Have you noticed these trendy Half and Half Tortillas in your grocery store lately?
While most store-bought tortillas are either corn or flour exclusively, these use both in the same tortilla. Sound crazy?! You end up with a more hearty tortilla that still has plenty of corn flavor.
I've been meaning to experiment with them and finally got around to it this past week, and I'm glad I did! I thought they were total keepers and I think this recipe offers up a big upgrade compared to store-bought versions.
How To Make Half and Half Tortillas
My starting point for fiddling with these Mitad y Mitad beauties was the original Corn Tortillas recipe:
2 cups Masa Harina
1/2 teaspoon salt
1. 5 cups warm water
Masa Harina is dehydrated corn dough and it's the easiest way to get homemade corn tortillas in the house. If you're new to Masa Harina you can read more about it here.
I'm still using Bob's Red Mill for Masa Harina lately, so all the batches in this post were made with this organic option:
But there are other good options for Masa Harina so don't sweat the brand too much. This post compares Masa Harina brands.
For Batch #1 I just swapped out a cup of Masa Harina for a cup of all-purpose flour.
And I chose not to add any fat just to get a sense of my starting point. Note that corn tortillas are typically made without any fat or lard, while flour tortillas are the opposite and always contain fat.
So Batch #1 ingredient list looked like this:
1 cup Masa Harina
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
Simply add some water to the mixture in the bowl and combine it as much as you can, then dump it on a work surface and add the rest of the water incrementally until it forms a cohesive dough.
To flatten the dough balls I pulled out the trusty casserole dish.
Note: that's a Ziploc bag with the top cut off surrounding the flattened tortilla.
Then cooked them in a dry skillet over medium heat for 45-60 seconds per side.
And the result?
Very promising flavor but the insides were a little gummy, as if they didn't cook all the way through.
So for Batch #2 I added the fat.
The original Flour Tortillas recipe uses a single tablespoon of fat per cup of flour, so I went with 2 tablespoons for this batch:
1 cup Masa Harina
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lard
1 cup warm water
And yes, I used lard! Lard works wonders in flour tortillas so I wanted to try the real thing in these experiments. I used this home-rendered lard.
But keep in mind that you can use other fats to make tortillas at home. In the past I've used bacon drippings and olive oil and gotten equally good results:
Flour Tortillas Made With Bacon Drippings
Flour Tortillas Made With Olive Oil
So please don't let the lard turn you off of these Half and Half Tortillas! I think you'll be able to get creative with the fat and still get a good result.
Here's how Batch #2 looked after cooking:
That plethora of brown spots is the fat in action and these tortillas were cooked all the way through.
And the flavor? It's amazing what a difference some fat can make 🙂 I thought these were awesome and definitely an upgrade to the store-bought half-and-halfs I have in my area.
Next I wanted to experiment with the corn-to-flour ratio.
Batch #3 looked like this:
1 1/3 cups Masa Harina
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lard
1 cup warm water
And Batch #4 looked like this:
1 1/2 cups Masa Harina
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lard
1 cup warm water
I wanted to see how much the flavor changes when you increase the amount of Masa Harina, but I have to admit that both of these batches were quite similar in flavor to Batch #2 and they came with a drawback...
As the amount of flour decreased they become more fragile and tougher to roll out.
At this point I was flattening them with the casserole dish and then trying to get them ultra-thin with a final pass of the rolling pin. Batch #4 couldn't handle that and would break apart as I tried to peel the plastic away from the flattened tortilla. In hindsight this makes sense as the gluten of the flour acts as a binding agent and Batch #4 was only 25pct flour.
So I went back to the Batch #2 ratio and tried rolling them out much thinner than I had previously.
And they came out looking like this:
And they had all the characteristics I had hoped for when starting these experiments:
- heartiness from the flour
- plenty of corn flavor from the Masa Harina
- thin enough that the tortilla won't dominate the meal
- a hint of savoriness from the fat
I'll take it!
So the final recipe for Batch #2 looked like this:
1 cup Masa Harina
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lard
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup warm water (plus more to combine)
With a final special note giving you full permission to roll these out ultra thin!
Okay if you've been wondering about Half and Half Tortillas I hope you try making these at some point. I was thrilled with the results and learned a bunch in the process. Awesome.
Buen Provecho.
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Half and Half Tortillas (Corn + Flour)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Masa Harina
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons lard (or fat of your choice)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup warm water (plus more to combine)
Instructions
- Add the masa harina, flour, and salt to a mixing bowl and combine well. Add two tablespoons of lard. I usually use my hands to crumble the lard into the mixture. Add 3/4 cup warm water and combine as much as you can with a spoon.
- Dump the mixture onto a work surface and knead until a cohesive dough is formed. If the mixture is dry and not coming together simply add additional splashes of water. If the mixture is wet or sticky simply add a few sprinklings of masa harina.
- Cover with a damp paper towel and let the dough rest for a few minutes as the pan heats up. Note: normally I let dough for flour tortillas rest for 30 minutes but I only let this Half and Half dough rest for 10 minutes and I did not experience any snapback when rolling them out.
- Preheat a dry skillet or comal. I used a tad over medium heat on my stove.
- Pull off a golfball sized chunk of dough and roll it between your hands. Surround the dough ball with plastic (I used a Ziploc sliced in half) and flatten it with a casserole dish. At this point you can optionally roll them out even thinner using a rolling pin.
- Gently peel the plastic off the flattened tortilla and add it to the pre-heated pan. Flip after 10 seconds, then cook each side for 45-60 seconds or until light brown spots are forming on the underside.
- As the tortillas cook you can roll out the next one to expedite the process. Store leftover tortillas in an airtight bag in the fridge. To re-heat, simply add them to a pre-heated, dry skillet and cook until warm.
Notes
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Beth Ritter
Patrick, if I weren't in the middle of cooking right now I would write more. Thank you so, so much for this recipe. It is truly the first time I did not have trouble making tortillas. I used organic safflower oil which worked, wonderfully.
Wow. I am about to stuff them with cheese and chicken in a casserole. Thank you again.
Patrick
Hey Beth I'm so glad these are a hit for you! And thanks much for mentioning your adjustment, it's good to know that's an option. Cheers.
Elaine
Great texture and flavor and just what I was looking for. I would make one change to increase the water to 1-1/4 cups to ensure tortillas puff while cooking (a necessity for me). I could tell by the texture while I was kneading that the water content was insufficient to guarantee a puffed up tortilla. Dough should start off sticky and be just shy of sticky when kneading is completed. Another tip to ensure puffing is heat cast iron pan to approximately 475 degrees, partially cook on the first side, flip and cook completely, then flip back to the first side when puffing happens. Thanks again for experimenting for me so I can make the perfect 1/2 and 1/2 tortilla.
Patrick
Hey thanks much for these tips Elaine, they're super helpful! Cheers.
Debbie
I have the flour tortilla recipe down and make them always instead of purchasing flour tortillas. But somehow I have not been able to perfect corn tortillas and be satisfied so I buy the best ones I can and go from there. But these were so easy, went together well, and we are having them tonight as leftover meatloaf tacos—don’t laugh. Soon I want to try these to make my cheese and onion enchiladas. Thanks!
Patrick
Thanks Debbie, so glad these are a hit with you! And I will put meatloaf tacos on my recipe todo list 🙂
Paul Aquilina
Great experimentation,glad you put in all the steps,...it helped me being a complete non versed baking cook.
Patrick
Thanks Paul!
MikeF
When making corn tortillas from scratch to get them to be consistent thickness, I use a tortilla press. I bought a box of 1,000 plastic deli sheets for $5 from the deli department, and use one on each side of the balls of dough of my corn tortilla dough. One on the press plate and one on top of the ball of dough, spread out flat. After pressing, I then stack the tortillas on a plate with the top sheet still on, leaving the sheet on the press in the press, so they don't dry out before being grilled. To grill, I then pick up the top sheet and raw tortilla and put it on the grill, deli sheet on top, and grab the sheet as soon as the tortilla hits the grill. I also use the press to coat soaked corn husks with masa when making tortillas before adding filling and rolling and stacking around our tamale rock in the steamer pot.
Patrick
Hey thanks for your tips Mike. Cheers.
Deb
Thank you for such a wonderful recipe and great instructions...
Patrick
Cheers Deb I hope they treat you well!
Brian P Lueken
Looks amazing! I can’t wait to try them myself. Thank you.
Patrick
Thanks Brian!
Jeter C Hall
Are the tortillas soft for rolling enchiladas? In pictures they look hard. Thanks in advance.
Patrick
Yeah they are soft and flexible when they come off the stove -- if you are using them days later it's always best to warm up tortillas before rolling them into enchiladas. Cheers.
3 Ways To Warm Up Tortillas
Jon
I`m sure these are best fresh but can they be kept and stored?
Patrick
Hey Jon! I haven't tried storing these yet but in general with homemade tortillas I never plan on keeping them for long as they always taste best when freshly made -- I will sometimes even cook just a half batch and store the rest of the dough in the fridge for a few days so I can make them fresh whenever I get the craving 🙂
MD
This is great! I pick up the mitad y mitad tortillas from the tortilleria in my local HEB, but I had never thought about trying to make them myself.
Patrick
Thanks MD! Yeah try it out if you get a chance I thought they were awesome 🙂