Chef Johns Flour Tortillas Recipes

CHEF JOHN'S CORN TORTILLAS

Steps:

• Add masa harina to a large bowl. Sprinkle in salt and add hot tap water. Stir mixture with your fingers until dough starts to pull together.
• Knead for a few minutes to smooth it out until texture resembles modeling clay or putty. Add more water if dough is too dry and more flour if too wet.
• Place a damp towel and over the dough to keep it from drying out. Let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Cut a zip-top bag into 2 rounds the same size as your tortilla press. Place 1 round on the bottom of the press.
• Place a clean kitchen towel over a pie dish for holding the cooked tortillas later.
• Pull off a little piece of the dough, enough to roll into a 1 1/2-inch or 1-ounce ball. Remove the top round of plastic, place dough ball in the center of the bottom round, and press down lightly. Cover dough with the top piece of plastic.
• Fold the tortilla press over, apply pressure to the lever arm until tortilla flattens to your desired thinness.
• Peel off the top piece of plastic. Line up the index finger of your dominant hand with the edge of the tortilla; flip it over into your other hand. Carefully peel off the plastic.
• Gently slide tortilla, palm-up, into a hot, dry pan over medium- to medium-high heat. Cook first side for 30 to 45 seconds. Turn over and cook second side for 1 minute. Flip and press once or twice with a spatula until tortilla puffs up slightly. Cook for 30 seconds more. Flip one last time and cook for 5 to 10 seconds.
• Quickly transfer tortilla to the pie dish and fold the towel over to wrap it up. Repeat pressing and cooking the rest of the tortilla dough, stacking and wrapping as you go.
• Leave the stack of tortillas wrapped until soft and supple, at least 15 minutes.

CRISPY BASKET BURRITOS (BAKED TORTILLA BOWLS)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Brush both sides of tortilla with oil.
• Invert ramekin on a work surface; center tortilla on the bottom of the ramekin. Gently shape the tortilla down around the sides. Place a double layer of aluminum foil over the tortilla and press to form the bowl around the ramekin. Place right side up on a baking sheet and leave about 1/2 inch of the edge of the tortilla above the foil so it gets browned and crispy when you bake it. Repeat with the second tortilla.
• Place baking sheet in preheated oven for 5 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and use tongs to carefully remove the ramekins from inside the shells. Transfer sheet back to the oven. Bake shells until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven.
• Carefully remove foil from around the shells; reserve the foil. Flatten foil sheets and invert shells on them. Bring foil up just around the bottom of the shells to protect the top edge.
• Transfer sheet back to the oven. Bake until browned and crispy, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and invert the shells once again so they are right side up. Place on foil and transfer sheet back to oven for the final crisping, 3 to 5 minutes. Watch them carefully so they don't burn.
• Remove sheet from oven; transfer basket burritos to a rack to cool completely.