Chef Lupita
Bolillo Capitalino
Ciudad de Mexico's everyday pan de sal, shaped like a small football, slashed once, baked crisp outside and airy inside for molletes, tortas, and the first bread of the morning.
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Tortillas de Trigo de la Sierra Hidalguense
Created by
Hidalgo's Sierra Alta wheat tortilla is not a northern import. Pulque, manteca de cerdo, and a clay comal give it the tender chew that belongs beside barbacoa de hoyo.
Breads
Mexican
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
Budget Friendly
30 min
Active Time
25 min cook•1 hr 55 min total
Yield16 tortillas
Hidalgo, Sierra Alta. Zacualtipán, Tianguistengo, Molango, the mountain towns where wheat found a serious home beside maguey and wood-fired kitchens. These tortillas de trigo are not Sonoran sobaqueras and they are not supermarket flour tortillas. This is the central highland version, made with pulque, manteca de cerdo, and the patience of women who know how dough behaves before the recipe tells them.
Pulque is the ingredient that marks the geography. It comes from the maguey fields of the altiplano, sour, alive, and useful. It relaxes the dough and leaves a faint tang under the wheat. The lard gives tenderness and flavor. La manteca es el sabor. If you remove both, you still have a flatbread, but do not call it this one.
I learned a version of these tortillas from a panadera outside Zacualtipán who kept her dough covered under a checked cloth while the clay comal darkened over the fire. She rolled with a short palote, not a tortilladora, because wheat dough needs stretching, not smashing. She served them folded around barbacoa de hoyo with salsa de chile morita and raw white onion on the table. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Understand this before you start: wheat tortillas are handled by feel. The dough should be soft, warm, and elastic, not sticky and not stiff. Rest it. Roll it thin. Cook it until it puffs in patches and gets toasted freckles. Así se hace y punto.
Wheat arrived in central Mexico with Spanish colonial agriculture in the 16th century, but Hidalgo's Sierra developed its own highland wheat breads and tortillas because the crop adapted to cooler mountain zones where maguey, barley, and sheep also became part of daily foodways. Pulque, made from fermented aguamiel, predates the conquest and remained a practical household ferment in Hidalgo, where it entered doughs for breads and tortillas as both flavor and leavening. The common claim that flour tortillas belong only to northern Mexico ignores these Sierra Hidalguense pulque-based tortillas, a separate central-highland lineage tied to barbacoa de hoyo and maguey country.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
harina de trigo or unbleached all-purpose flour
Quantity
4 cups
plus more for rolling
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
1/2 cup
soft but not melted
fresh pulque
Quantity
1 cup
at room temperature
warm water
Quantity
1/4 to 1/2 cup
only as needed
extra manteca de cerdo (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for greasing hands if needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| harina de trigo or unbleached all-purpose flourplus more for rolling | 4 cups |
| fine sea salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons |
| manteca de cerdosoft but not melted | 1/2 cup |
| fresh pulqueat room temperature | 1 cup |
| warm wateronly as needed | 1/4 to 1/2 cup |
| extra manteca de cerdo (optional)for greasing hands if needed | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Clay comal or heavy cast iron comal
- •Short wooden palote or rolling pin
- •Wide mixing bowl
- •Woven palm basket lined with a cotton servilleta
Instructions
- 1
Rub the lard
Put the flour and salt in a wide bowl. Add the soft manteca de cerdo and rub it into the flour with your fingers until the mixture feels like damp sand and no large pieces of lard remain. Do this by hand. You need to feel how much fat the flour has taken. That is how the women in the Sierra read dough.
- 2
Add the pulque
Make a well in the center and pour in the pulque. Mix with your hand in circles, pulling flour from the sides into the liquid. The dough will smell faintly sour and yeasty. Add warm water one tablespoon at a time only if dry flour remains at the bottom of the bowl. Do not drown it. Pulque is the main liquid here.
Fresh pulque should smell cleanly fermented, like maguey and sour bread. If it smells rotten or harsh, do not cook with it. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. - 3
Knead until elastic
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Push forward with the heel of your hand, fold back, turn, repeat. At first it will look rough. Then it will become smooth, soft, and elastic. Wheat has gluten, so it needs this work. Corn masa is pressed. Wheat dough is developed.
- 4
Rest the dough
Shape the dough into a ball, rub the surface with a little manteca if it feels dry, and cover it with a clean servilleta. Rest for 45 minutes at room temperature. This rest is not laziness. It lets the dough relax so the tortillas roll thin without snapping back.
- 5
Divide and shape
Divide the dough into 16 equal balls, each about the size of a small lime. Cup each piece under your palm and roll it against the table until the surface tightens. Cover the balls again and rest 15 minutes more. If you skip this second rest, the rolling pin will fight you. No me vengas con atajos.
- 6
Roll thin rounds
Heat a clay comal or heavy cast iron comal over medium-high while you roll. Flour the board lightly. Roll one ball from the center outward, turning it a quarter turn after each pass, until you have a thin round about 7 inches wide. Do not use a tortilladora for this dough. A press flattens. A palote stretches.
- 7
Cook on comal
Lay the tortilla on the hot dry comal. Cook 30 to 45 seconds, until pale bubbles appear and the underside gets light brown freckles. Flip and cook 30 to 45 seconds more. Flip one last time for 10 to 15 seconds, pressing gently with a folded cloth where it puffs. The surface should blister in patches and stay tender, not crisp.
- 8
Stack and soften
Move each tortilla into a woven basket lined with a cotton servilleta. Keep them covered while you finish the batch. The stack finishes the texture. The trapped warmth softens the edges and keeps the pulque scent inside the tortilla. Serve with barbacoa de hoyo, frijoles de olla, queso fresco, or salsa de chile morita.
Chef Tips
- •Use real manteca de cerdo. Vegetable shortening makes a pale, flat tortilla with no memory. La manteca es el sabor.
- •Pulque is not beer. Beer gives bitterness and a different yeast flavor. If you cannot find pulque, make another wheat tortilla that day and be honest about it. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •A clay comal gives a softer heat than thin metal and leaves the tortilla with the right dry surface. Cast iron works when that is what you have, but keep the heat steady and do not oil the pan.
- •These tortillas belong with Hidalgo barbacoa de hoyo, lamb cooked in a maguey-lined pit, and a salsa of chile morita, tomatillo, and garlic. Not cheddar. Not sour cream. This is a 32-state cuisine.
- •If the dough is tough, you added too much flour while rolling or you did not rest it long enough. Cover it, walk away for 15 minutes, and let the dough forgive you.
Advance Preparation
- •The dough balls can be made up to 12 hours ahead. Rub lightly with manteca, cover tightly, and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature for 45 minutes before rolling.
- •Cooked tortillas keep wrapped in a servilleta for several hours. Reheat them on a dry comal for 15 to 20 seconds per side.
- •Freeze cooked tortillas in a stack with parchment between every four tortillas. Reheat directly on a hot comal. They will be good, but fresh from the comal is better.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 45g)
Calories
160 calories
Total Fat
7 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
7 mg
Sodium
220 mg
Total Carbohydrates
25 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
3 g
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