Back when I was at my parents a few weeks ago, my mom and I had a major sweet-tooth moment. We started baking up a storm, and since we had extra masa from the tamales, she searched and found a recipe for masa shortbread. We didn’t have coconut on hand and we wanted to make chewier cookies, so we ended up making a few modifications and they were spot-on. We couldn’t get enough of these brown sugar masa cookies.
These are the perfect cookies for a Mexican brunch, with your coffee in the morning, or something sweet late at night. They are pretty dense, but soft and chewy, and the masa gives them such a unique flavor. When you bake these, you place the dough in a round cake pan and cook it like you would a cornbread or cake – when a toothpick comes out clean, you’re good to go. They firm up a little out of the oven, but still maintain their soft texture. If you need something sweet to serve for your Cinco de Mayo party coming up in a month, these are something that you definitely need on your menu.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup masa
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachement, cream together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, flour and masa until well combined and starts to form into a ball.
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and press the dough into one 9 inch round pan. Prick the dough with a fork all over the top of the dough.
- Bake the cookie for about 50-55 minutes or until the dough is slightly browned and cooked all the way through (test with a toothpick). Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle over the cookie when it comes out of the oven. Let cool, in the pan, for about 10 minutes, then cut into wedges and remove from the pan and cool on wire racks.
Recipe slightly adapted from Sunset
They look delicious. And the cinnamon probably gives them some extra flavor, thanks for the idea
Thanks so much, Keith!! The cinnamon really does give them the best flavor!!