I tried making corn tortillas years ago, failed when I tried to roll them out and gave up. The other day, I bought some more masa harina, watched about 10 vids on YouTube searching for "corn tortillas" and, after a little tinkering, got it. No matter what bullshit hand-waving goes on about a grain behaving differently due to the relative humidity of the season, grain's moisture level doesn't change. I worked on the relative amounts of masa and water to get a nice dough; I found 120 g masa to 180 g water to make a nice dough. The second challenge encountered was rolling them out. This dough cannot be rolled, it can only be squashed. I put the 40 gram balls of dough (after resting) between the sheets of a ziploc plastic bag and squashed it really flat with a cast iron pan. The resulting disc is delicate, but, doesn't stick to the plastic. Cook a few minutes on each side on a wicked hot cast iron pan that's been wiped with a bit of oil. Let resulting tortillas rest (they soften on resting and develop flavor). I took a few and stuffed them with some leftover roasted chicken and a small bit of salsa for a decadent Saturday afternoon snack.
Very nice. I always get frustrated by making corn tortillas because they always take three time longer to make than I imagine. I always fret about amount of water I will try your ratio. A neat trick I learned is to use the bottom of a dinner plate to smash em, the little rim acts as a nice gauge for thickness. You make the tortilas, I'll make the pibil.
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