Masa Harina in Sweets Guide
The versatile, ancestral ingredient shines in desserts.
Growing up in my family, Christmas Eve meant the annual tamalada, a party where family and friends get together to help make large batches of tamales. We give out the tamales as gifts during the holiday season. You do, indeed, unwrap tamales like a present. Inside the corn husk, soft, steamed masa filled with poblano and cheese or, more traditionally at least in my meat-centric family, beef and pork, wafts through the kitchen and eventually the entire house letting you know the tamalada was successful yet again.
My grandfather would pick up bags of fresh masa from a little mercado in San Jose so my grandmother – a woman who viewed cooking and kitchen work in general as little more than obligation – wouldn’t have to make it herself. Spotting him walking in the door the day before Christmas Eve with the bags full of masa, corn husks my grandmother would need to soak overnight and probably tamarind candies for us grandkids meant at long last, Christmas was near.
Even more than the excited anticipation for Christmas morning, Christmas Eve was what I looked forward to. All my cousins, aunts and uncles would gather at my grandparent’s house to help out; this meant that basically everyone I loved as a child was under one roof at one time. That was as much of a gift as the tamales. The tamalada filled me with such a sense of comfort and safety that looking back, it’s no wonder masa harina informs so much of what I do at the bakery now.
What is Masa Harina?
Last year I was invited to a pop up at a Día de Muertos Festival here in Atlanta where I spent the day slinging cake slices and answering questions about masa harina. My pop up menu included a layer cake and chocolate chunk cookies, both made with Masienda’s Heirloom Red Corn Masa Harina. The “What is masa harina?” questions I got from customers surprised me some, considering our surroundings that day, the air thick with the scent of fresh corn tortillas hitting hot comals in the booths on either side of me. But of course people might not know! And I’m happy to educate.
What masa harina is not, is interchangeable with corn flour or cornmeal. Corn flour is made from untreated finely ground dried corn. Cornmeal is another form of ground corn, but is typically ground far less than masa harina or corn flour, ranging in texture from fine to coarse. The word “masa” itself is Spanish for “dough”, making it something different still from masa harina.
Where masa harina differs is through a transformational, many would say magical, process known as nixtamalization. The act of boiling corn kernels in a mixture of water and ash or a lime solution to first soften and then remove the tough outer hulls predates colonization and is the heart of Latinx food. After cooking, the corn is passed through a molino, a type of mill, and finely ground using volcanic stone blades, converting the maize into fresh masa. Drying out that fresh masa into a flour is what gives us the naturally gluten-free, ancestral ingredient, masa harina. The Northern Star of my bakery.
Masa harina has a distinct corn flavor to it, different from corn flour and cornmeal. Earthy, slightly smoky, undeniably corn. Sweet tamales are a beautiful example of how that corn flavor works in desserts. King Arthur Baking has various sweet recipes featuring their Organic Masa Harina, including sweet corn cookies and shortbread. Masienda had their Sweets Week last year, with recipes ranging from conchas (by me!) to brownies and thumbprint cookies.
How to Swap in Masa Harina
Swapping up to 25% masa harina for all-purpose flour by weight in a baking recipe is a good place to start. Your bakes will not really be altered textually at up to 25%; it’s when you get into the higher ratios that the slightly gritty nature of masa harina will become more noticeable.
Much like whole wheat flour, masa harina will also readily drink up the liquids in your recipe. It is a thirsty grain. Plan on adding a bit more hydration whenever you introduce masa harina, although usually not very much more if you’re staying under 25%. For up to 25%, I have found that using an additional 10% or so of liquid by weight in recipes for bread especially balances everything out nicely. From cookies, to cake, to crumble topping, to custard, the corn-forward flavor seems to highlight other ingredients, even in smaller measurements. At larger additions of around 35%-40% the masa harina flavor and overall change in texture will be more assertive.
Masa harina complements more ingredients and flavors than you might think. Don’t limit yourself to just Mexican recipes and ingredients when using masa harina. A tequila cake made with a bit of masa harina is no doubt delicious, but expand your imagination about what it could be paired with. Right now on my cake menu at the bakery I have a masa harina chiffon cake filled with passionfruit curd, which HITS. Masa harina and chocolate is used in my popular rendition of a chocolate chunk cookie; the previously mentioned masa harina custard was an experiment gone so incredibly right that I ended up using it in a brioche bun as well as a cake filling paired with fresh Georgia peaches.
And Now, the Recipes
All of these recipes link out to my website, where everything first started for me. I blogged before I wrote weekly recipes for the now defunct Patreon, and even before I started the bakery. These are not all the masa harina recipes I’ve developed, just a handful. I use Masienda for bakery recipes 9/10 times, which you can find at Whole Foods these days. I have in the past developed recipes for Masienda, full disclosure, but I would still vastly prefer them to any other brand even if I didn’t. You can expect to pay about $12 for one of their 2.2 pound bags and get your money’s worth.
Masa Harina Chocolate Chunk Cookies
My version of a classic chocolate chip cookie, and shouldn’t every bakery have a signature chocolate chip cookie! I prefer chunks to chips, but the recipe lists the weight in grams (always grams with my recipes!) for both.
Masa Harina Vanilla Bean Custard
A traditional custard thickened with mostly masa harina, plus a single tablespoon of all-purpose flour. Sprinkle a cookie crumble on top of this divine custard for a crunch moment. This custard is one of the shining moments in my recipe development career.
I posted pictures of this cake on my Twitter and Instagram and local people went berserk. That’s how it ended up on my menu as a “treat cake”, a single layer 8” cake, for smaller cake occasions, for when you want just a little treat. I frosted mine with hibiscus whipped cream and topped it all with macerated fruit.
These biscuits taste exactly like warm tortillas right off the comal that are then spread with salted butter – the beauty of masa harina!
A slightly denser churro that is equally as delicious as its more common counterpart. I like to coat these churros in a hibiscus sugar. Masa harina and hibiscus are a delightful pairing.
Another proud moment as a recipe developer! This cake works as a base for so many other flavors – it’s been paired with the aforementioned passion fruit curd, with peach jam and chocolate ganache. The recipe yields three 6” layers, two 8” or one thin quarter sheet cake.
Thank you for sharing these! I've got a bag of Masienda in my freezer, and it looks like any one of these would be a great way to use some of it!
Thanks for the tip about increased hydration! As usual, baking At Heart Panaderia inspired cake for our west coast bake sale today! :)