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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Cecilia
Hi! I tried your recipe and they came out wonderful!!! I will make these again! The only thing I did different was use my kitchen aid mixer to mix the dough.
Patrick
Ahh good news, so glad you tried these out 🙂 Cheers.
Cheryl
I read in a previous comment that you hadn’t tried freezing the dough, but can I make ahead and refrigerate the dough for a few hours before rolling out to cook them? Trying to have prepped and ready so they will be hot off the stove when served.
Patrick
Yeah this will work fine Cheryl, go for it! I will sometimes keep corn tortilla dough in the fridge for a few days and it does fine -- sometimes you'll need to add a sprinkle of water if it gets a bit crumbly, but that's usually only after a couple days. Cheers.
P.S. If you want to roll them thin it's prob best to let the dough sit on the counter and come to room temp first.
Darlene Vlcek
Can I use Jiffy Cornbread mix??
Patrick
Hi Darlene. No, you'll probably be disappointed if you use a cornbread mix...the corn in Masa Harina has been nixtamalized and gives it a distinct flavor. Cheers.
Masa Harina vs. Cornmeal
Sur
These were easy to put together and roll out. But, they didn't have the bubbles like your photo. I used the batch 2 recipe. Would baking powder help with that?
.
Patrick
Hey Sur! I think rolling them thin and getting the heat on the stove right is usually the key to getting them to puff up like that. And then a final step that can sometimes accelerate that puffing up is to give them a quick smoosh with a spatula once you flip them to the final side. Cheers.
Daniel
“Harina” translates as flour, masa de harina is dough made from flour. You should be starting with masa de maiz, “maiz” is the word for corn
Duane
Makes sense to me, especially since so many of the companies that produce and sell Masa Harina, write the exact wording "Masa Harina" on the packaging of their Masa Harina products.
Lani
Have you tried freezing the dough before? Or rolling out and freezing like that?
Patrick
Hey Lani! Sorry I can't give a better answer, but I haven't tried freezing this dough yet. Cheers.
Janie
They were awesome
Patrick
Thanks Janie!
Sandra K McDonnell
Have you ever added a small amount of lime to the mixture? I have found that it helps the higher masa flour tortillas hold together better.
Patrick
Hmmm thanks for mentioning this Sandra! I haven't tried that yet and didn't consider that it would act as a binder. Cheers.
Chanel Pugh
How do you make taco shells from these homemade flour-corn tortillas? I want to make Taco Bell items that use taco shells.
Patrick
Hey Chanel! Hmmm I haven't tried frying these tortillas yet. But sometimes I will add a small glug of oil to a skillet and cook a few of them in that to make slightly crispy, tostada like thingys 🙂
Jen
My first attempt at making tortillas. I love the texture of these, they were simple and tasty!
Patrick
Ahh good news. Cheers Jen!
tammy
Janie, my husband is from Mexico, I have tried to make corn harina for different types of corn shells==tortillas==and so forth==iam from delaware so needless to say . I did not grow up with mexican food. he told me his mom used to add white flour to the corn harina to make corn tortillas. so I tried to find a recipe for this and could not. now I have. I will give it a try and let you know how it goes. thank=you tammy
Joan
Pour des tacos, vous pouvez cuire les tortillas sur cuisinière et ensuite les suspendre entre les grilles du four à 375F (170C) le temps des sécher.