Quick Lunch with Homemade Half and Half Tortillas

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5 from 1 vote

Quick Lunch with Homemade Half and Half Tortillas

I make improvised meals like this all the time -- they're fast, delicious, and very easy on the wallet :)

Prep Time15

Cook Time5

Servings:

Calories: 521kcal

Author: Mexican Please

Ingredients

For the Half and Half Tortillas:

1/2 cup Masa Harina
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon fat (I used bacon drippings)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup warm water (plus more to combine)

For the fixings (optional):

1 cup refried beans
1 avocado
cheese (I used Queso Fresco)
freshly chopped cilantro
pickled jalapenos
lime

Instructions

Start by combining 1/2 cup Masa Harina, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a mixing bowl. Add a single tablespoon of fat (I used bacon drippings). I like to disintegrate the fat into the mixture using my fingers. Add 1/3 cup warm water and combine it as much as you can.
Dump this mixture onto a work surface and add splashes of warm water until you can knead it into a cohesive dough. If the dough is still crumbly then it needs more water. Conversely, if the dough is sticking to your hands then it's too wet -- simply give it a sprinkling of Masa Harina to dry it out. Once you've got a cohesive ball of dough that you can handle without sticking then it's done.
Pull off a golfball sized chunk of dough and roll it between your hands. Surround the dough ball with plastic -- I like to use a Ziploc bag with the top cut off. Flatten the dough ball with any flat-bottomed dish -- I used a casserole dish for this batch. I like homemade tortillas best when they are ultra-thin -- if it's hard to accomplish that with a casserole dish then feel free to give them a final pass with a rolling pin. Tip: pushing down in a side-to-side motion can flatten them further.
Preheat a skillet or comal to mediumish heat -- a tad over medium heat is the sweet spot on my stove. Peel the plastic off the flattened tortilla and add the tortilla to the skillet. Give it a quick flip after 5-10 seconds, then cook each side for 45-60 seconds or until light brown spots are forming on the underside of the tortilla.
Notes: you'll know if you've got the consistency of the dough right when you go to peel off the plastic from the flattened tortilla. If the tortilla is sticking to the plastic then the dough is too wet -- simply add a sprinkling of masa harina to the dough to dry it out a bit. Conversely, if the dough is still crumbly then it needs a bit more water. It also might take a sacrifice to get the temp of the stove right. Ideally you'll have light brown spots forming on the underside of the tortilla within 45-60 seconds. If it's taking minutes to get brown spots then you'll need to raise the heat. If you're getting dark brown spots quickly then the heat is too high.
As one tortilla cooks, pinch off another ball of dough and flatten it. You are welcome to cook multiple tortillas at a time if you have a large skillet or comal, or you can just cook them one at a time. You'll get 5-7 tortillas from this recipe.
Once the tortillas are cooked you can set them aside as you gather the other fixings. For this batch that meant dicing up some avocado and tossing it with lime juice and salt, dicing up Pickled Jalapenos, rinsing and chopping cilantro, crumbling Queso Fresco, and slicing up a lime.
I usually re-heat the tortillas right before serving. For this batch I put a smidge of bacon drippings in the skillet and dredged the tortillas in the melted fat (optional), then topped with a thin layer of refried beans. This will heat up the beans as well.
Now it's time to load up your Half and Half Tortillas! For this batch each tortilla got a thin layer of refried beans, pickled jalapenos, diced avocado bits, crumbled Queso Fresco, freshly chopped cilantro, and a final squeeze of lime. Serve immediately.
Note: if you only need a few tortillas, feel free to store the leftover dough in the fridge for a few days. You'll be able to pinch off a ball of dough anytime you're craving a freshly cooked tortilla :)

Nutrition