Masa Harina Cornbread

For the longest time, I used and depended on one recipe for cornbread and one recipe only. What can I say? I was in love. But its been a long time since cornbread had made its appearance in my house. I just haven't gotten around to it. Either I didn't have the time or I didn't want to make it. Besides, my family has been trying to reduce the amount of bread that we eat. Two solid months with no cornbread; I about went mad.


When I did want to make cornbread the other night, I was fresh out of cornmeal. Plus it was six-thirty and everyone was getting cranky because supper wasn't on the table yet. I was not just about to run down to the store and spend money. That's a big no-no. Because if you don't have the ingredients, you just don't make it. Well, I had every ingredient but one. But I did have masa harina. I bought it a while back and never really used it for anything. For those of you that aren't familiar with masa, its basically just corn flour but in literal flour form. But if you want to know more about masa, click here. It's typically used to make corn tortillas, but I was determined to make cornbread out of it. While searching for the recipe, I also found a new blog to love. It's called Whole LifeStyle Nutrition and I absolutely love love love it!


I faintly remember being five or so, and staying at my Nana's house for a while. I loved her house on the border of Georgia. But I remember her starting to pull out the ingredients for cornbread to go with the chili. Ahhh, those were the good days. Now I'm up to my nose in garden work, and trying to make cornbread out of something other than cornmeal.

What a fun day.

Here's the amazing recipe:

Masa Harina Cornbread                                    Print Recipe

Makes 8-9 Servings
Recipe adapted from Whole LifeStyle Nutrition

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups masa harina
1/2 cup flour (any type; I used white whole wheat)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cups milk (any type; I used rice milk)
4 tablespoons butter, softened

Instructions:

1) Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

2) In a medium bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly. Cut 2 tablespoons butter into the masa mixture.

3) In a different bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients, except the rest of the butter, and whisk thoroughly. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes.

4) While you let the mixture sit, place remaining butter into a 8x8 square pan or 8" cast iron pan and place in oven until melted.

5) Bake for 20 minutes and cut into 8 pieces for a circle pan and 9 pieces for a square pan. Enjoy!