Fiesta Masa Cornbread Muffins

This is probably my favourite concoction from the remains of my pantry.

I had a vision. I wanted to make corn muffins with masarepa. Cornmeal, polenta, masa harina and masarepa— what are the differences?

Masarepa is unique because it is precooked. We use it all the time for arepas and I love how soft and melt-in-your mouth arepas taste fresh from the oven. Sounds like the perfect recipe for cornbread, no?

My googling did not help.  Possibly because arepas ARE Colombia’s (and Venezuela’s) answer to cornbread.

In any case, I cobbled together a few recipes and in the end, just ran with it. Into my batter with masarepa (and masa harina since I finished our stash), I added roasted corn, roasted hatch chiles and roasted red peppers. A bit of sweetener to accentuate the dough, although that may be sacrilegious depending on who you ask (and I am no corn bread expert).

Although I appreciate good food, and this was delicious. Basically a fiesta arepa in muffin form. They didn’t really raise too much. Although this will encourage me to add veggies to our next batch of arepas.

I find experimental baking quite daunting, but these turned out great. Do you ever make non-arepas from masarepa?

 

Fiesta Cornbread Muffins

1 cup masa harina
1 cup masarepa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup agave, or to taste
1.5 cups soy milk
1.5 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups corn (thawed if frozen)
2 tbsp roasted hatch chiles, chopped
1/2 cup chopped roasted red pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the masa harina, masarepa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the middle.

3. In a smaller bowl, combine the coconut oil, agave, soy milk, and vinegar.  Pour the liquids into the dry mixture. Place corn, hatch chiles and roasted red peppers in the same bowl. Mix until combined. The corn flours will soak up the liquid so you may need to add some more water or soy milk. I had a moist consistency but not liquid.

4. Place batter into lined muffin tins. The batter will not move much at all, so fill to the brim.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 14-15 muffins.