Masa cornbread

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.