In our spring newsletter, we feature Doña Alejandra, who makes hundreds of handmade tortillas every day for the employees of the ranch where she works. Below, you can learn her process, in case you’d like to try and make your own Guatemala-style tortillas.
To make approximately 600 tortillas, Alejandra soaks 15 pounds of corn overnight in water with quicklime.
Photo credit: heart4children.blogspot.com
In the morning, she brings the corn to the miller in the morning to grind it.
Photo credit: guatemalamissionstmarys.blogspot.com/
Back home, she kneads the mass, then wets her hands and makes little balls.
Photo credit: Irene Valdés-Wochinger.
Next, she flattens the balls in a kind of fast clapping movement until they acquire the typical round tortilla shape.
Photo credit: Irene Valdés-Wochinger.
Then, she cooks the tortillas on the stove for a few minutes.
Photo credit: Irene Valdés-Wochinger.
Finally, she stores the tortillas in a sealed bucket to keep them warm.
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