Tortillacocina Blog

The traditional Mexican tortilla press is a simple but effective kitchen tool made for one purpose: to flatten corn dough (masa) into tortillas prior to cooking. The hand operated wooden or metal tortilla press is a slightly more modern alternative to hand patting corn tortillas into shape. That said, the tortilla press has been around a long time!

To use a tortilla press for making corn tortillas you first need to cover the surfaces of the press (top and bottom) with plastic wrap or wax paper. Dough should never come into contact with the press itself. The reason for this is that the plastic wrap allows the dough to flow smoothly when pressed which is important to get thin round tortillas. Covering the press also keeps the tortilla from sticking to the metal and makes it easier to peel off cleanly. Lastly, covering the press makes clean-up much easier.

• Roll well kneaded, smooth corn masa dough into roughly golf ball sized balls, flatten slightly with your hand, and place in the middle of the tortilla press.
• Close press and apply pressure usingthe handle. It works best to apply pressure a couple times rather than all at once. Press to desired thickness.
• Open press carefully and peel tortilla from the plastic wrap. Place tortilla directly onto hot griddle or comal to cook.

Please note that the manual tortilla press is used for making corn tortillas, not wheat flour tortillas. Flour dough contains gluten and must be either rolled out and worked with a rolling pin or pressed out using heat to break down the gluten and parbake the dough. Pressing wheat flour tortillas out with a regular hand press will not work very well and the tortillas will draw back up and curl when cooked.

The best and easiest way to make delicious flour tortillas at home is using an Electric Flour Tortilla Press Maker from Mexico. It will make flour tortillas up to 8″ without rolling.

Good luck and have fun making tortillas!