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Totopos

Thick masa discs pierced all over and baked twice, which is why they keep for weeks when a fried chip does not.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS PIERCED ALL OVER BEFORE BAKING AND BAKED TWICE. Both halves are there for the same reason: to get the water out. A finger or a skewer makes eight or ten holes through each disc, which lets steam escape from the middle instead of puffing the thing up and leaving a damp pocket. Then a hot bake to cook it and a long cool bake to dry it right through. What comes out is bone dry, and bone dry is why a totopo sits in a tin for weeks while a fried chip goes soft in two days.
  2. THE SECOND BAKE IS LOW AND LONG AND IT IS NOT OPTIONAL. Twenty minutes at a high heat gives a disc that is crisp at the edge and leathery in the centre, and that centre holds enough moisture to soften the whole thing overnight. Forty minutes at a low heat afterwards finishes the drying. The test is weight and sound: a dry totopo is noticeably light and rings when tapped.
  3. THEY ARE BAKED, NOT FRIED, AND THAT IS THE WHOLE SEPARATION FROM A TORTILLA CHIP. No fat touches them at any point. The taste is of toasted corn and nothing else, and because there is no oil in them there is no oil to go rancid, which is the other half of why they keep.
  4. THEY ARE THICKER THAN A TORTILLA, DELIBERATELY. Four or five millimetres. A tortilla-thin disc dries to something that shatters into dust when it is dipped; at four millimetres a totopo is sturdy enough to carry a load of beans or go into a soup and hold its shape for a minute.
  5. THEY GO INTO A TIN COLD AND NEVER WARM. A stack put away while any warmth is left in it sweats, and the moisture has nowhere to go. Cooled completely on a rack first, they keep three weeks or more.
  6. The oven heated to 220°C.
  7. The masa kneaded with the salt until smooth, with a little water if it cracks, and divided into 16 balls.
  8. Each pressed between plastic to a disc about 10 cm across and 4 to 5 mm thick -- noticeably THICKER than a tortilla.
  9. Each disc PIERCED right through in 8 to 10 places with a skewer or a fingertip.
  10. Laid on baking sheets, not touching, and baked 20 MINUTES, turned once, until firm, dry to the touch and lightly coloured.
  11. The oven turned DOWN to 140°C and the totopos baked a further 40 MINUTES.
  12. ONE TESTED: it should feel light in the hand and ring faintly when tapped, and snap cleanly with no bend at all. If it bends, another 10 minutes.
  13. Cooled COMPLETELY on a rack before being stacked.
  14. Stored in a tin. They keep 3 weeks and go into soups, under beans, or alongside anything with a sauce.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes