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
- 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.
- 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 red 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 with 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 a 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. If you’re also making savory tamales, you can tie the sweet tamales in order to differentiate them from the savory ones. 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. Add more hot water if needed to avoid burning the tamales.
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.