We're constantly honing our perfect masa pancake recipe: we've made them with a mix of corn and wheat flour, we've whipped egg whites, we've made them with olive oil. Our platonic pancake ideal, it turns out, has no wheat at all (making them gluten-free), and is practically a one-bowl recipe — so easy, you can throw them together on a bleary-eyed weekday morning. We've based the recipe on one from Kate Ramos at Hola Jalapeño (thanks, Kate!).
They also happen to be free of refined sugar (that bit of sweetness comes from honey), and can be made dairy free (use coconut oil in place of butter, and your choice of alt milk for the homemade buttermilk). Our yellow masa harina lends them a sunny golden hue, but white, blue, and red work just as well. However you make them, they'll cook up fluffy and tender, with perfectly crisp edges. The only question is: are they breakfast? Or breakfast-for-dinner?
22 comments
Hi Briana! Thanks for your question. You can adapt this recipe for fresh masa, but it will be a bit trickier. Since fresh masa is wetter and denser than masa harina, we’d suggest reducing the buttermilk by about ¼ cup. You can always add a little more if the batter feels too thick. Using a blender or mixer will help get it smooth, but it might be a little trickier to mix by hand. You might also want to add just a tiny bit more baking powder since masa harina helps with rising. Hope this helps! Let us know how it turns out!
Any suggestions on adapting this recipe for a waffle maker?
Can this be adapted for fresh masa, rather than harina? With a recipe calling for fresh masa it’s easy enough to adapt but I’m not sure how you’d do it for something like this
Thanks!
Hi Fred – great questions! With masa, there’s no gluten, so over-beating isn’t an issue, but mixing too much can affect the texture, making it too runny or airy. Just combine until smooth. Resting the batter helps, as it allows the masa to fully hydrate, which can improve texture and fluffiness. While not essential, it’s a good step. And we love your idea of adding vanilla extract and browning the butter! That’s such a simple way to elevate the flavor. Definitely giving it a try next time—sounds delicious!
Two questions:
-I know there is no gluten (duh!), but are there still any issues with “over-beating” masa batters? Is there anything else that could reduce tenderness and increase toughness?
-Out of habit, I let the batter rest for 30 minutes, and one commenter on a standard flour buttermilk pancake recipe scolded that you need to give buttermilk time to do its thing, or there’s no point in adding it. Do you think there’s a benefit to resting the batter before cooking?
Also a couple very optional tips:
-I’m adding vanilla extract
-Next time I might experiment with browning the butter first, because, hey, why not? Just adds an easy extra minute or two to melting the butter.
Insanely good! And gives another excuse to add blue corn to every meal :)
We found that adding a bit less oil and keeping the honey for serving rather than putting into the mix also works well.
Thank you for this recipe. Way better (and more affordable) than the store-bought gluten-free pancake mixes. Very easy to prepare too.
Hi Norah! Thanks for the feedback! We’ve just implemented customer comments, so if someone has commented, you should be able to find them within each blog post.
These are my new favorite pancakes. I’ve given up flour and sugar, for the most part, a while ago and so with those went pancakes. Very delicious, satisfying, and remarkably sustaining. They heat up well in the toaster the next day too.
Everything is done at a very high standard on this website. I enjoy it lots. Thank you.
it would be nice to read the reviews……they give a true sense of the recipe, and also changes that could be really great.
Made these today for breakfast and I was very happy with the results. The Masa flavor comes through, but not overpowering. The main reason we tried them was because we had some wild plum syrup that really was too strong for regular pancakes, The Masa flavor held up to that much better. We liked the little bits of crispiness these had. Will make them again, especially if we have any guest that has Gluten issues.