Masa cornbread Recipe
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I was requested to make cornbread to go with black beans, and we were out of cornmeal, so I subbed white masa. Wow. Highly worthwhile. It was skillet cornbread that tasted like freshly made corn tortillas —slightly sweet, complex, and deeply “corny”, and I didn’t have to knead or roll anything (which is why the masa was in the cupboard —I don’t have time to roll or press tortillas). The batter took more liquid than regular cornmeal, but was otherwise put together the same way. I don’t think I’ll be using plain cornmeal for bread anymore.
My husband said the bread would make a great shortcake base, or you could split it, butter it, and melt some mild cheese on it for something like idiot arepas.
I don’t actually have a set recipe —I pretty much just use a 3:1 ratio of cornmeal to flour and the rest follows. Below is an approximation.
- 1.5 c masa harina
- 1/2 c flour,
- two eggs
- two t of baking powder
- 1 t. salt
- 1 scant T sugar (brown, turbinado, white, honey, whatever)
- 1.5 (approx) c of milk
- 1/2 stick of butter, softened
- Mix dry ingredients.
- Rub half of butter (2 T) into dry ingr., Put the other half in a cast iron skillet in a 425 oven.
- Add eggs and enough milk to dry ingr to make a batter (takes more than regular cornmeal bread), around 1.5 c.
- When butter in skillet is melted, spread out batter and bake until brown around edges and light brown areas on top (20 min?). Cool out of the pan if you want to keep the bottom crust crisp.
Member recipes are not tested by the CHOW food team.
Alright, my cornbread's not even cool yet, but so far it looks like this is a good starting point for a recipe. It's not sweet enough for me - I'd use closer to 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, I think. I did bake it for closer to 25 minutes until the top was golden. I also used a standard 9" cake pan. But the texture seems good, and I'm pleased with being able to use masa. Thanks, @the_MU!
I made this recipe and even had to sub in evaporated milk for the regular milk (reconstituted with half H20, of course) and I thought it was quite good. My husband and I both agreed we preferred it with a bit more sugar, but otherwise it was a great use for the Masa that we have. Thanks for the recipe...oh and it cooked perfectly in 20 minutes.
I made this recipe as written (I used brown sugar, 1.5 cups of milk, and baked for 20 min). It was terrible--the worst cornbread I have ever made. There was almost no corn flavor and the texture was spongy. I was looking for a way to use up the rest of a bag of masa and this is definitely not it.
This recipe worked very well. I used some bacon grease for the bottom of the skillet, mixed some bacon crumbles into the batter. I even used low fat milk and egg beaters instead of real eggs, it worked fine. Tasted very much like a tortilla in flavor, but a nice dense cornbread in texture.
Masa cornbread
by the_MU (Member Recipe)
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 30 min
Active: 5 min
Makes: 8 good-size wedges
INGREDIENTS
1.5 c masa harina
" 1/2 c flour,"
" two eggs"
" two t of baking powder"
" 1 t. salt"
1 scant T sugar brown, turbinado, white, honey, whatever
1.5 approx c of milk
1/2 stick of butter, softened
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Rub half of butter (2 T) into dry ingr., Put the other half in a cast iron skillet in a 425 oven.
3. Add eggs and enough milk to dry ingr to make a batter (takes more than regular cornmeal bread),
around 1.5 c.
4. When butter in skillet is melted, spread out batter and bake until brown around edges and light
brown areas on top (20 min?). Cool out of the pan if you want to keep the bottom crust crisp.
This recipe is AWESOME!! My hubby doesn't like sweet cornbread - so this was perfect and he loved it!
What do I think? I think this sounds wonderful. Super idea.