Tortillas from scratch

This wasn't the press we used, but clever!  I wonder if we could design one with a house seal on it for signature tortillas in the future, or offer to machine custom ones for other tortilla aficionados....

Inevitably, we buy tortillas (TJ's corn & wheat are our favs) and forget about the remainder languishing in the fridge until they get moldy.  Or we have all the makings for tacos except the tortillas themselves and give up and order pizza or similar tragedy.  Therefore, learning how to tortilla is an important life skill.

The hardest part about making tortillas from scratch was finding Masa Harina at Sprouts, our Anglo-focused grocer.  Since flour is pretty shelf-stable, I just ordered a bag on AMZ Prime, but kind of resent the complexity this adds to our provisioning supply chain.

/Tangent-- Incidentally, I'm very impressed with AMZ Now for groceries. Like Prime Instant Video and Sbux rewards, it is interesting to reflect on how much I ponied up for the privilege of being an early adopter of these services and how much more affordable and smooth the customer experience has become now that they're out of beta.  Groceries are now available from Sprouts within 2 hours of ordering, honoring all the in-store sales that are featured in their paper circulars, and delivered by a friendly uber/lyft/courier.  The delivery charge is about 10% of your order, which seems reasonable vs. the alternative of several laden backpack 5 mile bike trips praying the eggs don't break or our time if MacGyver/I "clocked out" to go to the store, plus the self-discipline benefits of being able to search only for organic, or skip the ice cream/beer cases that would have otherwise tempted Hungry Self to stray from The Plan.  /End tangent

Anyhow, AMZ ships Bob's Redmill Masa Harina and "Bob" seems pretty committed to curbing the unquestioning use of GMO, at least in what gets planted if they can't control pollination contaminants, so I ordered a 24 oz bag of that instead of just going to one of the 2 local latino grocers within 4 blocks of the house for Maseca.

Best tip I found was to use a freezer bag trimmed to fit the press rather than wax paper or foil.  This worked beautifully.  I didn't bother to cut 2 separate pieces, I just let the natural crease in the bag define the top half and the bottom half.  Some tortillas had an unnaturally straight edge from dough pressed flush into the crease, but that seems less messy than alternatives.  

I also just used the cast iron skillet to cook them, no oil.  I think if MacGyver were more actively involved in this step, a lot more Canola would have gone in the skillet and into our arteries, but these pucks showed no signs of getting stuck.  I kept MacG distracted on Ye Olde Stove grilling fajita veggies and reconstituting some questionable dried black fungus mushrooms I had languishing in the back of the spice drawer.

MacGyver is typically a flour tortilla devotee, but I think these corn ones won him over.  He said he doesn't like the preservative taste of the store bought corns and his aversion was more to preservatives than corn.

If I were repeating this recipe, which I probably will, I would experiment with more than the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and supplementing even more lime juice in conjunction with water to make these more piquant.  The TJs flour + corn combo also seems to use baking powder and honey, so maybe incorporating those will make the home version even more addictive.

Total yield off 2 cups of masa=12 tortillas (8 tortillas + 1 testilla + 2 accidentes I dropped on the floor and fed to dogs + 1 leftover that fed the chickens).  At that rate, a bag of Bob's makes 23-34 tortillas.  These would run  $0.08 to $0.35/tortilla depending on whether you bought flour in bulk from AMZ and whether you count my 25% waste rate as part of the yield or not).  This still compares favorably to the $0.31-$0.43/tortilla of the premade ones from La Tortilla Factory we would have chosen otherwise (not factoring in that we waste a decent amount of these due to fridge neglect).  In broad strokes, I would say handmade tortillas cost 58% of what store bought ones would, saving you about $0.16/tortilla)... If I'm more cynical, I would say my hourly tortilla making wage is $0.85, but I spent a lot of that loitering and talking to MacG which I might actually pay to have the privilege of doing at say a bar or restaurant, so :-P .  Plus it seems like Bob's cardboard box and wrappers for flour bags would be less net waste and more compostable than the plastic baggies for each 8 count of LTF's we would have to dispose of otherwise.  If maseca bags are paper, they'd be the smallest carbon footprint, but I worry about the GMO issue.