Corn Tortillas: A Successful Failure

The other week I had some Huevos Rancheros, and the other day I thought "I bet I could make that." It gets old being mostly grain and dairy free. We don't do corn often, but it's delicious when we do - mostly grilled corn on the cob slathered in melty, buttery goodness. 

Tortillas, however, were something I wanted to try. I looked at the corn tortillas at the store and I was kind of shocked at the number of ingredients in even the "homemade" ones. So I set out on Google to find a wheat-free recipe. I thought, surely the original recipes only used corn, salt, and water. 

 

I came across this recipe, which looked amazing, but ultimately was an utter failure: 

http://simpleveganblog.com/tortillas-gluten-free/

I usually read the comments first, but had neglected to. However, I'm glad I didn't because I wouldn't have turned my failure into a success!

Upon reading her comments it turns out she used a PRE-COOKED corn flour. That "pre-cooked" part is the key. A number of commenters voiced their disappointment at their crumbly, sandy-textured, wasted dough from their Bob's Red Mill Corn Meal.

So, looking at my sad bowl of cornmeal mush, I thought "What if I cooked it?" So that's what I did. 

More or less starting out using the original recipe's measurements with Bob's Red Mill Corn Meal, here's what I did:

I put my corn meal mush in a small pot, added a glug of olive oil and extra water, and turned the heat on medium. I continued to stir and add water until it became doughy (this didn't take very long and I probably added a full cup of additional water by the end). Be careful to keep stirring because you don't want the dough on the bottom to get crispy. 

When it seemed thick enough, I took my dough out, let it cool for a little bit, and continued to knead it while it was still hot. 

This really turned it into a nice dough! Tacky like dough, but with that nice corn meal texture. 

Then my girls and I rolled the dough into balls:

I continued using the original recipe's suggestion of flattening the tortillas with a glass baking dish, though using parchment paper instead of the suggested plastic. And now I'm think that would work for pie dough too!

Much to my surprise they worked! Now I guess I need to go to the store and get some ingredients for Huevos Rancheros! Mmmm!

But let's be real. These are corn tortillas, so a few of them crumbled.