The Mexican Focus Blog

Masa is used to make dough for,amongst other things, tamales, tortillas and empanadas.

Masa is a dough made out of maize (corn).

In dough form masa is called “masa de maiz” and in its powdered (flour) form it is called “masa harina”.

You can buy masa from your local Mexican, or Latino, store or good supermarkets (one of the leading brands is called Maseca).

You can substitute other flours for masa but you may have to experiment a little until you get the correct consistency in your dough with the substitute. The most popular substitutes are bread flour, all purpose flour and mixtures of corn flour and all purpose flour.

If you are finding it hard to find masa in your local store, you can always buy it online. Check out the Amazon.com link (at the start of this blog) for a range of suppliers.

If you buy masa and it is labeled “masa preparada para tamales” then the masa has been prepared to make tamales. If this is the case, then the masa may already contain baking powder and salt – check the packaging to see what the masa contains.

Try making tamales with masa – they are delicious.

When it comes to making tortilla skins the key to ending up with soft skins is by first of all creating as thin and round a patty from the dough as you can. The longer you continue to work it the further you will dehydrate the mixture, so the trick is to make sure that you only lose a little amount of water at this stage. The next step involves the baking of each side of the tortilla for 30-60 seconds on a hot griddle and again minimizing the water loss is important here as well.

You are aiming for a water content of around 40% moisture when completed – this is crucial to ensuring the tortilla skins will be soft and pliable. When you eventually bake the tortilla make sure that it puffs as it bakes. If air bubbles begin to form in the dough or if it is overly wet and pasty – or even to dry and burns the tortilla will be ruined.

You can see that it is not easy to create the perfect tortilla, the best way is to get lots of practice, over time you will begin to be able to pick the perfect timing on the various steps.

A quesadilla is a Mexican cuisine where the ingredients are cooked inside a wheat or corn tortilla or alternatively a wrap of masa dough. Loosely translated from Spanish the word means “little cheesey thing”.

The exact ingredients used in a quesadilla varies between different US and Mexico regions and there is no universal agreement between chefs. Normally however there are similarities between the versions that are agreed on, the main similarity being that the quesadilla is only cooked after being stuffed or filled. This is different from a burrito or a taco where they are, in contrast, filled with pre-cooked ingredients.

For those purists looking for the “real” quesadilla it is generally accepted as the folded-masa empanada style Mexican version. If you are wanting to cook your own quesadilla try our quesadilla recipe.