The Problem
Made from masa, a rather heavy corn dough, tamales, in turn, can also be heavy. Even worse, they can lack true corn flavor.
The Goal
We wanted light tamales, with full corn flavor.
The Solution
The keys to a light tamale are to use baking powder as the leavener, and also to beat the lard together with the masa to trap a lot of air. This causes the dough to expand as the tamale steams, so they become much fluffier. To maximize corn flavor, we puree fresh sweet corn directly into the masa.