Chocolate Peanut Butter "tamales" With Canela Crema

Submitted by Muffin Goddess

"These sound decadent! I haven't tried these yet, but I'm planning to. The "masa" in these is a peanut butter dough, and they're chilled instead of steamed. Adapted from texashighways.com. The amount of crema de canela in the original version seemed a bit much for four servings (half a pint of cream per serving!), so I reduced the recipe to have enough sauce for very generous drizzling rather than a soup bowl per serving. Cooking time includes chilling times."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• TAMALES

• 4 corn husks, soaked and washed well
• 4 ounces good-quality dark chocolate
• 3⁄4 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1⁄2 cup powdered sugar

• CREMA

• 2 egg yolks
• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1⁄2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 1 teaspoon ground mexican cinnamon (canela)

directions

1. "TAMALES":.
2. Combine the peanut butter and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl until well-mixed (either by hand or electric mixer). Divide the mixture into 4 equal pieces, then roll each piece into a flat 2" log. Cover and chill these for 15 minutes.
3. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
4. Lay out the cornhusks, smooth side up. Spoon a generous tablespoon of melted chocolate on a husk and spread it out into a rectangle in the center of the husk. Top chocolate with one log of peanut butter. Fold the husk in on both sides, then turn seam side down on a plate. Repeat with the rest of the husks.
5. Chill tamales on a plate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
6. CREMA:.
7. While the tamales are chilling, prepare the crema.
8. Whisk yolks and sugar together until well blended. Meanwhile, gently heat the cream, half of the cinnamon, and the vanilla bean in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil. Pour half of the cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly as you pour (this tempers the yolks). Pour this mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the cream over low heat. Stir this continuously and cook until it becomes thick enough to coat a spoon. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
9. To serve, unwrap the chilled "tamales". You can either place tamale in a puddle of crema on the plate, or you can drizzle crema over the tamale in the opened husk. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon.