There are many who claim that it's absolutely essential to use a press when making homemade corn tortillas (and sometimes flour tortillas, although those are usually made with a rolling pin). In fact, when we moved to college, we lugged our cast iron tortilla press 2,000 miles across the country with us!
However, we know that another kitchen gadget doesn't make sense for everyone, and plenty of cooks get by without one…
The advantage of using a tortilla press, whether cast iron, aluminum, or wood, is the ability to quickly and uniformly create round, flat, and thin, but not too thin, disks. It's definitely worth the investment if you make tortillas in large quantities or on a regular basis. However, there are some alternatives:
• A rolling pin (or any other suitable object, such as a glass or wine bottle) may be used along with sheets of waxed paper to prevent the dough from sticking. Give the dough a quarter turn after each roll in order to form a round circle.
• For tortillas that are thicker and more "rustic" than those made with a press, you can pat the dough flat by hand. Some are more skilled at this than others!
• We have also heard of people pressing the dough between two plates or under a cast iron skillet. Although we haven't tried it ourselves, this seems like a consistent and not too time-consuming method.
• And finally, Frugal Village has a tip that involves pressing the dough down on a spinning round (pizza) pan.
Any thoughts or experiences to share?
Related: How To Make Your Own Corn Tortillas
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Pressing them between two Silpat baking sheets works wonderfully to prevent sticking ~ I use the cast iron skillet as my press.
It makes sense to own one if you make tortillas twice a week or something.
Tortilla presses are absolutely unnecessary. Like kimberlyf0 mentioned, Silpat baking sheets and any pot, pan, or skillet do the trick wonderfully. In a pinch, just cut circles out of (clean) plastic bags and use those with your heavy implement of choice. In the Honduran village where I work, hand patted tortillas are the norm, but when they want thinner, Mexican-style corn tortillas the plastic bag and pot/pan/skillet method is what everyone uses.
*yea* not *yay*
I have a press we use it for tortillas and in the winter for tamales. Because we make so many tamales it comes in handy for spreading masa.
We used to do the skillet/silpat thing, but we're usually making tortillas for a crowd when we do 'em. One time someone brought a press to our house - it was so much faster that we went out and bought one the next day.
I use a a small cutting board on the counter with the dough placed between some parchment paper. It is probably as easy and as thin (if you use the same force I do) as a press, though I have not used one to compare.
I don't use a press when I make mine. I hand press them into a disk and then roll them out with a rolling pin
As others said, unless this is a key part of your diet and you eat them every day or so, I can't justify a press. Rolling pin of my hands work just fine.
I just did this last week!
I have a Tupperware plate that has a small recess in the bottom (kinda like a foot on the bottom) that leaves the tortilla a perfect thickness. I just press between two pieces of circular parchment. Peel off the top, throw the whole thing tortilla face down in my pan and peel off the other after about 20 seconds.
I've also use a deep plate to form gorditas, leaving them about 3 times the thickness of a regular tortilla.
YAY!
Seriously, when you are trying to make 50+ tortillas for chips any other method is tedious! The press makes the whole process much smoother!
But you can never get the tortillas real thin with the press... Me thinks rolling is the better.
I like to use a glass Pyrex pie plate. I can watch the dough spread and it gives me handles to apply pressure...not to mention the subtle Pyrex watermark on my tortillas! I vote yea.
Apartment Therapy Media... you have GOT to consider changing your style to allow for the use of the first person. The sentence, "When *we* were in college, *we* lugged the press 2,000 miles" is ridiculous. Look, I work for a big news organization with lots of views about not allowing the first person. When it is imperative that a first person element be introduced, we use the third person, as in the sentence, "When this reporter was in school, he lugged the object for 2,000 miles." Actually, methinks that the subject matter of your blog entirely renders acceptable the occasional use of the first person. Nothing makes the sentence I am mentioning above reasonable. It's just silly.