Tortillada – Premium Tortilla Press Cast Iron with Recipes E-Book (10 Inch)

First and foremost, this press is sturdy and well designed. I had spent a few days researching and reading many reviews of different tortilla presses and was nervous to buy a press for flour tortillas. So many reviews had indicated that you just can't use these presses for flour and they will break. To prove their point, they include lots of pictures of snapped handles, hinges, even broken platers. This is enough to discourage any buyer to look for something else entirely and makes you question the quality of the metal of the product. So I searched and searched for a reliable press that didn't have such awful reviews and came to this product. Well now that I've used my press, I'm pretty sure I know why so many people broke their presses. In my opinion, what all those other reviews failed to mention is that they broke their press by pushing it beyond the normal operating limits. Let me explain... You can "feel" when the press is maxed out, pressure-wise. If you try to force it, you will break it. This is true with everything... If you don't understand this concept, then don't buy this press or any other press. Treat it with care and respect and it will work great for you. If it is maxing out, it is likely something you're doing wrong rather than something that is wrong with the press. Maxing out the press - to put it simply, when the handle doesn't want to move further down and you have a lot of resistance, don't keep pushing it down. Forcing things will only result in a disaster. It is actually pretty easy to press it down and you can feel it when it is down all the way. "It stops letting you push it down..." Also, if you look at the side of the press, you can see that the two plates are together all the way when the press is at max. You might be tempted to try and push it more if you open it up to find a not-so-flat tortilla but don't. Again, there is a problem with what you're doing, not the press. Once you figure out what you're doing wrong, it is easy to understand how and why others keep breaking their presses. Even though the press is constructed of cast-iron metal, it will still break if enough force is applied and you are using a 12" lever. That gives you a lot of torque to apply. Trust me, you can break tough metal with enough, properly applied torque and all the other reviews prove it. When I got this press, it was freaking cold because it was snowing outside so, of course, the metal press was freezing. If you want a good result, you need the press at least at room temperature. (A two-minute trip to the oven at 350F fixed that problem) I also had prepared the dough the day ahead and kept it in the refrigerator. When using the cold dough on the freezing press, it is very difficult to get a flat and thin tortilla. With that said, here is what we learned to avoid breaking our press and had amazing results. Please keep in mind that we are not professionals and this is what we learned as complete amateurs. I haven't used corn-based tortilla dough, which may be much easier, so please keep that in mind as well. - Use Heat Resistant Silicone Mats I cannot tell you how important this is. A lot of people would recommend just using a trash bag or some other plastic bag, and that will work for keeping the tortilla from sticking to the press but when you remove the flour tortilla from the surface, it will shrink. Note my picture between the small and large tortilla. If you use a heat-resistant silicone mat, you can leave the tortilla on the mat and put it right into the pan. This keeps the tortilla the same size without shrinkage. (Tortilla side down on the frying pan) Then when you see steam coming off the tortilla, pill the silicone mat off and start your next batch. (This really is a two-person effort so you can go faster and not overheat your pan, which destroys most pans) We purchased a 10-inch press and two 12-inch silicone mats (up to 425F heat resistant) and then cut them down to size. Trying to find 10-inch mats was impossible and leaving them at 12-inches caused the press to not press the tortilla all the way down. - Use room temperature dough The warmer the dough, the easier it is for it to spread while being pressed. Cold naturally contracts while heat naturally expands. Basic science. - Bounce/Pulse the handle Once you have pressed the tortilla initially, back off a millimeter and press again. Do this a few times quickly. This allows the tortilla to expand and become ultra-thin, which translates to a perfect (like store-bought) tortilla. (My wife says you should also rotate the tortilla and press it again for a more centered and even tortilla, but I didn't care that much, and mine was good enough without this step.) Overall, great press, and I am sure it will last us a lifetime. I would recommend it to all family and friends, or at least those who aren't overzealous, just because it is made of heavy-duty metal. I can't say this enough...

I took a chance to use this for flattening pizza dough. Well it worked better than expected! I used one quarter of a pizzeria dough and flattened the dough perfectly! Probably the best pizza I’ve ever made! Saves so much time not having to flatten it by hand or using a roller! No more holes or uneven thickness! I got the idea when I was at Blaze pizza and they had a machine that flattened the dough! After flattening the dough it retained its shape and size. The pizza still had some air in the crust. Great if you want to have a pizza party and need to flatten a lot of dough! I barely had to press down very hard. No way this is going to break. I also seasoned the entire press by coating it with oil and placing it in the oven at 250F for a few hours then heating it up again for a couple of hours until the oil dried up onto the surface. I did this with the press all apart. The bolts are stainless steel so no need to season. After it is seasoned you won’t have to worry about it rusting! One final note. I ground down both surfaces when I got it and made the surface smooth because it is pretty rough! If you can’t do it yourself a body shop or machine shop might be able to sand the surfaces smooth for you. Not sure how good it will work if you left the rough casting surface! They make an aluminum version that you would not have to season and would be easier to smooth it down yourself! I bought the cast iron version because I wasn’t sure how much pressure I would need to use and didn’t want the handle breaking. But I didn’t have to apply very much pressure to flatten the dough so the aluminum version would work just fine! The aluminum version is also a lot lighter!

Despite what you might read around the internet, YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN use this for flour tortillas, as you can see from my attached picture! I have developed a recipe and technique that provide excellent results with flour. You will need parchment paper and a gallon ziplock bag, vacuum seal bag, disposable cutting sheet or some other plastic sheet. Cut each into a 10” square. You only need one player of the plastic. Cling wrap won’t work well for this, use something thicker and sturdier. For flour tortillas use this recipe: 450g AP flour 8g sea salt or kosher salt 3g baking powder powder (~3/4tsp) 240g warm water 75g vegetable oil Whisk together dry ingredients, add wet ingredients and mix well til combined. Use the dough hook if using a stand mixer. Dough should be homogenous but not stick to fingers. Add flour or water to adjust. Turn dough onto counter and portion into equally sized balls. Portioning into 1/8ths will give you ~9” tortillas. 1/16ths will give you taco sized tortillas (~5”) as shown in the photo. Place the dough portions on a well-oiled baking sheet, making sure not to oil the top of the balls. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and rest for 30min to 1hr. Meanwhile, preheat a large cast iron skillet on medium heat with no oil. It is crucial to preheat the pan for at least 20min. Now the fun part. Place parchment on the bottom of the press. Place the dough ball OIL SIDE UP on the parchment. Place the plastic sheet on top. So you have the stickier side of the dough gripping to the parchment, and the oily side of the dough sliding against the plastic sheet as you press! This allows you to press out the dough without the gluten causing it to retract back! The dough will stick to the parchment enough to maintain shape but will slide against the lubricated plastic enough to be pressed out. Rotate the packet a quarter turn after each press to achieve an even thickness. Peel the plastic sheet off the top while leaving the dough attached to the parchment. Slap the tortilla and parchment into the hot pan and allow to cook for 10 seconds before peeling off the parchment. Reuse the parchment for the next tort. Cook the tortilla on the first side until small bubbles begin to puff up. Flip. Cook on second side until brown spots form. Flip again. At this point the tortilla should begin to inflate and two layers will delaminate. This is crucial. If the tortilla doesn’t inflate you will end up with a doughy translucent end product. It’s ok if the tortilla is slightly crispy, it will soften once it is off the heat. If a tortilla only partially inflates, use a spatula to gently press down on it to cause it to fully delaminate. Adjust heat down if the tortillas are browning too much before inflating. Adjust up if the dough is toasting evenly and getting crispy instead of forming brown spots and staying soft. That’s it! It sounds complicated but it is actually possible to produce a full batch of tortillas from mixing to eating in less than two hours, and part of that time is just resting the dough and preheating the pan.

Works as it should. Nice and heavy cast iron.. will last a long time

This tortilla press works great but is mainly for corn tortillas. We purchased it for flour but doea not flatten them very thin and they are very small.

Purchased 30 cm (12 inch) and yes I ready the reviews before I purchased. It became obvious some people have never used one before. The wing nut and bolt need to be tight and they are removable for seasoning purposes. Yes there is a small amount of play in the handle because although it says tortilla press people use them for Naan, pizza dough and various other things that require different thicknesses. Moving onward. Yes it needs seasoned (the nut and bolt are NOT heat safe so take it apart). But even seasoned stuff might stick. If you want simple and easy take 2 pieces of parchment paper, put one on the bottom, insert desired dough, put a piece on top and press it down. Lift it up, turn 180 degrees and press down again. Its not the fault so much of the product. Sometimes you don't provide even pressure. Its a thing, it happens with any tortilla maker. Yes it is heavy. It is cast iron. Yes it needs seasoning. Again take the bolt and wing nut out prior and make sure this tight when you put it back together. Yes its fun to use. I use it to make tortillas, I flatten chicken for chicken rolls, flattened beef for chicken friend steak among other things. ***EDIT: I ALWAYS used parchment paper with meat of any kind*** Besides I get a certain amount of stress relieve from smashing things in a productive manner. Yes its easy to clean. Wash it, rinse it set in a warm over (remember what I said about the bolt and wing nut) to dry completely. Yes I am completely happy with it. And even if the nut or bolt broke it would cost roughly $0.70 to go to hardware store buy a new one. But 3 months later no complaints, no issues and I use it multiple times a week for various things

After years of having this I had a need for it and remembered that I had it at the same time. At least my product is defective as the top plate does not lie flat against the bottom. One side always has some space between the plates no matter where you press. So I end up with tortillas that are lopsided.

I love how big and heavy duty this tortilla press is. I took the advice of another reviewer and bought two silicone mats to use inside of it. The tortillas keep their shape and the heat that remains on the pads helps the next tortilla to flatten easily. I love it!