Tamale recipe?

[Redweasel]

Been playing with my new ginormous bamboo steamer lately and decided I wanted to try my hand at some tamales. Anyone have a good recipe?

[zoebisch01]

If I remember I'll look mine up. Essentially I make a pork filling with loads of herbs, spices, chocolate, chili, etc and cook it long to shred. The Tamale dough is essentially the Masa, salt, baking powder, warm stock (or water) and most importantly Manteca (Lard). You can use shortening but to be honest it's probably worse for you and will not give you the authentic flavor. The key to making the dough properly is that the small pieces of dough MUST float in a cold glass of water. This essentially comes from the proper proportion of water to dough plus (most important) beating the hell out of it. If it doesn't float keep beating. If I am not mistaken you are incorporating air bubbles in between the fat and corn flour. I use the Kitchen Aid with the paddle to do this, pausing every-once-in-a-while to check. Make sure to soak your husks for at least 6 hours, better overnight so that they are pliable. Do not overfill them, you want them to be loose because they will expand when cooked. This is how you make a light textured Tamale. I make them every year as a New Year's Eve tradition.