The Tamale Ladies!

What a fun experience!  I've always wanted to learn how to make tamales, and I was so excited and looking forward to great friends coming over to teach me how to make them "the right way".

It took five of us about 5 hours to make almost 12 dozen of them. Half beef, half pork, and all delicious!
The tamale makers came prepared.  They came with the two meats already cooked and chopped, and all the necessary equipment I didn't have.  That included a few beautiful clay bowls that have been in their family for generations, 2 large steamer pots, lots of ingredients, and one magic spoon!!

I'm going to summarize the steps here with no promise that I've remembered everything!  Warning: don't attempt to make these by using what I have documented here!  I'm smiling as I say that.... my goal here is just to share some of what went on.  There's no way I could actually instruct anyone how to make tamales at this point.  But one of these days..... maybe!!!

The beautiful bowls, which were used to cook the meat and spices together on the cooktop.

To begin this process, since the meat was already cooked, which saved us time, the next step was to prepare the corn husks and dried chiles by soaking them in warm water to soften.  The corn husks needed to soak for about 2 hours, so I started this process before the Tamale Ladies arrived!

These are the chiles that were also soaked to soften.

While that was happening, one person began mixing masa, baking powder, salt, and lard to make the dough that's spread onto the corn husks by adding water gradually until it reached the perfect consistency.  These ladies don't measure anything, they've been making tamales for decades, so observation was key here!!  It's a good thing I took plenty of pictures to refer back to, and it's a good thing they're going to write the directions down for me.  There's NO WAY I could possibly remember all this stuff!!

While the masa mixture was being made, the ingredients that flavor the meats had to be prepared also.  Into the beautiful bowls went some vegetable oil and some garlic, cloves, and black peppercorns. The spices and garlic were added to the bowl after they were crushed and blended together.  The spice mixture simmered for a few minutes before the cooked meat was added to the bowl, then the meat simmered for a few minutes before the softened chiles were placed in the blender with some warm water and pulverized into liquid form.  They were then added to the meat mixture by pressing through a strainer to prevent the skins from going into the meat mixture.  That's all that was done to the meats.  After that, they were just simmered and stirred every now and then.  

Crushing the spices.

Blending the spices.

 The vegetable oil in the bowl to which the spice mixture was added.

Adding the cooked meat to the spice mixture in the bowl. I forgot to take a picture of the chiles being added, but that's what happened next. 


The chiles about to be blended and liquified with warm water, then added to the meat mixture.

 Everyone is busy here! Spreading the masa mixture onto the corn husks and then adding the meat mixture, rolling them up, and placing them into one of the big steamer pots. This is a group effort!

This may look simple, but it takes practice to get the dough mixture onto that corn husk smoothly and evenly!

Water is added to the bottom of the pot, then a rack is placed over it and then the pot is filled with tamales.  

Once the pot is full, corn husks are placed over the top to help retain moisture.

Over the corn husks, a plastic bag is placed - another way to keep the steam in. 

The tamales steamed for about an hour and 45 minutes before checking them for doneness.

After they were all finished, they were removed from the pot and placed into big containers to cool before packaging them up.  They freeze well.  We kept some out to enjoy and froze the rest.

People who make tamales have their own way of doing it, and there are many ways, with different meats and ingredients.  The Tamale Ladies showed me how their family has always done it, and I enjoyed every minute of watching, helping when possible, and listening to them talk about their family tamale stories.

This was a really fun day.  Not only did I learn plenty about how tamales are made, but I also had a great time with some lovely ladies and I have lots of utterly delicious tamales to enjoy!  Lucky me!!!

Festive Maple Shortbread Cookies

I really love shortbread cookies.  I've always baked traditional Scottish shortbread until recently.  I purchased a new shortbread pan from KAF (King Arthur Flour), and decided to take a look at their recipes while I was at it.  I found this recipe for Maple Shortbread that looked really good.  It called for a few ingredients I didn't have on hand, but not to worry.... KAF had them available for purchase, so I got everything I needed right there.

Here's the pan, a snowflake pattern.

I was so excited when the package arrived, I made them right away.  I did alter the recipe just a bit to suit my own preferences, but made only very minor changes.  I was really pleased with everything about the cookies.  The texture was perfect and the flavor was excellent!

Here mine are, which I cut with a pizza wheel as soon as I turned them out.  Then I brushed them with the syrup and sprinkled the sanding sugar on them.

Here's how I did it, just in case you'd like to give them a try:

Maple Shortbread Cookies                Adapted from King Arthur Flour December 2019

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup pure maple sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon maple flavor, optional, for enhanced flavor
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla-butternut flavor, optional, for enhanced flavor
• 2 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Topping

• scant 2 tablespoons maple syrup  ** see notes below**

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Melt a tablespoon of butter and brush it onto the bottom and sides of a shortbread pan. Alternatively rub soft butter onto the bottom and sides of an 8" round pan.
2. Beat together the remaining 15 tablespoons butter, maple sugar, salt, and flavors until well blended.
3. Mix in the flour to form a smooth, cohesive dough. The dough will be crumbly at first, but will come together as it's mixed.
4. Fold in the chopped nuts if using.
5. Divide the dough in half. Wrap one half in plastic and set aside. Press the second half into the prepared pan.
6. Use a fork to prick the dough all over; this allows any steam to escape, and prevents the shortbread from bubbling as it bakes.
7. Bake the shortbread for 25 to 30 minutes, until the surface is a light golden brown, and the edges are a darker golden brown.
8. Remove the shortbread from the oven, and immediately turn it out onto a clean work surface. Gently brush the shortbread with the maple syrup (you want to be careful not to brush away the pattern if you used a shortbread pan).
9. Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut the shortbread while still warm into 8 equal wedges and transfer them to a rack to cool completely.
10. Repeat the bake with the remaining half of dough.
11. Store the shortbread, well wrapped, at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.

**Notes**

The shortbread released from the pan perfectly and as you can see in my picture, the pattern was well defined.  I was a little concerned about what brushing them with maple syrup would do to the texture of the cookie, but once the cookies cooled, there was no difference.  I chose to omit the nuts and I also decided to sprinkle mine with white sanding sugar right after brushing them with the syrup.

I found that the scant two tablespoons of maple syrup was not quite enough.  I suggest using a soft bristled or silicone brush to apply the syrup, and not a stiffer type bristled brush.

Lastly, it isn't necessary to have a shortbread pan.  You can use a round pan, pie plate, or even a sheet pan.  I have baked my Scottish shortbread in all of those options with no problems.

I you like maple flavor and shortbread, you will love these cookies.  I think I have a new Christmas cookie tradition here!

"The Learning Cookies"

Well, actually, they're Christmas cookies, but for me it was a learning experience.  I've been wanting to learn how to decorate cut-out cookies with royal icing for years.  This year, I finally decided it's never going to happen if I don't just jump into it and give it a go.

I watched YT videos until three a.m.

I visited a gazillion cookie-making websites and cookie blogger posts.
I watched all the YT videos AGAIN.....
I wondered if it would actually be possible.
I eventually found myself ordering supplies from Amazon.
I went to Hobby Lobby to see what else I should probably have.
I decided to actually bake the cookies and hoped they would not only taste great, but hold their shape so I wouldn't have to start all over with a different recipe.

The above list could go on and on.... but I'll spare you!  In the end, it took me a few hours to make the cookie dough, chill it, cut the cookies out, chill them again and bake them.  I survived that part, at least.  They were quite flavorful and retained their shape.

Now.... for the dreaded royal icing challenge!  It's what I have feared the most.  So many different ways it needs to be prepared, depending on what exactly you want to do with it.  There's stiff consistency, medium, outline, and flood consistency.  And they need to be just right for the best results.  So much to learn!

Then, there's the questions brought to mind when trying to decide which "best" is really the best one.
Every video, every website, every blog post.... they all have the "best" way of doing things.

Oh my.

Well, this was my first attempt at trying to learn how royal icing behaves and trying to get the consistency right.

I know this much:
I need to take lessons.
I need to learn how to make decorated cookies happen in a more organized fashion.  My normally sparkling kitchen looked like a tornado passed right through the center of it by the time I finished.

I'm not entirely unhappy, I did learn a few things, but mostly, I learned I have plenty more to learn.
Oh..... and I learned that I think I'm going to enjoy it!