Sweet Pineapple Guava Tamales Recipe • Mama Latina Tips

The Posadas are about to start, just 10 more days and many Mexican families, in México and throughout the world, will be getting ready for 9 days of family gatherings, piñatas, fruit, candy, songs and prayer.

Every Posada ends with a yummy Mexican antojito and ponche. The most popular antojitos are pozole, enchiladas, tacos (every way imaginable) sopes, and delicious tamales of all kinds.

Thanks to Maseca and Latina Bloggers Connect for sponsoring this post. As always my opinions are my own.

A few days ago a friend gave us a huge bag of lovely pineapple guavas. A fruit I have never seen in my life. I'm very familiar with guavas, I used to sit on my roof in Mexico and eat them all day long. And, of course, I ‘m a huge fan of pineapples, but I'd never been introduced to this sweet, fragrant fruit from Brazil.

I immediately thought they would be great for my sweet tamales, so I made some jam with them. If you don't have pineapple guavas available where you live, you can use guavas to make the jam or you can just buy your favorite jam.

Sweet Pineapple Guava Tamales

Makes 24-30 tamales

For the Tamales

1 (8oz) package dried corn husks
4 cups of Maseca Nixtamasa
2 2/3 cups hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (12 oz) softened butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup pineapple guava jam
3/4 of a cup of milk

For the pineapple guava jam

2 1/2 cups pineapple guavas flesh. Cut guava in half and spoon out the soft jelly in the middle
1 cup of sugar
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Make the recipe in this order, soak corn husks, make jam, then make tamales.

Boil water in a large pot, turn off the heat and soak all the corn husks for two hours. Place a plate on top of them to make sure all are submerged in the water.

For the jam. Just combine all the jam ingredients in a pot and cook them over medium high heat. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. At the boiling point, lower the temperature to a simmer and stir occasionally until it reaches desired thickness. I cook mine for about an hour. Let it rest.

After two hours have passed, pour out the water covering the husks and let them dry for half an hour or dry them with paper towels.

Now for the Tamales

Combine the 4 cups of Maseca Nixtamasa, 2 2/3 cups hot water and the salt, mix until everything is well combined. Use your hands if it is easier for you. The masa will look like this:

In a large bowl, mix the butter, about 30 seconds, it will look like this

Add the sugar and baking powder and mix for another 2-3 minutes until well integrated and fluffy.

Divide the masa into four parts, add one at a time and mix into the butter and sugar. Add the pineapple guava jam and then pour in the milk and mix until the masa has the consistency of very soft cake batter. Put in the fridge for one hour.

After one hour mix it again and add a little bit of milk, if necessary to get a creamy consistency.

Finishing Them Up

Take the corn husks and, one by one, fill them with the masa and jam (there should be plenty from the jam recipe above) like this:

Spread 2-3 tablespoon of masa on the husk and spread it out as shown in the picture, add a little bit of jam in the middle and close it so the masa covers the filling, fold the bottom part. Repeat until you have all your tamales.

RELATED POST: Lime Atole

Place water in the bottom of a steamer or tamalera. Stand the tamales up vertically in the top part and steam them over medium-high heat for 1 hour and 15 minutes (check after 1 hour) or until the each tamal separates from the corn husk. Make sure to leave some space in between the tamales, they will grow. The tamales will be very moist, just let them cool and they will firm up. You can re-heat them in a steamer or in the microwave. You can also keep them in the freezer for several weeks.

Serve with lime or pumpkin atole or hot chocolate.

¡Enjoy your posadas!

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Silvia Martinez

Silvia started bilingual website Mama Latina Tips in 2009 to connect and share her stories, recipes and culture with readers. Silvia loves dancing, cooking, watching movies, reading, throwing Mexican parties and spending time with family and friends. Silvia is the winner of The Great American Recipe.

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