Tamales, Oh Sweet Tamales, ¡Tamales de Dulce! When making savory Tamales, some families separate a small amount of the masa to make sweet tamales. There’s the simple version that just has some sugar, but you can also add one of the following fillings: raisins, pineapple chunks, shredded coconut, dried fruits, berries, prunes, and fruit jams.
Add to this the very sophisticated versions with fillings like chocolate, berries, guava, cream cheese, dulce de leche, pecans, pine nuts, and even Nutella nowadays.
Sweet Tamales | Tamales de Dulce
Tamales are a meal for celebration, a special treat for parties and birthdays, or ritual times like the Day of the Dead. In Mexico, February 2nd is the day when the lucky people who found the little baby inside the Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings Bread) will invite their friends and relatives over to eat tamales (you can read about that here).
In Prehispanic times, the second day of the second month of the year was the beginning of the Mexicas Calendar “Atlcahualo”, and they used the Tamales as part of their offering to their gods. The Tamales they used to make were different according to the celebration or rituals.
Not everyone dyes their sweet tamales with food coloring, but it is common to make them like that, especially in central Mexico. They’re usually made with fresh masa, but this recipe calls for Masa Harina since that’s not available everywhere. The dry corn flour/masa harina is readily available here in the States, with brands like Maseca or Minsa.
How to make Sweet Tamales
DIRECTIONS:
- Place butter and sugar in a medium-size bowl and, with the help of a mixer, beat for a couple of minutes until it has a creamy texture. About 2 minutes. (Please check the ingredients list below)
- In a larger bowl, mix Masa Harina, Baking powder, and raisins. Stir well and then add the warm water little by little.
- While mixing the dry ingredients with the water, add the drops of Food Coloring. Mix well to have a uniform color.
- Once you’ve incorporated the food coloring into the dough, it will look slightly pink. Now add the butter and sugar mixture.
- Beat the dough with your hands or a wooden spoon, as the dough is somehow too heavy to work within your mixer unless you have a Heavy Duty Stand Mixer like Kitchen Aid. The dough will be ready when it looks fluffy and creamy, like very soft ice cream. If your dough seems too dry, add a little more water. The consistency has to be very soft.
- Drain the corn husks from the soaking water. Place about ⅓ cup of the dough over the corn husk and wrap the tamal. Keep assembling the rest of the tamales.
- Place the tamales standing up in your steam pot (Tamalera), add about an inch of hot water, cover with corn husks, aluminum foil or a plastic bag, and then cover with the pot lid. Cook for 1 to 1 ¼ hour at medium heat.
¡Buen provecho!
Mely,
What is your favorite tamal filling?
I hope you make them... If you do, please come back to let me know your experience.
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More recipes:
Sweet Corn Tamales Pork
Cheese and Roasted Peppers Tamales
Receta en Español Tamales de dulce.
📖 Recipe
Sweet Tamales (Tamales Dulces)
Ingredients
- ½ cup of unsalted butter at room temperature*
- 6 Tbs. sugar
- 1 ½ cup of Masa Harina
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 Tbs. raisins**
- 1 ½ cup warm water
- 6 drops of red food coloring***
- 10 large Corn Husks soaked in warm water.
- Optional Extra corn husks to make thin strips to tie the tamales.
Instructions
Prep corn husks
- Add enough warm- hot water in a large bowl or clean sick to cover your corn husk. This step takes a few minutes to make the corn husk pliable.
Make masa dough
- Place unsalted butter and sugar in a medium-sized bowl and, with the help of a mixer, beat for a couple of minutes until it has a creamy texture. (About 2 minutes)
- In a different bowl, mix masa harina, baking powder, and add raisins. Stir well, and then add the warm water little by little.
- While mixing the dry ingredients with the water, add drops of red food coloring. Mix well to have a uniform color.
- Note: Once you’ve incorporated the food coloring into the dough, it will look slightly pink.
- Now, add the butter and sugar mixture.
- Beat the dough with your hands or a wooden spoon, as the dough is sometimes too heavy to work within your mixer unless you have a Heavy Duty Stand Mixer like Kitchen Aid.
- Tip: The dough will be ready when it looks fluffy and creamy, like very soft ice cream. If your dough seems too dry, add a little more water. The consistency has to be very soft.
Assemble the tamales
- Drain the corn husks from the soaking water; use a kitchen towel to dry the excess water.
- Now place about ⅓ cup of corn masa over the extended corn husk.
- Then, fold the edge of husk around the filling, then fold the bottom up like the pictures below.
- For a decorative presentation, you can wrap a string in the tamal.
- Keep assembling the rest of the tamales.
Steam sweet tamales
- First, fill the bottom of the steamer with about 1 to 2 inches of water. Then, insert the steamer rack of your tamalera.
- Now, place the tamales standing up in your steam pot (Tamalera).
- After you are done placing all your tamales, cover them with remaining corn husks, aluminium foil, a plastic bag, or a damp towel, and then cover them with the pot lid.
- Steam boil for 1 to 1 hour 15 minutes at medium heat. Add more hot water if needed to avoid burning the tamales.
Not everyone has a special Steamer for tamales (Tamalera), but you can improvise by using a large pot and crumbling some aluminum foil and placing it at the bottom of the pot, and also forming an aluminum ball to place in the center of the pot where the tamales can stand/lean on during the cooking process.
Notes
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Emma Martinez
When to you add the corn ? Do you cook the corn before mix with the masa
Mely Martínez
Hi Emma,
The corn gets mixed in raw, but it'll cook perfectly as you steam those tamales. Just pop them in, and you'll see how everything comes together beautifully. Enjoy!
Mely
Cynthia Schultz
you can use cherry Kool-Aid to color the masa.
Cynthia Schultz
you can use cherry Kool-Aid to color the
Irma
Thank you very much for sharing your recipe for sweet tamales, I'm looking forward to making it. My late mother-in-law would make them with chopped Maraschino cherries, including the juice, so it would naturally color the masa. She also added flaked sweetened coconut and crushed pineapple. I really miss her at this time of the year.
Michele1L
Oi! Finally! After multiple attempts over the years, I found your recipe, and it's the sweet tamale recipe closest to my mother-in-law's that my husband grew up eating! My mother-in-law passed many years ago (Husband is 65) and of course no one knew her "recipe". My husband's memories are "raisins & pineapple, but not as filling - just in the (wiggling fingers gesture) 'doughy stuff' in the husk"... no matter what questions I asked, he gave shoulder shrugs; he never helped his mother cook... So, with hope in my heart and a prayer to my mother-in-law, I tried your recipe but used half water, half pineapple juice... My husband closed his eyes while tasting a few bites...
Hallelujah! We have a winner! THANK YOU!!
Mely Martínez
Hello Michele,
Thank you for sharing about your mother in-in-law cooking. It is glad to know your husband liked the tamales.
Michele1L
Thanks to YOU, Mely! I'm sure Maria Angelica is smiling down on us 🥰
Yaya
Hi. Love this recipee. I love to mix and match different ingredients. I added 1/2 cup corn kernels, 8 oz cream cheese, and 1 cup of ham bits to the Masa. Try it. Amazing flavor.
Catherine
I made these today and they are really delicious. Some I filled with pork cooked in a sweet, salty sauce that was leftover from making Chinese steamed pork buns. Some I filled with tiny chunks of membrillo paste and some I left just plain with no stuffing. I didn't use food coloring, but am now considering making green tamales for St. Patrick's Day. These are really wonderful. Thank you so much!
Adriane
Try using Nestle Quick Strawberry instead of food coloring. My mother would make our sweet tamales with it & it was delicious.
Katrina
How much strawberry milk? Thanks for the tip!
Ana Vasquez
Loved this recipe! I used crushed pineapple, walnuts, coconut, and raisins. I also added cinnamon & used pineapple juice to mix instead of water for that added pineapple taste. SUPER DELICIOUS. THANKS!
Rochelle
I like your idea of using the pineapple juice. I’ll try it next time! I prefer using milk instead of water for the dough! Thank you for sharing!
Mel
I just made these as the recipe stated. They are really good and you can definitely taste the butter. I’m used to the ones made with lard, if I wanted to make these with lard, are the measurements able to be directly substituted with the butters? Thanks in Advance !
Mely Martínez
Hello Mel,
Yes, the amount would be the same. Happy cooking!
Aida Hernandez
Can you use unprepared masa from the store and how you flavor it for sweet tamales
Mely Martínez
Hello Aida,
Yes, most large Latin stores offer two different types of masa. the one that already has lard and salt for making tamales, and the regular plain masa for tortilla making.
If you buy the regular one soften it with warm water, lard, or any other type of fat of your choice. Sugar to make it sweet. If you do not want to add lard, use butter, margarine, or shortening.
Rich Frisk
Thank you for this one, I have made tamales about 6 or 7 times before, but it has been many years. The toughest part for me was spreading the masa on the husk and not having it be too thick. Also, I would add sauce to the masa when mixing it up, the same sauce I would cook the meat in. I have also made Italian tamales, I would mix my spaghetti sauce in with the masa and put inside cut up meatballs, Italian sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Then I would make what I call Mexican corndogs, just put a whole hot dog in the tamale.
Mely Martínez
Hello Rich,
Italian tamales sound mouthwatering. Such a clever idea!Happy cooking!
Errol
My go to recipe for sweet tamales! I love these. My son does too. Thank you for sharing~
mmartinez
Hello Errol,
So glad to know you and your son like them.
Thank you for coming back to share about it!
Happy cooking!
Tammy
We use Kool-Aid rather than food coloring so it gives it the “fruit” flavor. We make pineapple sweet tamales with pineapple flavored drink mix and strawberry with strawberry’ flavored drink mix.
Eddie
Love making tamales. This year for Christmas we are making pork, chicken, cheese/veggie and sweet tamales. Have to keep the tradition going for the new generation. My aunt taught us to make sweet tamales with raisins, pineapple and slivered almonds along with the buttery cinnamon flavoring; so delicious!
Jeannie Tarin
Thank you for all your recipes! I always use brown sugar in my sweet tamales but want to use piloncillo, do I grate it?
mmartinez
Hello Jeannie,
Yes, you can easily grate it if you warm it first in your microwave.
Max Duryee
We're looking forward to enjoying some of these sweet tamales.. We're accustomed to adding a little anise to the recipe. I'm eager to try some with the sweet whole kernel corn someone mentioned. I have a recipe for corn fritters that our friends like.
Cindy
Hi, I'm trying to make sweet tamales of piña do I blend pineapple and then mix it into the masa?
mmartinez
Hello Cindy,
Usually, the pineapple is added at the center of each tamal, but you can mix it with the dough too.
Michele Stratton
Mely,
My mom and I are looking at your recipe for tamales and then sweet tamales. My mom hasn't made made sweet tamales since I was younger. She used masa, brown sugar, pineapple, raisins, cinnamon, and baking soda. It's interesting to see how other people made their sweet tamales.
mmartinez
Hello Michele,
Some people don't add the food coloring, and instead of sugar use Piloncillo. In Mexico, baking powder is more common than baking soda. But we do add raisins, dried candied pineapple or fresh pineapple, cinnamon and other dried fruits, even nuts like pecans.
Flora Bass
Hi Mely! Thank you for sharing these wonderful recipes. I’m originally from El Salvador but love to cook, my sister and I get together and make the pork tamales , we sell them like crazy.
Going to try sweet tamales . Thank you!
mmartinez
Hello Flora,
Enjoy making them.
Unknown
Mely,
Acabo de hacer los tamales de dulce! Tu receta es perfecta. Finalmente voy a poder comer tamales de dulce en Central NY y con los toppings que a mi me gustan. Muchisimas gracias por tu blog y por compartir tus recetas. Has hecho a una compatriota mexicana muy feliz 🙂
Anonymous
I can't wait to try this recipe! I've made tamales dulce in the past for a sister's wedding and had nothing but raves. Now most of my family appears to have pork and soy allergies which eliminates masa made with crisco, etc. But your recipe calls for butter! Plus, I always made them with raisins and nutmeats, never fruit. This sounds wonderful. Think my granddaughter will be eating tamales dulce at HER wedding in August. Thank you!
Karen
First, I don't know why I never saw your FB page... I'm following that now 🙂 I love sweet tamales with pineapple.
Maja | Mexatia
I managed to find masa in one international store! 🙂 I see you sent us email through our contact form, but apparently something was not working well and I cannot see what you've wrote - if you could do it again, please.
mmartinez
Hello Maja,
Don't worry, it's actually the same information I gave you here. Sometimes, people ask question but don't come back to read the answer. Happy cooking!
Maja | Mexatia
Mely, here we do not have masa harina... what could I use instead? I want to make them for 16th of September 🙂
mmartinez
Hello Maja,
There are some tamales called "canarios" that are made using rice flour. You can either make them sweet or savory. I love the sweet ones with raisins. There are also some tamales in the state of Michoacan made with regular flour. You can also make tamales using fresh corn kernels. Either sweet or savory. They are popular in the states of Guerrero and Veracruz. So, you do not need to deprive yourself of eating tamales. I hope you try to make some and come back to let me know about it. Happy cooking!
ozarkmelody
These are wonderful! I grew up for the first 14 years of my life in Mexico and have been slowly trying to get the recipes for the foods that I miss. I am so glad that I found this. It was exactly as I remember them during my childhood!
Domenica Salazar
hi mely makeing some right know!!!!! thank you so much
Lynne
I made a paste of butter, sugar, and whole sweet corn kernels to use as filling. Nice crunch to the little treats with the corn in there... yum!
Lynne
mmartinez
Hello Lynne,
Thank you fro sharing your sweet creation.
Coco Luna
I've been making traditional tamales for years. These sound delicious! I will try my hand at these.
GaryM
I've had tamales before with raisins and man they were good, this is 1st recipe I've found for them and yep I'll be making a batch, thank you for the recipe
GaryM
I've had tamales with raisins and man they were good, this recipe sounds like it and yep I'll be making a batch of them
Byte64
Maravillas, como siempre.
Un abrazo Mely!
Tlaz
Sandra
yum!
Nammi
I have always been curious about tamales , never had them so have always wondered how they taste 🙂
Nora
Qué ricos Mely! Yo les pongo su punto de sal. Con este frío y un atolito bien caliente mm mm
Besos