Cooking in

British Columbia

Mexican

Tamales Sabor a Chocolate (Chocolate-Flavored Tamales)

A dessert tamale from Aguascalientes in which masa is beaten with unsalted butter, cocoa, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla to produce a rich, lightly sweetened dough wrapped around Kahlúa-soaked raisins and roughly chopped pecans. The corn husk parcels steam upright until the dough pulls away cleanly from the husk — the traditional test for doneness. The result sits somewhere between a confection and a proper tamale: substantial, fragrant, and deeply chocolatey without being cloying.

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Servesapproximately 20 tamales

Sourced2 of 5 in BC

Cook

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The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

375 ml (1½ cups)

raisins

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

2 tablespoons

Kahlúa

BC Liquor Stores · Vancouver →

285 g (10 oz)

unsalted butter, or butter and lard combined, at room temperature

Your own market

1½ teaspoons

baking powder

Your own market

¼ teaspoon

salt

Your own market

250 ml (1 cup)

granulated sugar

Your own market

1 teaspoon

vanilla extract

Your own market

1 teaspoon

ground cinnamon

Your own market

heaped tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Your own market

900 g (2 lbs)

fairly dry masa for tamales

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

125–250 ml (½–1 cup)

whole milk

Your own market

265 ml (1 heaped cup)

roughly chopped pecans (Carya illinoinensis)

Origin · United StatesChoose your town to see who stocks it →

dried corn husks, soaked in warm water until pliable, patted dry

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

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The Method

Combine raisins and Kahlúa in a small bowl. Set aside to soak while you prepare the dough.

Beat butter with baking powder in a large bowl until pale and creamy, 3–5 minutes.

Beat in salt, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and cocoa until fully incorporated and smooth.

Alternate adding masa and milk in two or three additions, beating after each, until the dough is light in texture, thick, and holds its shape on a spoon.

Stir pecans into the soaked raisins.

Spread roughly 2–3 tablespoons of dough across the center of each prepared corn husk, leaving a 2.5 cm (1 inch) border at the sides and base. Place a spoonful of the raisin-pecan mixture along the center of the dough.

Fold the long sides of the husk over the filling so the dough edges meet, then fold the narrow bottom end up. Stand tamales upright, open end up, in a steamer basket set over simmering water.

Cover with a layer of extra husks, then the lid. Steam at a steady simmer for approximately 1½ hours.

Begin testing at 1 hour 20 minutes: a tamale is done when the dough pulls away from the husk cleanly and without sticking. Remove from heat and rest 10 minutes before serving.

III

Sensory Tests

◇Peel back the corn husk after steaming: a properly made tamale releases in a single, clean motion with no dough tearing or sticking — any adhesion indicates undercooking or a fat-deficient dough.

◇Press the surface of the unwrapped tamale gently with a fingertip — it should spring back slowly and feel moist without being wet or leaving a visible indent that does not recover.

◇Break the tamale open at the centre: the crumb should show a uniform, slightly open texture throughout with no raw, gluey seam at the core, and the cocoa colour should be consistent rather than concentrated at the edges.

◇Inhale immediately after unwrapping: the dominant note should be warm cacao and Ceylon cinnamon with a distinct vanilla lift; a flat or corn-only smell signals under-seasoned masa or stale spice.

◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies in the beating of the masa — the butter must be whipped to a pale, aerated mass before the masa is incorporated in stages, creating enough air to give the steamed dough its characteristic tender, slightly springy crumb. Fold in too quickly or use cold butter and the tamale sets dense and starchy, no matter how good the filling.

IV · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

tamales-dulces-peruanos — Peruvian — Sweet tamales wrapped in banana or corn husks appear across the Andean Pacific coast; the Peruvian version similarly uses masa enriched with fat and sugar, demonstrating how indigenous steamed-dough technique absorbed European sweetening across Latin America independently. mississippi-delta-tamale — Southern United States — The Delta tamale shares the same Mesoamerican structural logic — seasoned masa steamed in a corn husk — but diverged into a savory form under a different colonial pantry, underscoring how the same base technique branches when fat source and flavouring tradition change. bûche-de-noël — French — Both are occasion confections in which a laborious, fat-enriched dough or sponge is built around a flavoured filling, with chocolate and vanilla as the primary aromatic register; the Aguascalientes tamale occupies an identical social role — festive, made in quantity, associated with communal eating and warm drinks.

Pillar IV

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