How Are Made Blue Colored Tortillas With Nixtamalized Masa

Corn has been an important staple food in Mexico for centuries. Over time, Mexican people have developed a wide variety of ways to make it a nutritious source of food.

The nixtamalization of corn is something antic and traditional. In understandable terms, nixtamal is 'ash dough'. The idea is that by cooking dried Mexican corn in an alkaline solution, you turn it from toxic cardboard into food. It is something that pre-Columbian cultures have been doing for centuries.

By boiling corn in lyme water, made from ashes, the niacin is converted into a bioavailable form easily diggestible because mycotoxins and fungi are removed. Glycerides are produced that permit the corn dough to be formed. Amino acids are unlocked that form proteins that fully complements when eaten with beans and chilies.

The tough corn kernels are then freed from their skins with running water, and then easily ground into corn masa. This masa need only be lightly kneaded, pressed, and cooked on a comal to form Mexican tortillas.

Blue corn tortillas can be made with just two easy ingredients: Blue masa harina and water. Masa harina is alkalized corn, made into a flour.

You must be careful and not confuse masa harina with cornmeal because those are not the same. Cornmeal hasn’t been alkalized, it is just milled corn and it doesn't have the nutriments as nixtamalized masa harina.

Corn Vs. Flour Tortillas

If you are used to making flour flatbreads (for example, naan or pita), you will notice that a corn tortilla behaves differently. That is because is made with wheat flour instead of nixtamalized corn dough.

Wheat flour dough is just more flexible. You can stretch the dough and if you knead it and allow to rest enough, it will become softer. Also, when you’re rolling out the dough you will be able to stretch it and shape it.

A nixtamalized corn dough is more crumbly and so is the tortilla that you roll or press. This is all due to a lack of gluten in the dough. So, the dough for flour tortillas is more stretchy and flexible because of the gluten.

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