Masa Harina Cornbread

Masa harina is traditionally used to make tortillas and tamales, but it also makes delicious cornbread! (And indeed, cornbread is far more straightforward to make than tortillas or tamales, hence my ending up with a surplus of masa harina after a few failed tortilla attempts*, resulting in this recipe.) Turns out masa harina makes awesome, fluffy cornbread, a favourite accompaniment to black bean chilli, tortilla soup (especially if the tortillas fail) and other dishes. So let’s get stuck in!

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“Hang on, what is masa harina?”

If you’re not au fait with real Mexican food, then you may be wondering WTF masa harina is? Masa harina is just “nixtamalized” corn. This just means that the corn has been soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution (like lime) to remove its outer husk and improve its nutritional value. This also allows it to more readily be turned into dough (“masa harina” means “dough flour” – when you add water to it, it’s just called “masa”!).

You may also not be au fait with cornbread, as it’s not so popular here in the UK. Well for my UK friends, you have to get on board – cornbread is a quick bread made with baking powder (not yeast) so it’s easy to make and delicious with chilli, soup, stews etc.

For us adventurers, cornbread travels well so it’s great to pack on hiking and camping trips. It’s delicious, hearty, and comforting – you will be so glad you took it along!

Cornbread tips

• Do I need to use masa harina? Nope! Cornmeal or polenta would work just fine. In the U.S.A. cornbread is usually made with cornmeal, which is coarser than masa harina and hasn’t had the alkaline treatment. Cornmeal is hard to find here in the UK, but I’ve made many delicious corn breads with polenta. Do not confuse cornmeal with cornflour (aka corn starch) which is totally different and would make seriously nasty cornbread.
• Do I need to use flour? Not at all. In fact, cornbread was traditionally made with all cornmeal, making it the ultimate gluten-free bread with soul! That said you’ll get a denser result, especially with masa harina which is a bit finer than cornmeal. Interestingly, the best ever recipe according to Guardian UK food columnist and recipe expirimentor Felicity Cloake is 100% cornmeal . I’d love for any US-based readers to try it and let me know if this UK writer hit the jackpot or if it really is just a “poor British interpretation” of the classic.

• Sweetness. There are soooo many schools of thought on whether sweet or savoury cornbread is the way forward. Southern cornbread is almost always savoury. My family’s cornbread was almost so sweet with sugar that it could have been a desert (think Jiffy cornbread mix, which you can amazingly now buy in the UK – a perfectly good quick intro to cornbread if you’re new to it). I find the addition of 1/4 cup maple syrup (or agave, or honey) enhances the natural sweetness of the corn while still retaining a largely savoury bread product. The point is: feel free to add more or less sweet stuff to your tastes.
• Add-ins. I’ve added fresh sweetcorn and pickled chillies to this recipe (both optional). You could also add fresh chillies, spring onions, cheese, cheese, even bacon. (Here’s more radical mix-ins for cornbread.)
• How to serve? Enjoy it as is, or with butter. I like mine with a drizzle of smoky spicy salsa macha Mexican chilli oil.

Vegan / gluten-free cornbread?

Most of this recipe contains masa harina which is naturally gluten-free. You could substitute the plain flour with a gluten-free plain flour very easily, or skip it as mentioned above.

As for vegan, I haven’t tried it myself but you could try subbing the milk + eggs with 2 cups of plant-based milk and 2 tsp of vinegar (the acidity is needed to react with the baking powder).

** Update!!! I’ve since cracked the corn tortilla! Thanks to the tutelage in Rick Bayless’s excellent reference book, Mexican Kitchen. The book includes other recipes using masa (puffed black bean cakes, anyone?!), but no cornbread. So onward to the recipe, which of course I’ll still be making alongside my new mastery of tortillas…

Masa Harina Cornbread

4.75 from 4 votes

Light and fluffy cornbread made with masa harina. Adding sweetcorn to the mix makes it extra sweet (I add corn from a 195g tin of Green Giant sweet corn, but you can use fresh or frozen corn, too). Makes 8 generous slices.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Calories: 270

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 85 g / 6 Tbsp butter (or bacon grease)
• 1 1/2 cups / 190 g masa harina (or polenta / cornmeal)
• 1/2 cup / 60g all-purpose flour / plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 cups / 315 ml whole milk
• 1/4 cup / 60 ml maple syrup (or agave, or honey)
• 165 g sweetcorn (optional)
• fresh or pickled jalapeños, chopped (optional)
• 2 large eggs

Method

 

1. Preheat oven (or bbq if you're feeling adventurous) to 425ºF / 220ºC. Place the butter in 20cm cast iron skillet (or a similarly sized glass baking dish) or and put in the oven to melt. Keep an eye on it and remove from the oven when it's melted.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, sift together the masa carina, flour, and baking powder. Add the salt and mix well.
3. In another bowl, give the eggs a good whisk. Add the milk, maple syrup, sweetcorn, and jalapeños and mix well. Gradually add melted butter to the egg mix, making sure to leave about 2 tablespoons in the bottom of the skillet.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until the flour is all moistened.
5. Scrape the batter into the buttered skillet and spread it out with a spatula. Bake in preheated oven (or bbq!) for 20–25 minutes, or until the edges and top are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Notes

Makes 8 slices. Each slice contains approx: 

270 kCal | 12g fat | 31g carbs | 6g protein

Reference notes: This recipe is adapted from Erica Kastner’s Masa Harina Cornbread recipe as seen on The Pioneer Woman, the behmoth food blog by American power-blogger and TV personality Ree Drummond. Hers is a good starter recipe based on commonly accepted ratios for quick breads. My recipe includes metric units for my UK friends, and suggestions for favourite add-ins to take your cornbread next level. My method for baking is also slightly different. Erica recommends baking the cornbread in a glass dish, but trust me, you’ll get the best crispy-crust cornbread by cooking in a cast-iron pre-heated skillet. Edna Lewis, arguably the true pioneer, championed this method in her 1976 book The Taste of Country Cooking, now in its 30th anniversary edition.

For a totally different take on masa harina using a cast iron skillet, check out this awesome Tamal de Cazuela (Mexican Tamale Pie) With Black Bean Filling.