Sweet Tamales With Yams and Pecans

Sensational side dish. It takes a bit of work, but the effect will have your dinner guests talking! A slightly sweet little bundle topped with a smoky chipotle-sour cream sauce. I used a 1/4 cup cookie scoop to measure out the mixture for each tamale and got 16. From Nob Hill Foods website featuring recipes for Thanksgiving. I might try increasing the sugar and decreasing the masa and see if it will still stay together in a "tamale".

• Ready In: 2 hrs 15 mins
• Yields: 15-20 pieces

Ingredients

• 1  large  garnet yam, peeled and cubed (about 1 1/4 pound-or jewel yam)
• 1⁄4 cup brown sugar
• 6  tablespoons  softened butter, divided
• 1 1⁄2-2  cups masa harina flour (corn flour)
• 2  teaspoons cinnamon
• 2  teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1⁄2 cups chicken broth or 1 1⁄2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1⁄2 cup  chopped toasted pecans
• 15 -20  corn husks, soaked for 1 hour in warm water

• Chipotle Cream

• 1⁄2 cup sour cream
• 1  tablespoon  minced chipotle chile in adobo (canned)

Directions

1. Place yam in a steamer basket and steam for 15 minutes or until very tender; mash with brown sugar and 2 tablespoons butter; set aside.
2. Place masa, remaining butter, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat in enough broth to make a soft dough. Lightly stir in yam mixture and pecans, leaving some small chunks of yam and taking care not to overmix.
3. Spoon about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of mixture in the center of each corn husk, depending on how large you want them to be. Fold in sides, then tie the ends with small strips of corn husk. (Go ahead and make a square knot on each end--when they are cooked, the knotted strip slips right off the ends.).
4. Place in a steamer basket and cook, covered, for 1 hour. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes before serving with Chipotle Cream.
5. For Chipotle Cream: Stir together sour cream and minced canned chipotle pepper. Add more adobo sauce to taste.
6. Chef tip: For a great appetizer, make these in mini size. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of yam mixture into a smaller piece of corn husk; steam for only 30 minutes.