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I’m still using up my bag of masa harina. This week, it led me to a masa-style cornbread.
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This masa cornbread is fluffy and delicate. Unlike a traditional cornbread, it’s is ultra-moist. Although on the fork it’s a cake, in your mouth it almost becomes a custard. Almost. Adding butter to the top of the finished cake accentuates this creamy, custardy quality. I’ve presented a wide swath of possibilities in the ingredient list. In some cases, you can add more of this in exchange for less of that in order to create a fixed volume (for instance, in the proportions of masa to cornmeal, or milk to cream). In other cases, you can simply use more or less of an ingredient according to taste (as in the sugar, yogurt, and butter). In the notes section, I’ve explained how these choices will affect the outcome.
Ingredients for 12 servings
Dry Ingredients:
½-1 cup masa harina (1 cup weighs 5 oz.)
½-1 cup yellow cornmeal (½-cup of cornmeal weighs 3 oz.)
(You can vary the proportions of masa to cornmeal, so long as you come up with 1½ cups total.)
½ cup all-purpose flour (1 oz. cake flour + 1½ oz. bread)
2 tsp baking powder
½ baking soda, optional
½-1 tsp salt
1-3 Tbs sugar
Wet Ingredients:
1½ cups half & half, milk, or a mixture of the two, (1½ cups of milk weighs 12¾ oz. – have extra on hand)
3 Tbs – ¾ cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (¾-cup of Greek yogurt weights 5¾ oz.)
2 large eggs (3.5 oz.)
Additional Items:
4-6 Tbs butter (weighs ½-oz. per Tbs)
12 oz. frozen corn, optional
How To Do It:
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Whisk wet ingredients in a small bowl.
- Place 2-4 oz. butter into a cold, 12-inch cast-iron skillet, and heat over a medium flame until butter melts. Adjust heat as necessary so that the butter doesn’t brown. Once the butter has melted, pour half of it into the wet ingredients, and swirl the remainder to fully coat the bottom of the pan, plus about ⅓ of way up the sides.
- Whisk the wet ingredients to incorporate the butter.
- Add ¾ of the wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir gently, just until the mixture is combined. The batter should resemble a box-cake batter. You may not need all the wet ingredients, you may need all of it, or you may need to add milk – this depends on your masa/cornmeal mixture, and how much cream you used (if any). Adjust as necessary, but do not over-mix.
- (Stir in corn.)
- Scrape batter into skillet.
- Bake until the edges are browned and a tester comes out clean, 17-20 minutes.
- Immediately either melt the remaining butter and drizzle it over the finished cake, or place the butter atop the cake and let it melt, occasionally titling the pan so that it doesn’t all melt in one spot.
- Serve warm, straight from the pan.
Notes:
- Cornmeal gives this bread a traditional gritty texture. The masa contributes moistness and a kind of creaminess. Adjusting those ingredients up or down with increase or decrease these qualities.
- If your eggs don’t weigh (out of the shell) as much as they should, supplement with oil. If they weigh too much (as much as 4 oz. total) don’t worry about it.
- More butter and/or sour cream/yogurt in the batter will make it richer. More butter in the pan will make the edges crispier.
I’m thinking this way: how about lining the bottom of the skillet with slices of fresh pineapple, and mixing chopped jalapenos into the batter?
Masa Cornbread
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. This recipe is something of a mash-up between one from The Saucy Southerner and another from No Recipes.
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Wonderful. Cake and custard sound way better than choke and cough!!!
Haha!
Ahhh, that tip at the end sounds like an upside-down-masa-cornbread-cake! JT would love it. The contrast of sweet and spicy sound wonderful. Hot red peppers would add lovely colour too. I wonder if this type of cornbread would set up well on a stew or chilli.
Eva Taylor recently posted…Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
Mmm, you mean set up well as in dumplings? Or cooked on top? I bet it would. It’s very rich, and would make the chili quite substantial. My husband mixed up some of the leftovers with something that surprised me … I’ll have to remember what it was. Anyway, thanks for the idea of the red peppers – I’m definitely going to try that upside-down idea.
Sour cream or yogurt? I’m intrigued. I like the mix of masa harina and regular corn meal — texture is so important here. The perfect corn bread is “no, I don’t need butter,” but then “oh, yeah, that is even better, I stand corrected.” For me, good corn bread is “I’ll see your polenta and raise you a southern biscuit.” Nicely done, Jeff.
Thanks, Ron.
Love cornbread and this cakey corn loaded cornbread looks fabulous!
Angie@Angie’s Recipes recently posted…Broccoli Mung Bean Falafel
Thanks, Angie!
You’re taking me back to my Tex-Mex roots. When a young one (in a time long long ago) many neighborhood Mexican joints served a big spoon of a sweetish corn bread with the plate of food. It was great to take a bit of the heat away from the dish. That’s what this has me thinking about.
We’ll definitely give this one a try very soon.
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Thanks, Ron!
I like my breads and this one sounds like a delicious bread like cake (even better). I had to look up masa harina though, but it’s available on Amazon so looks like this one could be a go-er! Thanks Jeff!
I’m not sure it’s worth having it shipped to you, unless you really love corn tortillas – that’s what it’s best for. But this cornbread will be an added plus if you do order some.
Cornbread is wonderful, isn’t it? Never made it using masa harina, though — such an interesting idea. I have added corn kernels to it — they add such a corny flavor. 🙂 This looks terrific — thanks.
John / Kitchen Riffs recently posted…French-Style Braised Lettuce and Peas
Yeah, I love it. I wouldn’t’ve thought to make it with masa, had I not had a bunch leftover, but I’m glad I did.
On the fork it is like a cake. In the mouth like a custard! Oh man. You can bet I’m baking this!
Enjoy!
Good masa is made from kernels only (as opposed to kernels and cobs which a lot of mass produced corn meals contain) and I bet that accounts for the “custardy” texture. GREG
That’s interesting.
Looks good, Jeff. I like the idea of using three forms of corn—masa harina, cornmeal and corn kernels—in one dish. And yes, I’d like the extra butter, please! 😉
Frank recently posted…Fusilli primavera
GUESS WHO has NEVER HAD corn bread before! THIS GIRL!
Never?!?
The creamy texture reminds me of the cornbread I had growing up in Texas.
Karen (Back Road Journal) recently posted…New England Post Cards / Favorite Photos
I’ve never made cornbread with masa, but this makes perfect sense. I also love the whole corn in there. Cornbread for the win! I need a slice of this right now. Please mail me one?
David @ Spiced recently posted…Bacon Wrapped Corn with Honey BBQ Sauce
I just crammed some into my computer and emailed it to you!
I have a big bag of masa harina that I need to use up too! This is brilliant and don’t know why I’ve never thought about using my masa in cornbread. We are having a big BBQ tomorrow and I was looking for a different kind of cornbread recipe…I JUST FOUND IT! Thanks Jeff, you da man! 😉
Awesome!
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