot, dry iron skillet. Don't move it for a minute or two. When the side facing down looks golden in parts, flip it over and heat the other side for minute or two until it is golden in parts. Place the finished tortilla in a basket. Continue forming and cooking tortillas and placing the completed tortillas the basket until you've used up all the dough.

My Guatemalan friends eat these thick tortillas like bread with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The day we cooked together they ate them with their favorite homemade Guatemalan chili sauce and chicken and vegetable soup.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2015