Hand shaped tortillas from homemade masa

Masa, the corn dough used to make tortillas, tamales, pupusas, and more, is quickly becoming one of my favorite kitchen staples.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to get good quality product.  Even in Mexico, shops with fresh masa for home use are disappearing in favor of the powdered stuff.

I began my quest in early 2008.  My daughter’s 3rd birthday was coming up and I wanted to have a taco bar.  I looked and looked for plain fresh tortillas for sale but found nothing suitable.  I live in a semi-rural agricultural part of the San Francisco Bay Area.  You can’t do a cartwheel without hitting a Mexican neighborhood, market, or restaurant.  But almost every last tortilla I found had preservatives in it.  Why on earth??  Trader Joe’s has some pretty good ones, the “handmade” ones, but they’re a bit pricey for a large party, and they aren’t organic.  Whole Foods has organic tortillas with good ingredients but they’re dreadful.  Okay if fried hard but just horrible if you try to make them soft, like a real taco.

The first stop in my masa journey was the powdered stuff.  Masa harina.  Maseca brand.  I made pretty good (and very cheap) tortillas from it.  They tasted much the same as commercial tortillas…because most of those are made from the powder too.  It’s not organic, it’s probably GMO, it leaves a junky feeling in my stomach, but it’s easy to find, easy to store, and moderately easy to make.  It’s good in a pinch but is sort of like buying squishy “wheat” bread from a bag instead of baking your own from whole grains.

I’ve looked but haven’t found organic masa harina (harina means flour).  Bob’s Red Mill makes a non-organic one that is pretty decent.  Worlds better than Maseca but it still gives me that icky tummy and, like all masa harina, is difficult to work with and shape into anything but basic tortillas.

My next discovery was a true masa shop, practically in my backyard.  Primavera in Sonoma, California.  For a mere $1.50 a pound, I could buy beautiful organic whole grain masa, ready to cook.  Unfortunately, “practically” means a 45 minute drive each way and I have been having trouble sourcing it anywhere else.  The only Farmer’s Markets they sell at are an hour away and the stores they sell their finished products at don’t carry the masa because it’s so perishable (you can’t freeze it and it’s best used within a couple of days, though it will not go bad for a week or slightly more).  I was special ordering it from my local Whole Foods but they decided this was too much trouble.  I met their early morning delivery truck in parking lots a couple of times but, with a child in tow, this got to be a hassle.

The next step was obvious, I was going to have to make my masa myself.  But how?  First I (re)discovered the Good Eats (Alton Brown on the Food Network) episode where he makes it, effortlessly of course.

Then I worked on ingredients.  You need field corn for this, which simply means the kind of corn used for cornmeal, not for corn on the cob or popcorn.  Azure Standard to the rescue!  They grow their own and a 5 lb bag of organic dried field corn is a mere $3.05.  Note: you really do want organic here (or at least buy from a farmer you know isn’t using GE seeds or spraying).  Almost all field corn in the US is genetically engineered (and heavily sprayed).  Organic is not.

Next you need Cal, short for calcium carbonate aka slaked lime (get food grade, not the grade for cement or whitewashing walls!).  Most Mexican markets will have this.

Calcium Carbonate for making masa

The only other ingredients are water and salt but you do need a stainless steel (or other non-reactive) pot, a stove, and a food processor.  In my net searches, I came across another blogger, Rancho Gordo, who made masa using Alton Brown’s recipe.  My heart sank as I read their difficulty in getting the food processor method to work.  But I decided to plow ahead anyway.  And I’m glad I did, mine came out wonderful!

It’s pretty easy.  Measure 6 cups of water (I use filtered since the corn will absorb it) into a pot, add 2 tablespoons of cal, and stir as you gently heat the water.

Soaking the corn in lime water

When the lime is dissolved (a few seconds), add 2 cups of corn.  Rinse it first, though I forgot the first time and it didn’t seem to matter (since you will rinse later).  Bring to a boil then turn off the heat.  Alton Brown insists that you do this slowly, with the time to boil taking half an hour or more.  I did that the first time but the second time I forgot to watch it carefully and it boiled quicker and stayed at a boil for a few minutes.  Oops.  Didn’t make a big difference, though it absorbed more water.

Turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit overnight (I’m not sure what the minimum time for sitting is).  If you can’t get to it the next morning, no problem.  My second batch sat for almost 24 hours.  It swelled up more but was still firm enough to rub and rinse.

Dump into a colander and drain out the excess lime water.

Corn after soaking in lime water

Now comes the fun part.  Soak in fresh water (I use tap water here), rub, rinse, repeat.  Alton Brown says 5-6 minutes of rubbing while rinsing.  I wasn’t that throgho.  I put the colander in a larger bowl, fill with water, rub for a while, pour off the skins, add more water, rub, drain and rinse, etc.  Remember the purpose of the lime is to change the protein content and texture.  It’s not essential to remove the skins.

At the end, soak in fresh water for a couple minutes and repeat.  Then drain and process along with a teaspoon of salt.  Alton Brown makes it seem easy, with just a few pulses and 4-5 TB of water.  I found it takes more than that.  I pulse at first, scrapping down the sides as needed, but then just let it run.

Masa after a trip in the food processor

The first time I did use way too much water, as you can see above.  I put in about 10 oz (20 TB).  It made a nice smooth product but not one I could shape with my hands.  I still managed to make yummy tortillas though, so no great loss.

The second time I used half as much water (about 5 oz or 10 TB) and the masa came out lovely.  Not quite as smooth as my first batch, or as Primavera’s gorgeous product, but very usable and delicious.  It was still a little wetter than I would have liked but I could shape it by hand (see tortillas at the top of the page) and could have made pupusas or other foods from it.  See below.

Finished masa ready to shape and cook

Cost is pretty low too.  One batch (2 cups of corn) costs 61 cents for the corn (would be less if I bought it in 25 or 50 lb bags), 13 cents for the cal (again, I could buy in bulk and save), and another couple pennies for the water, salt, and electricity.  So let’s say 75 cents for enough masa to make 15-20 medium organic whole grain tortillas (masa weight will vary depending on how long you soaked it for and how much water you added). This is expensive compared to Maseca masa harina, which runs $4-6 for enough flour to make a couple hundred tortillas.  But less than Primavera masa or any finished tortillas you can buy.

All in all, is it worth it?  So far, yes.  My masa has a wonderful corn flavor, a great texture, and is making excellent tortillas (and soon to be making pupusas, challah, and other cool things).  It takes 2 minutes to set up at night, another few minutes to watch it and then cover, and 10 minutes to make the next day.  Tortillas take a couple minutes to make and cook.  Someone into convenience foods would be put out, but it’s really nothing in the great scheme of things.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I got my chance May 8, 2009.  I announced the meal as vegan and gluten-free (the other meals there are vegetarian or vegetarian plus some fish), planned a menu, and set to work.  I quickly realized that, while my cooking skills are pretty good, my catering skills are quite lacking.  It didn’t help that we were never sure exactly how many people would show up (RSVPs are due two days before, but they’re flexible).

I planned for 20, got 18 (equivalent of 15 since several were small children), and cooked enough for 30.  Whoops.

A few folks lingering over dinner

After many years of cooking Passover Seders for upwards of 20 people, I have learned the trick of saving complex or new recipes for smaller venues.  Everything I made was simple to moderate and something I’d cooked many times before.

The Menu:

Chili-Cornbread Casserole
Roasted vegetables (red beets, golden beets, rutabaga, & leek with rosemary)
Green salad (romaine, cherry tomato, daikon radish, carrot, orange cauliflower, & mustard balsamic dressing)
Fresh strawberries with cashew cream
Challah (from masa) with sesame seed & oatmeal

Chili Cornbread Casserole

The good news is the food all came out fabulous.  No mishaps at all.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was about that.  The bad news is we had some disasters with the timing.  One of the disadvantages to cooking a large meal outside of your home is that you tend to forget things.  Well, Michael and I left a box of miscellaneous items behind.  Unfortunately, they were essential items for both of the dishes I had to finish up and bake in the synagogue kitchen.

Michael running home to get it set us back about 45 minutes, and we were already running 15 minutes late.  So everything was pushed back an hour (which means at least my time estimates were dead on).  The challah also took longer than expected, even though I had deliberately made them thinner than usual so they’d cook faster.

Salad and strawberries

All in all, I’d call it a success.  The next time I get the chance to cook for a crowd, I’ll have a clearer idea of amounts.  And hopefully the timing will work out better.

Roasted root vegetables

For anyone interested in the amounts of ingredients I used and what it all cost, check out my blog entry Catering Lessons: The Cost of Cooking for 30.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

At our last time hosting a Jewish potluck with these friends, we made a great challah from a Pamela’s bread mix.  It came out great and worked well with a braid too.  But Miriam had her first life-threatening allergic reaction in August and our top suspect is tapioca (negative in the allergy testing but we’re not letting her have it until we can do it in a controlled manner with medical backup).  As anyone gluten-free for a while knows, pretty much every gluten-free bread mix or product on the market contains tapioca.  It’s a great flour, but Pamela’s has it too and we just can’t take the chance.

I ordered some more of Primavera’s fabulous organic masa and was going to make tortillas (to go with the ceviche I made for the main dish).  Then I thought…what if I braided and baked it instead?

First I took the fresh masa, scooped some chucks out of the bag with a spoon, evened them out, and rolled them into 3 balls.

Masa rolled into balls

Then, I rolled each ball into a log.

Masa balls rolled into lengths

And braided it, crimping the ends well and pushing down on the dough so it wouldn’t come apart.

Braided dough

Then it went for a roll (all sides) in a plate of sesame seeds.  I added some oatmeal so it would be “bread” we could say Hamotzi over.  This is completely optional if you don’t need it for religious purposes.  The oats didn’t change the taste or texture at all.  If you react to the wheat contamination in most oats, use ones certified gluten-free.  The sesame, on the other hand, was delicious and added a nice crunch.

Sesame seeds and oatmeal

I carefully moved each loaf to a baking pan generously coated with olive oil.

Challah ready for baking

I baked them at 325*F for about 35 minutes, turning once halfway through (use two spatulas so they don’t break apart).  I left them in the oven with the heat off for another 10 minutes or so.

Finished challah

Miriam ate about half of what was there and the rest of us made sure the plate was empty.  Even the nonallergic folks thought it was fabulous.   It came out dense and chewy, almost like a bagel (hmmm…) but still light enough to have the mouthfeel of bread.

I’ll have to experiment a little.  The oil kept it from sticking and also made it richer, which was what I was going for.  Without the oil, it might taste more like a tortilla.  But, overall, I’m very happy with how it came out.

Happiness is a little girl jumping for joy singing “it’s challah that doesn’t make me sick!!!”

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Pupusa stuffed with leftover veggies and burger

I won’t purport to have an authentic version but, so far, I’m doing pretty decently with the tortillas and am still working on fabulous fillings (cheese is easy but not on my diet). Since I can’t have most breads either, these have been like a sandwich substitute for me. I have to go easy because of the carbs, but they make wonderful treats.

You can make pupusas out of any type of masa, even masa harina (flour). But they are truly wonderful with fresh, unpowdered, masa (ground corn soaked in lime–that’s calcium carbonate, not citrus). I’ve been using Primavera’s organic masa. Just don’t try to make pupusas from pre-cooked tortillas. It won’t work.

Start with your fillings. For this recipe, I finely chopped some onions and sauteed them to remove water and add some carmelization. Then I sauteed some mushrooms, added salt to pull out water, and cooked them down.

Cooked onions next to cooking mushrooms

Next, I processed some leftover fresh tomato and basil leaves and added it to the mushrooms.  Then I mixed everything together in a large bowl.

Mushroom/onion filling for pupusas

I also sliced up some bell peppers and sauteed them in oil with some salt and a large amount of hot pepper flakes.

Spicy hot bell peppers

I rolled the masa into balls and pressed them one at a time in-between dinner plates that were inside gallon zipper bags (see my post about making tortillas for technique details).  The tortillas went down on a dry cast iron griddle in a single layer.  Then I put a spoonful of canned beans (not my first choice but no time to make anything else), some of the peppers, and a bit of the onion/mushroom mix.  Another tortilla went on top of each one, and I crimped the edges by hand, with a butter knife, or with a fork.

Cooking pupusas on a grill

Wait until the pupusas have cooked enough to release easily, then flip them.  Press down to make sure the top touches the griddle as much as possible.  You won’t get it all but you do want to avoid raw spots.

Finished pupusas cooling

After they cooled, I wrapped each one in foil and placed into a zipper bag then into the freezer.  I’ll let you all know how well they freeze and reheat.  So far I have heated a refrigerated foil-wrapped pupusa in the toaster oven and it came out great.

Some of my favorite fillings for quickie pupusas have been leftovers.  Use your imagination.

Pupusas stuffed with whole red beans, onions, and leftover tofu

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

“Using masa harina [masa flour] is like making mashed potatoes from a box.”

So says Karen Waikiki, owner of Primavera, the Sonoma company that makes masa, tortillas, and tamales from organic stoneground corn. And she has a point. Though the tortillas I made from masa harina were way better than the store-bought tortillas I’ve had and were definitely worth making as an alternative to them (a million times cheaper too).

I’ve used Primavera masa before. I got it from the Berkeley Farmer’s Market and froze it because the guy at the booth said I could to preserve it. Karen says no no don’t freeze it. I chronicled my adventures using the defrosted masa when I made tortilla pie. The short version is: they still tasted great and worked in larger applications, but I couldn’t make tortillas that didn’t fall apart.

I’ve been trying to find Primavera masa to try this again with the fresh stuff. But no store carries it. I can find the tortillas and tamales easily enough though. So I called Primavera and Karen called me back. Because the masa is more perishable than the finished products, it’s not currently sold in stores. My choices were to go to Farmer’s Markets in Berkeley, San Francisco (Ferry Building), or Sonoma, or to their shop in Sonoma (the closest but still about 40 mins each way).

Or I could special order it. I decided to have them send a bag to the Petaluma Whole Foods. Karen sweetly offered to comp it for me, since I told her I had blogged about them. I said I wanted to get it regularly so I didn’t mind paying.

I went to Whole Foods and ordered it and, a few days later, they called me to say it was in. And there was a big “no charge” label on it. I went to pick it up that afternoon and oh my God, the shock when I saw the bag.

10 lbs of Primavera Masa

That’s with some already used up. We’re talking 10 lbs of masa. Not the 2 or so lbs I had gotten before. What on earth was I going to do with it?

Well, over the next week I made some pupusas.

Pupusas

I made some tortillas and tortilla pie.

Hand-shaped tortilla pie stuffed with veggie burger and vegetables

And I generally tried to just use it up. But I was barely making a dent. So, finally, I decided to do a giant batch of pupusas. I made 16 of them (that’s 32 tortillas) and was too tired to go on (4 for our tummies and 12 for the freezer). But the bag isn’t empty yet.

Pupusas cooking on the griddle

With all that, the masa is holding up incredibly well. In the beginning, I only used clean spoons to pull out masa, not my hands. So it would last a long time. And it has. It’s been 10 days since I bought it and it’s still fresh.

In the first few days, the masa was like heaven. It rolled out into perfect discs with either a press or my hands. It never stuck to anything. Now it has dried out ever so slightly and the tortillas are starting to stick and crack a bit. I added some water which helped but nothing brings back the super freshness I started with. Even so, it’s amazing stuff. Puts that powdered business to shame.

Next time though, I’m going to specify the small bags.

Foods I’ve made with masa (fresh or flour):

1. Tortillas
2. Omelet stuffed tortilla pie frittata
3. Pupusas
4. Cornbread Challah
5. Corn Dogs

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challah is a braided egg bread that plays an important role in the weekly Shabbat prayers.  As you pray, you touch the bread, or touch someone touching it.  Though of course I don’t have any or allow Miriam to eat it, that isn’t enough when it’s happening in my house.  We can’t leave the crumbs and contaminated surfaces behind when people go home.  And cleaning well often isn’t 100%.

So I decided to make challah.  Or at least a bread-like substance that was challah-like.  Technically, challah should contain chametz (one of the 5 grains, also meaningful for Passover), but fortunately no one minded that it didn’t.

I’m not much of a baker (i.e., I stink) so I just bought a mix.  The bread a friend made from Pamela’s Amazing Wheat-Free mix was so good, I got that one.

Pamela’s Amazing Wheat-Free Bread Mix
INGREDIENTS: Sorghum Flour, Tapioca Flour, Sweet Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Chicory Root, White Rice Flour, Millet Flour, Honey and Molasses; Rice Bran, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Yeast Packet.
1 slice of bread (1/16th of loaf) has 25 usable grams of carbs (29 total minus 4 fiber).

As it happens, they even have a recipe for turning the mix into challah on their website.

We used the egg-free alternative directions but super-concentrated it.  So for 3 eggs, I used 1/2 cup of water and 4 tablespoons flaxmeal.  We also made it dairy-free

Recipe:

1 bag Pamela’s Wheat-Free Bread Mix
Equivalent of 3 eggs
1/4 cup palm shortening, melted
1/2 cup soy milk (use anything)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1 yeast packet (enclosed)

The recipe calls for a stand mixer, which we don’t have.  It recommends a whisk attachment, which we do have on our stick blender.  But that made the too-dry dough fly all over.  Even adding some water didn’t help.  So Michael mixed it by hand with a large whisk then kneaded it with his hands.

Now the mixture was too sticky, so I added some brown rice flour as Michael kneaded.  And it turned out glossy and smooth and really nice.  It was so easy to handle I just braided it by hand instead of the plastic bag piping business the website recommends.

I think I could have easily done a true braid, but I started easy  by just making two long rolls and twisting them then sealing the ends.  I did this on a floured (rice) cutting board then moved it (with a dough scraper) to a greased baking pan.

I wanted to put sesame seeds on the outside, but didn’t have any.  So I did a light sprinkling of some ground sesame salt we had.  I didn’t do anything in place of the egg wash for the outside.

I put this in the oven, turned it on to 150*F for a minute, then turned it off (it was a cool day), and let it rise for a little over an hour.  Then we turned the oven on to 350*F and let it bake for one hour.  The bottom got a bit over-brown, almost black, but was still edible, and the crust was strong and thick.  The insides were soft and luscious.  I didn’t do a good job sealing one of the ends.  Also the two twists never really melded together and were like separate pieces of bread.

Our guests all loved the bread, though it didn’t really taste like challah and all of them were wheat-eaters.  I’d gladly make it every week if it weren’t so carby.  It’s definitely a winner for special occasions.  I think dividing it into two loaves and baking it for less time would soften the crust while still cooking the insides.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

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I had a sudden craving for bagels and cream cheese and smoked salmon — and I made bagels! bagels I could EAT!

I’ve been playing around lately with this recipe from Gluten-Free Gobsmacked for flatbread — I can’t have potato, corn, tapioca, or xanthan gum as well as gluten grains, so I had to make changes and see what happened.

I’ve made some yummy flat breads so far — not quite flexible enough to fold, but oooh, GOOD sandwiches if it’s cut in squares and just used as a piece of bread, and yummy toasted, especially when I add caraway seeds and dried dill before cooking — the texture and taste are very similar to rye bread to me, and I love rye bread.

Here’s the latest version of the recipe I’ve been fiddling with:

1/2 cup warm water
1 spoonful dry yeast
1 spoonful sugar
Leave in a warm place until it gets foamy (10-20 minutes).
(I tried adding egg one time like the source recipe, but it was much less like what I wanted that way, so I’ve been leaving it out since.)

Mix together:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
~1/2-1 tsp salt
~2 tsps guar gum.

Add 1-2 tbls olive oil and 1-2 tbls apple cider vinegar to the foamy yeast water, then mix in flour mixture. Add more water or flour as needed to make a dough that forms a ball in the bowl once all the flour is incorporated. Continue to mix/sort of knead (oil your hands first! VERY sticky) 3-5 minutes, to get the guar gum sort of activated.

If you want to add herbs, do it now. I’ve added about 1-2 tbls each caraway seeds and dried dill weed, and loved the result. I’ve not tried other herbs yet. I’ve also added some chopped kalamata olives, about 1/4 cup, and that was wonderful. I’m planning some sauteed onions and some poppy seeds for my next trial…

Put some oil in the bottom of a clean bowl, put in the ball of dough, turn to cover. Let rise 30-40 minutes in a warm place. It won’t rise as much as a gluten dough, but it will still swell up a bit.

For flatbread:

Smoosh flat between 2 sheets of parchment until it’s about 1/4″ thick, then carefully transfer to a floured sheet. Put some more oil on top, smoothing it around with your fingers and sort of gently poking valleys all over. Let rise in a warm place about 30-40 minutes. Bake in a moderate oven til it’s
just done (it really depends on how big, how thick, how hot your oven runs, etc — I’ve had it done anywhere from 8 minutes to 20 minutes). Let cool. I’ve done the fork holes like the original and that’s good too, but more work for about the same result.

For bagels:

Roll balls of dough in your oiled hands until they feel good and solid. Gently poke a hole thru the center. Put on a floured sheet. Brush with oil. Let rise 10-20 minutes while you start a pot of water simmering.

Preheat oven to about 400.

When they’ve risen just slightly they will be sort of funky looking because the surface dough cracks without gluten to hold it together. Don’t stress about it. These are a bit more fragile at this point than regular bagels, I think, so be gentle. Lift with a pancake turner and lower into simmering water. They should not be crowded — my pot will do 3 at a time. Simmer 2-4 minutes, turn, simmer a couple more minutes, put on rack to drain.

When they’re all ready, flour a sheet and set them on it. Bake about 20-25 minutes, turn over, bake another 10.

These are flatter than regular bagels, but I can still cut them in half and each half is sturdy enough to put things on. Do let cool completely before trying to cut, and I find a tomato knife works best.

They are fresh right now and a bit crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside and omg BAGELS. After 2 years of not having any, I don’t CARE if they aren’t exactly right. They’re yummy and I love them.

(A plate full of bagels — recipe made 7 smallish ones)

(All doctored up with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and a bare half to see what it looks like)

Next day note: these are more like a heavy english muffin after sitting in a zipper bag at room temp overnight, but still really good, especially toasted.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Matzoh (aka matzah, matza, matzo) used during a Passover seder must come from one of five specific grains: wheat, spelt, rye, barley, and oats. The first four are all gluten grains. These grains are forbidden during the eight days of Passover unless they are in matzoh form. There are other crackers you can make that are perfectly acceptable for use during Passover, but they aren’t from one of the five grains, so they can’t be used for the blessing.

This leaves oats. Oats are in the grass family but a different subsection from the gluten grasses/grains. They don’t have any gluten themselves but are closely enough related to gluten grains like wheat that a few gluten-intolerant folks also can’t have oats. But the vast majority of celiacs and others who are gluten-free who react to oats do so because they are almost always harvested and processed on the same equipment as wheat, so they are contaminated.

There do exist gluten-free oats; where the growers and processors take special care not to contaminate them. So far, they are expensive and don’t come organic. This will probably change in the future. Bob’s Red Mill is one supplier.

And there is a company that takes those gluten-free oats and makes Kosher for Passover matzoh from them. A Godsend for many Jews!

Shemura Oat Matzos

Also sold through MatzahOnline and distributed in stores in the US, Canada, South Africa, Israel, the UK, and Australia.

But, at $35 for a box of 3 (that’s the round handshaped, though the regular aren’t much less), plus shipping, yeah…well, maybe not.

So, I decided to make it myself. Some frum (strictly observent) Jews won’t make their own matzoh at all, because of some picky things that can go wrong. Others will do it but won’t accept my method, because I used oatmeal, which is already cut up. I would have tried oat grouts, but I wasn’t sure I could grind them with the equipment I have.

I’m not frum or Orthodox and my Rabbi (Conservative) is cool with my doing my own matzoh, so that’s good enough for me. I did take care with the preparation though.

The basic rules are:

1. Every piece of equipment you use must be completely cleaned of grain residue.
2. No yeast or other leavening may be added.
3. The time from the first possible contact with water, until the matzohs are safely in the oven baking, must not exceed 18 minutes.

Technically, this means oatmeal or oat flour is out because it could have contacted water during the grinding process, but I used oatmeal anyway. I couldn’t find oat flour. I am not sure how acceptable oat grouts used in this way would be to a frum Jew and I would be curious to find out.

Recipe:

2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

Makes 2 large matzohs

You can double (etc) the recipe, but be sure to have extra hands to help if you are doing this within the time limit. I think I could have easily doubled it and been fine by myself, but I wanted to test the recipe and make sure I could do it fast enough, so I made two batches, each with the above amount. I carefully washed everything in-between batches.

For my first batch, I used 1/2 tsp salt (not quite enough) and worked quickly without being hurried. I got them into the oven in under 10 mins. For the second batch, I worked slowly but without distraction. I made it in about 13 mins.

I started the clock when I poured the oatmeal into the measuring cup, since it was slightly damp from rinsing and drying.

Instructions:

Measure the oatmeal, pour into a food processor with a normal blade, or the grinder of your choice. Grind fairly fine, with the salt, at least so 2/3 is flour, if not more.

Set aside a bit of flour and put the rest into a bowl. Add most of the water (most of the recipes for wheat matzoh call for 2 or 3 times the amount of water. To my surprise, the oats on took half a cup).

Knead the dough well, adding more flour or water as needed. Spend a good 2-3 minutes on kneading.

Put on to a surface, use the extra flour for the top and bottom, and roll out with a rolling pin. You want it as thin as possible without breaking. If you are a skilled baker, your results will not look like mine.

Use a dough scraper, or other wide thin utensil, to pick up dough in one piece.

Place on to an unseasoned baking tray. I used a broiling pan so the heat would distribute more evenly. Bake at 400*F for several minutes, until crisp. Turn once halfway through. These took about 13 minutes or so to cook. They may be slightly bendy when they come out, but they’ll firm up as they cool.

Don’t make the mistake we did and store them in a container when still warm. Let them cool first. Otherwise, they start to get soft again. Ours were slightly leathery after a couple of hours.

These matzohs have real flavor. No cardboard crackers here. Our seder guests inhaled them. Usually we have lots of leftover matzoh, but this time we were lucky to have enough for the Affikomen.

Links:

Matzoh Unleavened Passover Bread
Basic recipe and instructions for making your own. Assumes you are using wheat or spelt. 2 cups flour to 1 cup water.

How to Make Homemade Matzoh Bread
Recipe and instructions using a speciality flour (probably wheat). 3 cups flour to 1 cup water.

What is Matzah?
No recipes but general info and a cool picture of homemade matzah.

Mission: Possible – Gluten-Free (Mock) Matzo
Almond-based Passover-safe cracker recipe. Full recipe with pictures.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

She writes: “The olive bread is just Pamela’s Amazing Wheat-Free Bread Mix, using the egg-free instructions, with the flax meal egg sub, and adding about 1/2 cup of oil-cured olives, very coarsely chopped. I used the bread maker instead of the stand mixer, but just had it ‘knead’ for 10 minutes (instead of mixing for 2 minutes in a stand mixer) then rest for an hour and bake for 60 minutes. I used olive oil for the vegetable oil called for on the package.”

Pamela’s Amazing Wheat-Free Bread Mix
INGREDIENTS: Sorghum Flour, Tapioca Flour, Sweet Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Chicory Root, White Rice Flour, Millet Flour, Honey and Molasses; Rice Bran, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Yeast Packet.
1 slice of bread (1/16th of loaf) has 25 usable grams of carbs (29 total minus 4 fiber).

I didn’t get to see the bread made, but I pulled it out of the bread maker. Never having seen it before, I thought it was worth a picture. Here’s the bottom:

And here’s the same bread from the top:

This stuff was amazing. I swear, I still have fantasies about it. If it weren’t so carby, I’d run out and buy a bread maker and a case of mix. It was a very moist and soft bread. I’m not sure how it would hold up in a sandwich, though part of that may be that we ate it while it was still warm. It went very well with Jessica’s curry.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I knew I wanted to serve tacos at Miriam’s birthday party this year–it lends itself easily to accommodating any set of dietary restrictions, including Miriam’s, without being a pale substitute of the “real thing”–but my intention was to go buy some nice fresh corn tortillas. After all, I live in an area with a lot of Mexican immigrants and good Mexican food is all over the place.

I went to the biggest of the Mexican markets, Lola’s in Santa Rosa, where they sell several brands of tortillas, including their own. Imagine my shock to find that every last brand, even the storemade ones, was filled with preservatives and other nasty things. The only straightforward ingredients ones were at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods and were both pricey and only so-so (some were pretty stiff and old looking).

So I picked up a big bag of masa flour. That’s just corn that has been treated with lime (calcium carbonate, not citrus) to make more nutrients available and then ground and dried into flour (even though they look alike, you don’t want to use cornmeal here). Maseca brand (which seems to be the big name brand) Masa Instantanea de Maiz. The 2 kilo (4.4 lb) bag makes (in theory) several hundred tortillas and cost me all of 3 dollars.

Now, I’d made tortillas before, in Nicaragua, and it was pretty easy. I didn’t mix the dough but I learned how to form the tortillas by hand (on a plastic covered plate) and put them on the griddle. So that’s how I tried it this time.

Attempt #1 (2/23/08):

I used the masa today to make tortillas. It was 1/2 cup of masa to 1/3 cup of water and a pinch of salt. Supposed to make 4 tortillas.

You mix for 2 minutes with your hands and adjust water and masa as needed to make the dough. Then divide into 4 balls, press, and cook for 50 seconds on each side on an ungreased pan/etc.

I couldn’t find my tortilla press so I decided to do it by hand. I started with a small plate, but they stuck. So I put a plastic produce bag on the plate which worked very well.

I couldn’t get them as thin and large as a press would have, though they weren’t even as thick as a Salvadorian tortilla. They fell apart some and I tried adding a bit more water but I’m not sure that was the problem.

I found they needed more than the allotted time to lose the uncooked taste, but that might have been because they were thick. There wasn’t any trouble using an ungreased pan, though mine is a well seasoned cast iron.

They tasted really good but a bit dry. I honestly thought the dough recipe would have fat in it. Because I had to cook them a bit more than suggested, they didn’t roll up well, but I could sort of use them for tacos.

They aren’t party ready I’m afraid.

Then I did some web searching and found a couple good sites with pictures. One uses a little shortening in the dough, the other does not.

It seems that:

1. I do need a press.
2. I need to knead the dough longer and better than I did, to help it develop (this avoids the stiffness).
3. I should add a bit more water to help the tortillas steam.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/004141how_to_make_corn_tortillas.php
http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/corn-tortilla-recipe.html

I also was told that one of the secrets is to let the dough sit (covered) for 30 mins after kneading, but not to make it too far in advance.

Attempt #2 (2/26/08):

1/2 cup masa flour
1/3 cup water
pinch of salt
(same as last time)

This time I kneaded it well for 2 mins, covered it with a towel, and left it to sit for 30 mins (more like 40 because I got a phone call just before my timer went off.

I still can’t find my tortilla press but, looking at pictures of them, I realized that they don’t have a lip. The roundness of the tortilla is purely due to the fact that you’re applying even pressure on to a round ball of dough.

So I used a comal (not sure of the spelling) I happened to find in my cupboard (that’s a tortilla cooker, mine appears to be cast aluminum) as the base and a salad plate (Corningware) for the top. I put both into plastic bags, which was way easier than having loose pieces of plastic.

I rolled the balls of dough and pressed and ended up with a perfect round tortilla. I had to flip it around to get the thickness even and I couldn’t get it to be any bigger than about 3.5″ or so in diameter. I realized that was the diameter of the part of the plate that touches the table, so next time I’ll try a dinner plate.

The tortillas peeled off easily and cooked up well. They tasted great but the thick one (I did a double-size ball in an attempt to get a bigger tortilla and it was only somewhat wider) was a bit doughy and cracked when folded.

I think maybe I should add more water even though it will be slightly stickier because I think that will make them stay together better and steam cook, which is a point some of the sites I read stated.

With two people working at a time, and more than one pan on the stove, I think I could churn them out pretty quickly. The rolling and pressing is less than the cooking time and easy now, so if I can cook 4 tortillas at a time, I could do 100 in half an hour of nonstop work (make it an hour to include mixing the dough, set up, etc). I’m not counting the dough resting stage.

If I could only get the tortillas thinner and larger, I think they’ll be real winners.

This is from attempt #2. That’s the biggest I could get them.

Attempt #3 (3/1/08 & 3/2/08):

These are the ones I served at the party. I mixed up a big 8 cup (of flour) batch and added water and salt. Miriam and I kneaded it well for at least 2 minutes. Then I covered it with a damp towel and let it sit for half an hour (more like 45 mins because I got a phone call).

The pressing and cooking part took about an hour for 50 or so tortillas. Just me doing it. With a better press and more practice, I think I could cut the time in half. Another pan would have helped too.

Recipe:

8 cups masa flour
5 cups filtered water
1 tsp salt

Take some masa, roll into a golf ball size, place on the middle of the bottom of the press, and press the heck out of it. With a press you probably can just push hard, but with a plate, you have to roll it around a bit to get the tortilla even. I still didn’t achieve thin tortillas, but that was okay. They weren’t too thick and they looked more or less like the ones in the pictures of the sites above.

For the press, I used a dinner-sized Corelleware plate on the comal, both in zipper plastic bags. I loved not having to futz with loose plastic but there was a disadvantage because it was harder to get some of the softer ones off the plastic.

As I cooked up my first couple of tortillas, I played around with some of the parameters. When the dough was totally non-sticky and came off the plastic with ease, it tended to break in half, including after being cooked. If I added more water, it cooked up really well but was impossible to get off the plastic. So I came up with a brilliant idea (which I’m sure is not original, but I’ve not seen it before): make the dough more wet, form the ball, then roll it in a bowl of dry masa flour. Then press. Success! there was plenty of extra water on the inside to cook up soft but the outside was dry and peeled off easily.

I used the flat side of a cast iron griddle that lay over two burners on my electric (flat) stove. At high heat turned down a bit. No fat on the griddle. I have limited counter space so the bowl of dough went on the stove. The side of the bowl next to the griddle got pretty hot and the dough dried out easily; I had to add water a lot.

I cooked them for about a minute on one side, turned over, then 30-60 seconds on the other side, then over again for a few seconds. I know I overcooked a few but I didn’t want them to have a raw taste either. Just taste as you go along and you’ll get the rhythm of it.

To keep them fresh, every so often, I transferred the finished tortillas from the plate on the stove to a crock lined with a clean dish towel. It’s a good thing Miriam kept eating them or I wouldn’t have been able to fit them all in.

The hardest part was reheating the next day. I made a batch half the size of the one above the morning of the party, but they were cold by party time too. I still don’t have the hang of it. Obviously, these are best eaten just after cooking, but that’s not always practical. You can fry them but that isn’t what you want. We tried just putting the ceramic bakeware (not the crock, but a regular casserole dish) in the oven but only the couple tortillas on top got warm. Still, they came out nice and people enjoyed them.

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