OK tortilla masters, I need your help.
I'm #stayingthefuckhome during this messed up time we're in, and I've been doing more cooking on a daily basis than I have in years. I found an almost full bag of Maseca and my Victoria tortilla press in my apartment and figured screw it, let's make tortillas.
I've done it before without much trouble, but this time it's really giving me a hard time. I'm mostly using the technique in the video below as well as the advice on this whole thread.
I'm using the hottest tap water I can get, I'm adding enough water that it's soft but not sticky (looks like what I see in the various videos online), and letting it rest 20-30 minutes. I'm using sheets of Ziplock freezer bags on my press, and I've got a HUGE problem in peeling off the second piece of plastic. More often than not it sticks to the tortilla and ends up tearing it. The only way I get any luck is by not pressing them very thin. If I try to press thin, it absolutely sticks and there's no hope of getting the peel off, an even at "normal" commercial tortilla thickness i'm having lots of problems. Is my dough too wet? Too dry? Another issue is that my bag of Maseca is at least a few years old and is sort of clumpy in parts. I think the mixing and hydration sorts out the clumps but is old flour an issue?
The other problem relates to my cooking surface. I've been using my Baking Steel Griddle on the griddle side. Last night I don't think it was hot enough, and unless I perfectly laid the tortilla down, they'd stick. Reading this thread, I saw that the surface should be very hot indeed, so I cranked up the griddle today, and the results were good, but it a) vaporized off much of the griddle's seasoning and b) the sustained high heat appears to have damaged the control panel of my oven (and now my oven won't work)! I don't mind reseasoning my griddle, I guess, but maybe an old beater cast iron pan is the way to go if it needs to be that hot?
