Masa For Tamales
Easy masa for tamales prepared with masa harina corn flour.
Servings 12 Large Tamales
Ingredients
- 1 cup pork lard(manteca)
- 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsps salt start with this amount
- 3 cups masa harina corn flour maseca brand for tamales
- 3 cups cups cooled broth chicken, pork, vegetable or water
Instructions
- In the stand mixer, whip the pork lard for a few minutes until light and creamy. Adding some volume to the lard will yield a lighter masa for tamales. If mixing by hand, it will require more time for mixing, but that was how I used to always mix my masa.
- Mix in the baking powder and salt.
- Gradually mix in all of the masa harina.
- On low speed, gradually mix in 2 1/4 cups of broth, to start. Once it's incorporated, gradually mix in a little more broth at a time, mixing the whole time. Check the masa for the consistency. It really needs about 10 minutes of mixing time to become light and fluffy. It should spread easily like a thick frosting.
- Once you are happy with the texture of the masa, taste for salt. Continue mixing at medium speed for 3 minutes. Cover masa directly with plastic wrap or a wet paper towel. Let the masa rest for at least 30 minutes before using it.
- To see the complete details on filling and steaming the tamales, click the link on one of the tamal recipes on this post. Typically I steam a pot of 3 dozen tamales for 1 hour and 30 minutes for meat tamales. One hour only of steam time for cheese filled tamales. This masa recipe yields 12 large tamales or 24 small tamales.
- THE VIDEO VERSION IS PREPARED WITH DIFFERENT QUANTITIES. SAME FORMULA.
Notes
For red or green masa, reduce the amount of chicken broth by 1/2 cup. Replace the 1/2 cup of broth with 1/2 cup red chile sauce or green chile sauce. On occasion I will use a good quality chile ancho or chile guajillo powder to color my masa. The red chile tamales featured on this blog post were prepared with chile powder. Depending on how much color you want to add is how you decide how much to add to the masa. Always have extra broth on hand in case masa appears to be too thick.