Humble corn tortillas are easy to make at home

I added warm water to a wide-mouthed stainless steel bowl of masa harina and dug in.

With a satisfying squish, I began to work the finely ground corn flour between my fingers. It was fun. Later, enjoying my corn tortillas with spicy shredded chicken, I thought: Remind me why I ever bought these already-made from the store?

With only two or three ingredients, humble corn tortillas are easy to make at home. If you’ve never done it, Cinco de Mayo is the perfect excuse to try tortilla-making for the first time – or put your kneading hands and old tortilla press to good use.

I confess: I had to borrow one.

But now, a tortilla press of my own is at the top of my kitchen wish list.

Fresh, warm, homemade tortillas hugging whatever you want to put in them – pork carnitas, carne asada, spicy salsa, crisp radishes, crunchy cabbage – are just plain better.

And they’re so simple. All you need is masa harina, warm water and maybe some salt.

It isn’t traditional, but if you want to fancy it up – like I did – try experimenting with spices: cumin, chipotle and ancho chili powder, adobo seasoning, achiote, oregano. After making nearly four dozen plain corn tortillas for a recent taco party, I added chipotle and ancho chili powder to the dough for something different – and a bit of a kick. They were a hit.

Masa harina is more finely ground than corn meal. It’s made from ground corn kernels that have been soaked in limewater, an alkaline solution that changes the corn’s structure, making it softer.

While you don’t have to have a tortilla press, it certainly helps. A tortilla press makes tortillas thinner and more uniform than trying to flatten them by hand or with the back of a skillet. This is because the press provides even pressure, making tortillas perfectly round and thin and consistent. If you don’t have one, a rolling pin might be your best option for getting thin tortillas. Aim for 1/8 inch in thickness. Still, you might see some cracking along the edges, and the tortillas won’t be perfectly round.

Adhere plastic wrap to the press – or use a quart-size zip-top baggie cut open along the sides – to prevent the dough from sticking to the plates.

Mixing the dough takes a matter of minutes. Resting it for up to a half hour or so allows the dough more time to absorb the water. It should have the consistency of Play-Doh. If it’s too dry and crumbly, add water a tablespoon at a time until it’s moist and springy. Likewise, if it’s too sticky, add masa a tablespoon at a time until it’s no longer paste-like.

Resist the urge to roll large balls of dough between your palms. You’ll only need a couple of tablespoons to form a ping-pong-sized dough ball and make a 6-inch tortilla

No oil is needed to cook the rounds on medium-high heat. Flip them twice. They’re done when toasty spots begin to appear, but they’re still pliable, not crisp. Tortilla-making goes faster when you have two people working: one to form and press the dough, another to cook the tortillas.

As the comforting smell of sweet, warm corn started to permeate the kitchen, I was reminded of meals at Antojitos Mexicanos Restaurant and Mercedes and Family in Yakima and El Mejor Taquito in Sunnyside. In the Yakima Valley, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration with two- and three-day street fairs, authentic Mexican cuisine and caballos bailadores, or dancing horses.

If you don’t plan to make the three-hour-plus drive southwest of Spokane for the weekend festivities, celebrate by making your own corn tortillas – and stuffing them with your favorite fillings.

Below, find the recipe I followed.

Corn tortillas

From “Tacos, Tortas, and Tamales: Flavors from the Griddles, Pots and Streetside Kitchens of Mexico” by Roberto Santibanez. Traditional recipes often call for the tortilla press plates to be covered with rounds cut from plastic bags. Covering the plate with plastic wrap works well, too.

3 cups masa harina

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 1/2 cups warm water (about 115 degrees), plus more as needed

Make the dough: Stir together the tortilla flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and mix with your hands until the mixture comes together, then knead it for a minute with your palm to form a smooth dough. It should feel just slightly sticky and leave a light film on your hands. If it doesn’t, very gradually knead in more water until it does. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it sit for 5 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Form and cook the tortillas: Set a large (ideally, flat) pan over medium-high heat until it begins to smoke. Line a tortilla basket or bowl with a clean kitchen towel: as you cook each tortilla, you will layer it on top of the others in the basket, wrap the basket with the towel, and cover it (with an inverted plate in the case of the bowl) to finish cooking tortillas and keep them warm.

Open your tortilla press and lay a plastic round in the center of the press’s bottom plate. Grab a small piece of dough (about 2 tablespoons’ worth) and roll it between your palms into a ball. Put it in the center of the plastic round, drape the other plastic round on top, and press down gently with your palm to flatten the ball a bit. Close the tortilla press, push down firmly on the handle, open the press again, rotate the plastic rounds 180 degrees, and press down again. Your goal is a tortilla of even thickness.

Open the press, pick up the tortilla, plastic and all, and carefully peel off the plastic from one side and then the other. (If the tortilla sticks to the plastic, the dough is too wet and you should gradually add a little more tortilla flour.) With the tortilla draped on your palm, gently lay the tortilla (resist the temptation to flop it) onto the pan with a turn of your wrist.

Set a timer if it’s your first or even third time cooking tortillas. Cook the tortilla on one side until the edges just barely lift from the pan, about 20 seconds. Use your fingers or a spatula to carefully flip the tortilla, then cook it for about 45 seconds. Flip it again, and cook it for 30 seconds. Each side should have a few brown spots. (If there are no brown spots, the heat is too low. If the brown spots look dark, the heat is too high.)

Put the cooked tortilla in the kitchen towel-lined basket or bowl, cover, and one by one, repeat forming and cooking the tortillas.

Yield: about 24 tortillas