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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Maia Ross
I'm going to attempt this recipe however I plan on grinding nixamilized corn down for the masa harina. It will be a wet dough. Do you think I could just add everything else to the ground corn and then add the water as needed to get the right consistency for the dough? Please let me know if you have any suggestions 🙏 I grind all of our flour/ grains for my household and am processing the corn as well before grinding and adding hard white ground flour because I believe it'll work best with this recipe. I have high hopes!
Patrick
Ooh sounds great Maia! Yeah I think that will work. I have done the same in the past, i.e. adding some masa harina to dry out ground, wet nixtamalized dough. Since you'll be adding white flour to the mix anyways I think it will have the same effect and help to bring the wet corn dough back to the right consistency (you just may not need to add as much water). Cheers.
Homemade Masa Using Field Corn
jax
Thank you for this write up. I have my batch going now with 1 c whole wheat (freshly ground) . I use a sourdough called clas (concentrated lactic acid) whenever I use freshly milled flour.
Patrick
Hey thanks much for mentioning your adjustments. Cheers.
Kitty
I tried these today and they are so good using the recipe exactly as written. Sooo good. This made 12 tortillas using my press covered with a plastic bread bag on both sides. At first I was dis That they didn’t bend, but I put them in a ziplock while hot and was able to roll into a beautiful pan of chicken and cheese green chile enchiladas
Thanks again!!
Patrick
Ooohhh nice, that sounds like a proper meal 🙂
Caitlin
I made these tortillas yesterday using 2 tbs olive oil, and they were amazing! I’m so glad to have found this recipe! Also, rolling the dough out in a ziplock sheet is brilliant. I just cut my ziplock bag so that it opened like a book, and place the dough between the flaps before rolling. The tortilla comes off easily! Much better than rolling out on a floured surface. I’ll be using that trick for all flat breads! Thank you 🙂
Patrick
Ahh good to hear, thanks much for the feedback! Cheers.
Thomas Russell
I love the 50/50 blend.
Trish
Love these, I used a tortilla press, they were a little thicker than I wanted next time will press and then use a rolling pin to make them a little thinner!
Patrick
Thanks Trish! I've been making these for the past few days and had success getting them ultra-thin using the bottom of a large salad bowl -- pushing down side to side can really flatten them out. Cheers.
Lynn B
I made these using your recipe and I'm glad to say these are a perfect replacement for tortillas I was buying in the store. First their price went up! And then I could no longer find them in the stores I was buying them in! These homemade ones are especially delicious using lard. Mmmm.....lard...
Question...any ideas on how to modify the flavor to be more suitable in a dessert application? I've seen these rolled tortillas with cream cheese and fruit filling and they look great.
Patrick
Thanks Lynn, so glad you tried these out! Hmmmm, although I haven't tried these in a dessert setting, I would be tempted to weight them more towards flour with less corn flavor, something like 1 1/3 cups flour, 2/3 cups masa harina, and going from there. Cheers.
John Alan
Hey Lynn I’d try just a little sugar in the mix to give it a little sweet taste. Not much though maybe a teaspoon, (4g). It will work
Deb
I made these tortillas last night, they turned out great! I used avocado oil because I did not have any lard, it worked great and the dough was so easy to work with to! I used a tortilla press to press them out, worked great to!
I usually buy a corn and flour tortilla, after making these I will be able to make them at home.
Thank you!
Patrick
Ahh good to hear this Deb, and thanks much for mentioning the avocado oil as that has been on my to-do list for awhile. Cheers.
Dianne
Can I use these to make rolled tacos? If yes do I follow your instructions and when finished the cooking part do I fill them with the meat mixture, roll them then deep fry them?
Patrick
Hey Dianne! Sorry I can't give a better answer but I haven't tried frying these tortillas yet -- will add this to my list though. Cheers.
Kathy
Excellent recipe! I have to admit though, I didn't have any lard because I won't buy the store shelf lard, and the good stuff is hard to come by (I used a really good Safflower oil). But I made these last night and they still turned out terrific. I know they'll be even better with lard.
I was so happy to snoop around your website and learn what to do to make my own lard. Thanks for spelling it out so clearly. I know what I'll be doing this week.
Patrick, thanks for sharing all your great recipes. I already have at least 10 meals lined up from what I've discovered here. Your instructions are very clear, the photos are great and most of all, you really enjoy cooking and you're fun!
Patrick
Thanks much Kathy! So glad to hear you are finding some good stuff on my site. Cheers.