Tortilla and flatbread presses
This category holds hand presses for tortillas and flatbreads, with a hinged plate twenty or twenty-five centimetres across and with a lever handle. The diameter of the plate sets how big the flatbread comes out of the press, and the larger one matches the ten-inch size. The press suits corn dough above all, though, because wheat dough springs back after the squeeze on account of the gluten. And always press the dough between two sheets of cling film, or it stays stuck to the plate.
Tortilla and flatbread presses
This category holds hand presses for tortillas and flatbreads, with a hinged pressing plate and a lever handle, and it comes in two sizes. The principle is simple, because you put the ball of dough in the middle, bring the upper plate down and press it home with the lever. The lever meanwhile multiplies the force of the hand, so for an equally thin flatbread you need less force than with a rolling pin. Presses are made of cast iron, aluminium or wood, and as a rule the lighter the press, the harder you push on the lever.
The first thing is the diameter of the plate, twenty or twenty-five centimetres. The smaller plate measures twenty centimetres, that is about eight inches, and it is at the same time the commonest press size there is. The larger one has twenty-five point four centimetres, that is the ten-inch size, and on it you also manage a pizza base or a pita bread. The flatbread out of the press never comes out bigger than the plate, so pick the size by what you are going to fill.
The second is corn dough against wheat dough. Corn masa has no gluten, so it spreads under the plate and stays a thin disc, and that is exactly what the press was thought up for. Wheat dough does have gluten, and that shrinks back after the squeeze, which is why wheat tortillas are usually rolled out with a rolling pin. If you want to press them anyway, let the dough rest for half an hour first so that the gluten gives.
The third is the sheet between the plates. A classic press needs cling film, baking paper or waxed paper above and below the dough, because otherwise the dough sticks and you tear it as you lift the plate. As a side effect the dough never touches the press at all, so there is nothing to wash up afterwards. Newer presses carry a non-stick coating and do without a sheet, except that wooden ones are greased instead with mineral oil, because vegetable oil goes rancid in time.
The last one is that the press only shapes and the baking is on you. Out of the press falls a raw disc, which still belongs in a hot dry pan, and only there does it become a tortilla. The press therefore replaces the rolling pin and the eye, not the pan, and reckon with that when you pick the rest of the kit.