We were guests at Peter’s, (our oldest) for Super Bowl Sunday. What was lacking excitement of the game, he made up for it by regaling us with a five hour food fest, starting off with a taco bar. He was telling me about his biking buddy’s description of the best breakfast biscuit he’d ever eaten. I had to hear more having latched onto the word, “best”. The biscuits were made with Masa Harina. “Masa Harina?” I asked, thinking Peter got it wrong. “Yes, Mom, masa harina, you know what tortillas are made with.”
I tend to obsess, especially since we are big tortilla people, I couldn’t imagine making a biscuit out of masa. Of course I looked it up the minute I got home.
“Masa Harina is a flavorful flour made from dried corn soaked in limewater.” – bobsredmill.com
I had no idea, but I love knowing that. I found this recipe from recipeland.com. Though I made the appropriate vegan changes. If you are not a vegan, use butter and buttermilk for this recipe.
Vegan Masa Biscuits Ingredients
Serves: 20
Prep: 30 min.
Cook for 15 minutes or until golden with oven at 450 °F.
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups masa harina
- 3 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup miyoko’s cultured vegan butter
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- 2 cups non-dairy milk
- 3 tbsp apple-cider vinegar
Vegan Masa Biscuits Recipe
- Position racks in the upper and middle thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 °F.
- Add 2 cups of dairy-free milk 3 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar, set aside while putting together the dry ingredients.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together 3 ½ cups of the flour, the masa, baking powder and salt.
- With a pastry cutter, blend in the vegan-butter and shortening until the mixture resembles a coarse and slightly lumpy meal.
- Stir in the buttermilk until soft, crumbly dough is formed.
- Sprinkle the work surface with flour.
- Turn dough out, gather it into a ball, and briefly knead it, just until it holds together.
- Flatten the dough, sprinkle it with some flour, and roll it out to 1-inch thick.
- With a round 3-inch cutter, form biscuits, transferring them to 2 ungreased baking sheets and spacing them about 2-inches apart.
- If you are making small appetizers, press ¼ measuring cup into dough, in order to get the small little biscuits.
- Gather the scraps into a ball, roll it out to 1-inch thick again, and cut out the remaining biscuits.
- Set baking sheets on the racks and bake for about 15 minutes, exchanging the position of the sheets on the racks from top to bottom and from front to back at the halfway point or until the biscuits are golden and crisp.
- Serve hot or warm with vegan butter, jam or as an appetizer with caviar.
Caviar, did she just say caviar? At this point I’ll reiterate, Rick and I are almost vegans. Meaning, we still eat some fish, other than that we adhere to a pretty strict vegan diet. If you are new to this blog, you can go back to the very first installment of Cooking for You My Love and read about our journey into our own brand of almost-veganism.
Back to the caviar. Over the holidays at a family gathering honoring our mother turning 90! years old, my brother Greg treated us all with fresh bread, smothered with butter (in our case vegan-butter) and topped generously with Tsar Nicoulai Caviar. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Since then I’ve bought two petite jars of the stuff. And after Clare (the middle-kid) told me how good it is for the “brain”. Another word I obsess over 🙂 I knew I had to add this to our diet.
Why eat Caviar? Caviar is a source of vitamins and minerals, including omega 3, which helps promote a healthy nervous, circulatory and immune system. One serving of caviar (1 tablespoon) has an adult’s daily requirement of Vitamin B-12. Other nutrients included are vitamins A, E, B6, Iron, Magnesium and Selenium. That’s why.
I buy the adorable 2 oz. jar Romanoff Black Lumpfish Caviar for $11.99.
Romanoff black lumpfish is wild-caught in the cold coastal waters of Iceland. Granted it’s really salty and of course fishy, but served with the Miyoko’s European Style Cultured Vegan Butter on a cracker, or in this case, a masa biscuit it’s positively divine. Not kidding. Now, the caviar that Greg served is the only award winning sustainable (another great word) Eco Certified Sturgeon Farm in America. Go to tsarnicoulai.com and educate yourself by watching their video.
Rick just walked by eyeing the bowl of biscuits, so I told him to have some with the caviar. “No thanks.” He wants to have it as a treat once in a while, unlike me, who has had a tablespoon of the little black beads, on almost anything, just about everyday since Christmas. Oh gawd, is caviar going to become to me what polenta in the 90’s was, and delicata squash is to me no- over served? 🙂
Speaking of Rick and the ongoing side-effects of the hormone treatment, the androgen suppression therapy; he is still having gnarly hot flashes during the night and consequently not getting uninterrupted sleep. The goal of the six month shot is to reduce levels of male hormones, called androgens, in the body, or to stop them from fueling cancer cells. But other than that he has returned to his beloved canyon where instead of running, he is hiking; today a little over 7 miles. So, I’d say he’s doing pretty well.
If any of you are dealing with prostate cancer, or know someone who is please forward:
Fans for the Cure
Dr. Stacy Loeb from NYU School of Medicine and colleagues are doing a short online survey about the impact of prostate cancer on sleep, lifestyle, and quality of life. A gift card will be provided at the completion of the survey. All responses are anonymous.
If you are a patient with prostate cancer (18+ male US adult) and would like to learn more about the study, please follow this link: https://redcap.link/PatientSurvey
If you are a family member or caregiver of a patient with prostate cancer and would like to learn more about the study, please follow this link: https://is.gd/CareGiverSurvey
In addition to being one of the country’s most respected urologists and researchers, Dr. Loeb advises Fans for the Cure’s online Women’s Support Group and has been a guest on the Charity’s STAY IN THE GAME podcast.
Thank you for considering participating in Dr. Loeb’s survey.
Regards,
Ed Randall and Karen G. Shaffer
Founder + Chief Advocacy Officers
Fans for the Cure
Why am I including this in today’s blog? Because there have been moments where Rick has wondered if the side-effects of the treatment will ever abate, and worries they won’t. Taking this survey didn’t answer any questions, but showed in detail by the questions that were asked, he’s experiencing exactly what is supposed to happen with hormone treatment.
Fear and uncertainty is the enemy. Not knowing what to expect can undermine a positive mindset. Psychologically, taking this survey lifted his spirits and gave him the sense maybe this information will help someone else.
We live another day
Ciao for now 🙂
You guys are so rad/inspirational! And I can’t wait to try these biscuits 😋
Thanks Anni, Worth all the effort that’s for sure. Jam or caviar works 🙂
Yum~ an excuse to eat carbs!
You need them to fuel those long,
fabulous walks you’re taking. 🙂
I’m looking forward to making these. I inevitably have extra masa harina after making homemade tortillas. It’’ll be nice to make something else with it for a change. I’m thinking about serving them with a southwest tofu scramble, roasted poblano peppers, and cashew nacho cheese sauce for a twist on eggs Benedict.
Thanks! I’m going to experiment next time, with halving the flours, 2.5 of each the all-purpose and 2.5 masa. They were fabulous biscuits, but the masa was very subtle.. I’ll let you know how it works out. Thank 🙂